Technical Bulletin

Company
SAIT Polytechnic
Country
Joliet, Illinois, USA
Industry
Education
Business Challenges
To provide a reliable, highly available
and cost-effective network infrastructure
to engage students in a more stimulating
learning environment.
Panduit Solutions
Panduit enterprise solution that consists
of the structured cabling system, a highly
reliable, scalable infrastructure solution to
increase network performance, availability
and productivity, providing a more dynamic
educational experience for students.
Business Benets
A network infrastructure that
effectively facilitates the agility to
adopt next generation technology in
the classroom.
Upgrading Technology to Support
Curriculum Driven Learning
The Panduit Unied Physical Infrastructure
SM
approach
enables Joliet Catholic Academy to achieve an enhanced
learning experience
Business Challenges
With 99% of its classrooms equipped with computers, teachers at Joliet Catholic
Academy have expanded their use of technology and needed the proper tools to
access and deliver the most effective education to their students.
The increase in activity was causing the response time of applications such as
YouTube videos with larger sized les to slow down and waste valuable classroom
time while the applications downloaded.
Along with improving network response time and the associated inefciency,
JCA wanted to access the appropriate solutions/infrastructure for its
audio/visual equipment.
The numerous cinderblock walls and permanent ceilings within the school made
the wide use of wireless technology impossible, except in internal open spaces.
“To keep pace with the growing technology trends that were quickly penetrating
the educational arena, we decided to upgrade our cabling infrastructure to address
the increased demand for faster speeds and higher bandwidths,” said Jeffrey Budz,
Principal/CEO, Joliet Catholic Academy.
In addition, JCA had a limited budget for the network infrastructure upgrade.
Tuition is expensive and the administration wanted to be mindful of asking parents
to nancially extend themselves any further, therefore, the school needed a cost
effective solution.
Unied Physical Infrastructure
visit www.panduit.com/datacenter visit www.panduit.com/datacenter
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“This supports our
objectives of increasing
the use of technology in
the classroom, extending
communication from
the administration to
students, staff, parents
and the community, ...”
Jeffrey Budz
Principal/CEO,
Joliet Catholic Academy
Business Benets
The new network infrastructure solution creates uniformity in the classroom, minimizes
the potential for tampering and provides higher network bandwidth and uninterrupted
use of technology tools.
The school now exhibits updated, standards-compliant equipment to effectively facilitate
agility for curriculum-driven, next generation technology, and boost scalability of JCA’s
infrastructure investment. “This supports our objectives of increasing the use of technology
in the classroom, extending communication from the administration to students, staff,
parents and the community, and establishing Joliet Catholic Academy as a technology
leader,” said Budz.
Teachers have more time to focus on teaching because they are spending less time dealing
with technology inadequacies, creating a better learning environment where students have
more instructional time and are actively engaged.
Joliet Catholic Academy is very impressed and appreciative of the time that Panduit spent
showing them how to achieve their goals for the infrastructure upgrade. This hands-on
approach has allowed JCA to move forward with condence knowing that their investment
in technology infrastructure is viable, and will keep pace with future technology changes to
advance learning opportunities.
“Panduit believes in getting the job right the rst time. We were fortunate that they shared
their invaluable knowledge with our school. The technology upgrade is on target with twenty of
the 50 classrooms nished so far and we hope to work with Panduit in the future to upgrade our
existing security and Wi-Fi systems,” said Budz.
Panduit Unied Physical Infrastructure
SM
Approach
The Panduit Unied Physical Infrastructure
SM
(UPI) approach to design and development
integrates critical systems – communication, computing, power, control and security – in
a single, easy-to-manage network infrastructure. This approach allows organizations such
as Joliet Catholic Academy to adopt new technologies, such as converged networks to
broaden the range of tools available in the classroom.
Joliet Catholic Academy chose the Panduit enterprise solution to support its key initiatives
of reliability, availability, high-bandwidth performance, and scalable growth, to help propel
students towards successful college choices and careers.
Panduit Solution
Panduit worked with the Joliet Catholic Academy Leadership team in the advisory phase
to understand the institutional goals, objectives and the current state of the school’s
technology. This assessment included visits by Joliet Catholic Academy to existing
Panduit educational customers to understand the goals and objectives these institutions
established and how their partnership with Panduit led to a solution that met their
specic needs.
As a result of this collaboration, Joliet Catholic Academy and Panduit came together to
design a solution that re-uses existing infrastructure where feasible, and includes Panduit
cabling systems to support constantly changing technologies.
Within the telecommunications room, 2 post racks house network equipment connectivity,
panels and patch cords, providing exibility and improved cable management. The
Category 5e copper cabling system includes modular jacks, patch cords and cables
that provide reliable network performance to support demanding applications. Cabling
is routed via the Wyr-Grid
®
Overhead Cable Tray Routing System, which helps manage
and protect cabling while providing a robust cable support structure.
In the classrooms, the Pan-Way
®
Surface Raceway System routes, manages and protects
high performance copper, voice, video, and electrical wiring. The tamper-resistant system
discourages unauthorized access and prevents physical contact with cabling. The system
is designed with attention to function and aesthetics to blend with the JCA environment.
Panduit Mini-Com
®
Modules were deployed across the installation in outlets, raceways,
and patch panels, providing exibility for JCA, simplifying moves, adds, and changes,
and reducing operational expenses.