East Hampton, NY – April 27, 2004 – The Ross School selects AcroVista’s BellCommander solution to provide a managed audio and school bell system. The Ross School, a private grade school based in East Hampton, NY, is a leading campus in implementing technology and includes campuswide high-speed Internet access for students with laptop computers and a state-of-the-art media lab.
However; until now, the Ross School was stuck with a ubiquitous and outdated school bell system like others found in most schools around the country. Since the Ross School occupies multiple buildings, each building in its old configuration was equipped with an electronic school bell timer (a Lathem Sonachron device). This configuration required someone to manually enter bell schedules at each building through an unfriendly small screen. This resulted in the existing system being prone to errors when entering schedules and required an expense and manageability problem to have someone program each building.
The existing system also suffered other problems. The system lacked the ability to synchronize bells between the buildings. This caused confusion for students and faculty, since students would be dismissed in one building before another building when the bells should have been synchronized. When the Ross School staff searched for a way to synchronize their existing system, the cost to synchronize the system was in the thousands of dollars. In addition, the Ross School was stuck with ordinary school bell sounds since the Lathem Sonachron devices only sent electronic triggers.
To the rescue came BellCommander, which could solve the school’s problems using its patent-pending network audio configuration. BellCommander’s network audio configuration works by connecting small devices made by San Diego-based CD3O (Now BellCommander works with Barix devices) to the school’s existing computer network. At scheduled times, the BellCommander software sends MP3 or WAV audio to the devices. In the Ross School’s case, this means deploying a network audio device to each building. Once the devices are connected to the network, school staff can simply log into a PC running the BellCommander software and set the bell schedule for each building with BellCommander’s user-friendly interface. Since all devices are linked in real-time to the computer over the network there are no time synchronization issues. The software also allows staff to play a variety of sounds and music, including built-in chime and bell sounds or even custom MP3 sounds and music.
AcroVista is a software business based in Austin, TX with 4 years of experience in providing innovative software. AcroVista’s products have been featured on Tech TV, CBS Radio News, and in numerous print publications.
If your school has a similar configuration to the Ross School or if you would like to explore the BellCommander solution, you can learn more about at BellCommander at http://www.acrovista.com/bellcommander or email sales@acrovista.com.
