Mowbray Education Trust has improved the WiFI performance at four of its schools - John Ferneley College and primaries Brownlow, Sherard and the Grove following a series of processional WiFi troubleshooting surveys from Redway Networks. All four schools were suffering with insufficient WiFi coverage and the Trust instructed Redway Networks to perform the surveys and recommend remedial works improve wireless performance.

Redway Networks used its ‘gold standard’ on-site WiFi survey methodology, which involved its engineers visiting each school site and using Ekahau’s high-definition WiFi heatmapping software to analyse the networks and identify where the WiFi problems were. The survey findings were then presented to the Trust in an easy-to-understand report which showed a visual representation of the current network and gaps in coverage which Redway Networks proposed to fix through corrective work including network configuration and higher-performing access points.

Bobby Wallace, Group IT Services Manager at Mowbray Education Trust said:

“Our schools’ wireless networks were originally designed using simulation software and as we added more devices, we found that the WiFi wasn’t providing enough coverage in the classrooms and students were spending a quarter of the lesson time trying to login to the WiFi and this needed rectifying. We decided to find an education wireless vendor who could conduct professional onsite WiFi surveys and find out how we could improve WiFi capacity. Having previously used simulation software to design our original networks, I decided to opt for an onsite survey as I felt the fault-finding would be more comprehensive in a live environment.”

John Ferneley College

John Ferneley College was the first school to be surveyed as it is the largest school in the Trust with 1100 students and was suffering from poor WiFi coverage. Redway Networks evaluated the network for radio frequency signal strength, channels and access points and identified several ‘red’ issues which meant the WiFi was not meeting requirements.

Bobby says:

“The WiFi survey was seamless and once the report was finalised, Redway Network’s engineer explained the various visualisations one by one and made recommendations to fix the coverage gaps and improve the WiFi performance. They recommended upgrading fifteen of our Aruba access points with newer, more powerful 535s as being WiFi 6 they would improve channel utilisation and provide much better wireless efficiency.”

Brownlow Primary, Sherard Primary and the Grove Primary

Bobby says:

“Following the survey and remedial works at John Ferneley, we used this as a blue-print to roll out to Brownlow Primary School, Sherard Primary School and the Grove Primary School, who were all experiencing WiFi issues. Since the remedial works were done, all the schools now have more reliable wireless network connectivity with better coverage and faster WiFi.

“The service we received from Redway Networks was brilliant… faultless…and easy from top to bottom, they really got the job done.”

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