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CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

• Project lead: Philip Brody, CTO
• Technology focus: Convergence - VoIP

This Las Vegas school district has undertaken a massive IP telephony project aimed at placing a phone in every classroom to improve parent-teacher communication and school safety. Ultimately, the $32 million project will entail 27,000 phones at 317 sites, providing a standard set of features and E911 across the network. Clark County School District expects to save $1.5 million to $2 million annually in administrative and operational costs vs. the spending required for a Centrex alternative. With help from Verizon, CCSD built the VoIP infrastructure on top of a Gigabit Ethernet WAN using Alcatel's OmniPCX Enterprise IP phone system.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY

• Project lead: Ahmed El-Haggan, vice president of IT and CIO
• Technology focus: Convergence - VoIP and wireless LAN

In a multifaceted, $1.5 million project, this Baltimore university deployed a converged IP infrastructure supporting all voice, data and video applications over a secure Gigabit Ethernet backbone. A campuswide wireless LAN (WLAN ) supports indoor and outdoor mobile access. Coppin State has loaded up "smart classrooms" with audio, video, computer and other tools that it can centrally monitor and manage. Should equipment be removed from one of these classrooms, facilities managers are immediately notified via their wireless 802.11 phones. The university uses Nortel gear, including its Ethernet Routing Switches, the Threat Protection System, switched firewalls, VPN gateway, application switches and CallPilot for unified messaging. Coppin State says the network transformation has helped it boost enrollment and land new grants and financial support from alumni.