The Catholic School District oversees 160 Catholic schools and administrative buildings in its geographic region, supporting over 80,000 students with more than 5,000 teachers and support staff. The organisation relied on several outdated analog communications systems across the 160 locations that were end-of-life and becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to manage.
The district wanted to modernise IP and standardise communication across all sites to improve efficiency and access modern collaboration features.
Challenges faced by the school
- Before the Catholic School District could move forward with the digital transformation project, it needed to address essential network readiness requirements.
- A CAT3 network infrastructure supported the current analog communication system. The organisation was hesitant to rip-and-replace the existing and proven voice infrastructure due to high network costs, long deployment times, environmental concerns, and disruption to staff and students.
- The school district was also challenged with connecting the new IP phones across large school environments, given the 328ft (100m) reach limitation of standard Power over Ethernet (PoE)
- The customer also wanted to avoid the additional cost, complexity, and space needed to address IDF closet requirements. The customer required an innovative solution to enhance communication without disruption, complexity, or high costs.
PoLRE switch
The school discovered they could achieve better outcomes using Modern LAN design principles and the PoLRE® switch
The Catholic School District discovered NVT Phybridge and engaged with one of their Digital Transformation Consultants. After discussing the organisation’s modernisation objectives and barriers, the customer believed they could achieve better outcomes using Modern LAN design principles and the PoLRE® (Power over Long Reach Ethernet) switch innovation.
The NVT Phybridge PoLRE switch delivers power and connectivity over any new or existing single-pair UTP infrastructure with up to 1,200ft (365m) reach – that’s four times farther than a standard PoE switch.
Transforming into a robust system
The Catholic School District was impressed with the proposal and wanted to test the technology in its environment. NVT Phybridge helped the customer organise a no-obligation proof-of-concept to test the solution in one of its locations.
After a few simple setup steps, the PoLRE switch transformed the existing and reliable voice infrastructure into a robust and secure IP backbone for the new communication system.
Due to the proof of concept’s success, the customer was completely confident in the PoLRE solution and was ready to move forward with the IP modernisation initiative.
Results achieved
The Catholic School District leveraged Modern LAN design principles and NVT Phybridge PoE innovations to achieve incredible results.
1) Create a secure and robust local area network
The NVT Phybridge PoLRE switch helped the customer maintain a physically separate and cyber secure point-to-point network for IP voice. This ensures packets travel in order, on time, and without contention or loss, improving the service quality.
2) Maximise the return on investment
The PoLRE switch’s repeatable, predictable, and scalable methodology simplified the digital transformation, saving the customer more than $2 million and reducing the total deployment time by 70%.
3) Environmental responsibility
The school district could reuse its existing and proven voice infrastructure, preventing over 16 tons of e-waste
The school district could reuse its existing and proven voice infrastructure, preventing over 16 tons of e-waste from ending up in a landfill.
The extended reach capabilities significantly reduced IDF closet requirements (power, cooling, backup power strategies, etc.), decreasing the organization’s ongoing energy consumption.
4) Change the conversation; improve the outcome
The customer took a proactive approach to find new and better ways to achieve its IP modernisation objectives in a financially and socially responsible manner.
The organisation created a physically separate, robust, and reliable voice network without risk or compromise due to the simplicity of the PoLRE solution.
Benefits
The customer was beyond satisfied, leveraging NVT Phybridge innovation to:
- Enhance communication across the school district to increase efficiency and collaboration
- Reduce infrastructure costs by approximately $2 million, allocating more budget to ROI-driving IP devices and applications
- Reduce IDF closet requirements by 80%
- Easily deploy 5,000 IP phones across 160 locations thanks to the PoLRE switch’s repeatable, predictable, and scalable deployment methodology
- Simplify network requirements to reduce the total deployment time by 70%. The organisation was able to fully modernise a location in a few weeks, as opposed to months
- Eliminate disruption to staff and students to maintain safe and effective learning environments
- Ensure an environmentally responsible upgrade by reusing the existing infrastructure, preventing over 16 tons of e-waste
