Homepage CBO Telecommunications newsroom

Auto-Acquire VSAT Trailer connects schools across Queensland.

Announcement posted by CBO Telecommunications 31 Jan 2012

CBO Telecommunications has completed a new proof of concept for The Edge – VSAT Trailer for the Department of Education and Training Queensland (DET) to use at public schools across Queensland where communications have been terminated due to emergencies such as flooding and fires.

DET came to CBO looking for a solution to enable them to be onsite with a secure communications link within hours at any public school across Queensland. To date DET would transport a demountable building to the school within 24 hours of the emergency and then set up their “School in a Box” solution (a server and a switch/router within a hard road case) within the building. Whilst this solution worked, in many instances, if the emergency site was in a disaster zone the School in a Box solution could not operate as the connection is made via the Next G network and needed mains power to work.

“We needed to have a solution that was easily transportable, that could operate without mains power and enabled us to still utilise our School in a Box solution no matter where the site was located or what the type of disaster was.” Said Nick Long Director, Platform Operations Group, Information and Technologies Branch, Department of Education and Training Queensland.

CBO’s The Edge - VSAT Trailer was selected by DET to overcome these challenges and the trailer was modified so that that the School in a Box solution could be utilised. The trailer has a 240V output so can be powered by local AC Power or by the inbuilt petrol generator if no mains power is available on site. CBO’s Managing Director Mark McGregor said “The Edge - VSAT Trailer enables DET to have a completely independent and secure wireless link from local infrastructure at the emergency site whilst still maintaining their School in a Box solution and from a time point of view the VSAT trailer can be deployed to the site within hours and the link can be established in minutes of arriving at the school.”

Said Nick Long “What we really liked about CBO’s The Edge – VSAT Trailer was that they were able to modify the existing VSAT Trailer to incorporate our School in a Box technology and it is a seamless transition from what we have been doing. As soon as an emergency happens we can be on the road and at the school in a much shorter amount of time.”