Are the limits to the number of iPads + Bluetooth Keyboards you can use in a room?

[rhunter]

My school is looking at buying iPads for all students, and having bluetooth keyboards for every iPad.

This would make up to 24 iPads + bluetooth keyboards in any one classroom. In addition we have a lot of wifi hubs around the school, and nearby classrooms would be using iPads + keyboards as well.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of roll-out of bluetooth keyboards? Can we expect a lot of interference problems?

This is a critical question for us as the keyboard is something we really want.

note: I posted this thread in General Discussions as I think it is relevant to multiple environments, not just schools.

 

[twerppoet]

Can't find anything. All I could find was the potential for interference between wi-fi and bluetooth.

I don't think it would be a bandwidth problem. Bluetooth uses the entire range of the 2.4GH wi-fi bandwidth frequency hopping all over the place so fast that there should be room for lots of connections with minimal interference. There should be more than enough room for 24 keyboards with minimal collisions. But that is admittedly just guess work; not facts.

If you are also using wi-fi, make sure the classroom has a good signal. That seemed to be the take away from the wi-fi/bluetooth issue.

 

[MikesTooLz]

Wait, iPad for EVERY student?


What type of wifi setup does your school have? covering an entire school for each student to be able to connect to wifi would be really expensive. You would need hotspots that could handle large numbers of users like that and I would say it would run up around $100,000. They are looking at setting up my schools for wifi access throughout the entire school and thats about how much it was estimated to be. Also that is just for teachers since we don't have any student devices that connect to WiFi. Each teacher in my school is issued a laptop.

 

[thewitt]

We have had more than 40 in a room, no problems whatsoever.

 

[sanjmeh]

Wait, iPad for EVERY student?

What type of wifi setup does your school have? covering an entire school for each student to be able to connect to wifi would be really expensive. You would need hotspots that could handle large numbers of users like that and I would say it would run up around $100,000. They are looking at setting up my schools for wifi access throughout the entire school and thats about how much it was estimated to be. Also that is just for teachers since we don't have any student devices that connect to WiFi. Each teacher in my school is issued a laptop.

Am surprised by the cost quoted- $100k, for wiring up a school for wi-fi hotspots. How big is the school you assume here? And by the way there a hundreds of schools in the US already using iPads on 1-1 mode, in the classrooms. Can we check how much they spent?

 

[MikesTooLz]

Am surprised by the cost quoted- $100k, for wiring up a school for wi-fi hotspots. How big is the school you assume here? And by the way there a hundreds of schools in the US already using iPads on 1-1 mode, in the classrooms. Can we check how much they spent?

Having the ability for each kid have access to wifi at the same time would require a major wifi setup.

Currently my school district is trying to get funding to setup all schools for this type of wireless. Also not just allowing staff on but securely allowing anyone to roam onto the network. Just the centralized management equipment was quoted at around $40,000 and thats not including wiring and all the WIFI equipment.


That is not to say that it can't be done cheaper. I currently have one of my schools completely covered in wifi for all rooms (teacher access only and only around 10 users per hotspot) with off the shelf wifi equipment for only a few hundred bucks. However the school district is now requiring us to standardize everything across all the schools and use professional grade equipment that can all be centrally managed and offer better security.

 

[sanjmeh]

We have had more than 40 in a room, no problems whatsoever.

Would you be able to comment on the wireless infrastructure setup in your school? How many access points per class? Size of the classroom? Are all 40 using the iPad simultaneously? What is the total bandwidth to the internet service provider? Thanks.