COHOES SCHOOL DISTRICT DEPLOYS MERU WIRELESS LAN TO SUPPORT HIGH-PERFORMANCE VIDEO FOR INSTRUCTIONAL AND SURVEILLANCE APPLICATIONS
 

Sunnyvale, CA – March 26, 2007

Meru Networks, the leader in infrastructure solutions that enable the All-Wireless Enterprise, today announced that Cohoes School District, located in Cohoes, New York, has begun a pervasive deployment of the Meru Wireless LAN (WLAN) System.

In late 2006, the Cohoes School District embarked on a security program which would enable local police to better monitor the schools in the district, ensuring greater safety for the children. The network enables police to drive up to the various school buildings, connect to the WLAN, and through this secure connection monitor activities through video cameras that have been installed inside the buildings.

"Being able to use the video applications was obviously crucial for this security solution to work properly," said Mark DiPofi, Network Administrator for Cohoes School District. "We chose the Meru WLAN System because it was the only Wi-Fi solution that could securely and reliably support the quality of service needed to support real-time video monitoring services. In addition, its single-channel architecture allowed us to dramatically reduce implementation cost and time."

In addition to supporting the video security system, the school will also use the Meru Wireless LAN to deploy advanced instructional applications such as streaming video to students' laptops. The system also enables teachers to connect wirelessly outside of the school buildings, so activities can be done on laptops outdoors.

"Not only will the Meru Wireless LAN System enable us to keep the children safe, it will also greatly enrich the learning environment within our school district," said Charles Dedrick, superintendent of schools, Cohoes School District. "By allowing us to use advanced learning applications and techniques in the classrooms, both teachers and students will greatly benefit."

The new system will be fully deployed by June 2007 and at that time, the system will provide pervasive wireless access to the districts' six campuses – three elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and the district offices.

DiPofi also praised Meru's E(z)RF Suite, which will enable easier management of the Meru Wireless LAN System. The Meru E(z)RF suite, a key component of the Meru WLAN System, reduce costs and simplifies troubleshooting of large multi-site wireless networks by providing network administrators with centralized configuration, monitoring, alarm management, reporting and real-time visualization capabilities.

"While schools have long recognized the benefits associated with mobility, they have been unable to deploy advanced applications over previous generations of WLAN solutions," said Sarah Kim, director of education solutions marketing at Meru Networks. "Our Air Traffic Control technology uniquely coordinates over-the-air traffic to deliver the quality of service and reliability needed to support crucial applications such as the security system at Cohoes School District,"

About Meru Networks
Meru Networks is the global leader in wireless infrastructure solutions that enable the All-Wireless Enterprise. Its industry leading innovations deliver pervasive, wireless service fidelity for business-critical applications to major Fortune 500 enterprises, universities, healthcare organizations and local, state and federal government agencies. Meru's award-winning Air Traffic Control technology brings the benefits of the cellular world to the wireless LAN environment, and its WLAN System is the only solution on the market that delivers predictable bandwidth and over-the-air Quality of Service with the reliability, scalability, and security necessary to deliver converged voice and data services over a single WLAN infrastructure. Founded in 2002, Meru is based in Sunnyvale, California. For more information on Meru Networks and its products, visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300.