College of the future

With the UK's further and higher education institutions in growing competition to find new ways to stand out and attract students and staff New College Durham sought to provide a modern and innovative environment for learning, teaching and working.

Employing a mix of self-financing and governmental funding, the college embarked on the redevelopment of its Further Education and Higher Education buildings. This first phase was completed in August 2004 in time for the students to start using the new facilities when the term started in September. The last piece of the project is now under way with the provision of a new sports building.

As part of this modernisation strategy, NCD recognised it needed a completely new ICT infrastructure to distinguish itself as a technologically advanced institution of higher learning. But while it was a good plan on paper, this was going to be no easy task.

"We chose to build new accommodation in the middle of the original campus, so the old buildings were still in place whilst the new campus developed," explains Alan Race, head of ICT and Purchasing at NCD. "Our old network was inflexible and out of date, and we wanted an IT infrastructure that corresponded to the innovative new buildings and provided an enhanced learning experience for staff and students alike. To do so meant migrating from the old ATM backbone to a new network infrastructure, which we knew was going to be complex."

A multifaceted solution

The college had a long-standing partnership with network services and solutions provider Telindus, so NCD enlisted the company's help on this project. It was evident from the outset that the new campus would need a network that was integrated, more manageable, and offered maximum functionality. It also had to support an advanced teaching and learning environment, to establish a pioneering reputation for the College and make it more attractive for prospective students.

Our old system was inflexible ... we wanted an IT infrastructure to match the new buildings

"Telindus recommended integrating voice, data and video surveillance onto a single network, offering us a complete solution," Race says. "This was a complete leap forward in technology for us, but we had confidence in our integrator's experience and the strong technology partners they brought into the installation."

Telindus designed a resilient IP network for the college, using Cisco equipment for the core infrastructure and the IP telephony solution. Networked video and cameras for a converged surveillance solution were supplied by DVTel and NMI Systems respectively. DVTel describes its Latitude Network Video Management System (NVMS) as a fully digital, IP-based software video, audio, and data management system, that offers the monitoring, recording, and analysis functionality required for effectively responding to any security challenge. NMI says its IPIX cameras offer digital 360 deg surveillance that provide the full situational awareness needed to monitor and respond to security events.

Telindus also provided project management, pre-staging and testing for the new network before starting the migration. For the duration of the project, Telindus had to provide interoperability with the existing network, which was still in use by students and staff.

Race says: "Managing the migration path from the old ATM network and advising us on the technology needed for our new network infrastructure was a key part of the project. It was a difficult process, as both old and new networks had to run at the same time, but the results were very good."

NCD's converged network offers vast improvements in flexibility, manageability and total cost of ownership, through integration of services. The new backbone enables the college to connect all services over IP, which will eventually give staff and students ubiquitous anytime access to their IT information. The college will also be able to benefit from improved online learning delivery platforms and adopt new technology with ease. The first result of this was the deployment of a unified messaging system.

The college’s new system sits atop the network, providing ease of management and integration

Enhanced IP video surveillance

The regenerated campus will also feature an integrated, top-of-the line digital CCTV surveillance system to enhance student and staff safety. The old campus had traditional CCTV cameras, running on a separate analogue network.

Now, utilising DVTel's distributed architecture, and benefiting from the system's flexibility and scalability, the college's surveillance system sits atop the network, providing ease of management and potential integration with other systems and data.

The security cameras (both IP and analogue) are now connected directly into the IP network and can be viewed anywhere there is a network presence. This gives security staff maximum flexibility and effectiveness in managing video surveillance. As the college previously invested in Storage Area Networking, video streams from any camera travel over the network and can be stored on traditional media or the college's server complement.

One network ultimately means reduced costs, since the infrastructure is easier to manage and optimise accordingly. NCD now benefits from a more integrated system that has considerably lower operational costs, compared to the disparate solutions previously used.

"The possibilities with the new network infrastructure are endless," says Race. "We now have an end-to-end solution, with a clear roadmap for adding productivity-enhancing applications, all at a low cost of deployment. We have the capacity for wireless and video streaming, for example, which I'm sure we will take advantage of in the future. Our new network infrastructure is everything we wanted – efficient, reliable and able to support our vision of being a leading UK college."