Microcomms 1 hour promise

We’ve had a busy week talking about social wifi and how South West hospitality businesses can make their free customer wifi work harder for them alongside our partners .

Social wifi goes beyond the IT provision of public wifi access and provides valuable data about who is using the service so you can promote your product to them not only whilst they’re in your establishment but when they are local or when they have returned home.

With such an important seasonal business, the ability to market to holiday makers before they arrive is key.  Today, social wifi is a crucial marketing tool that no business in Cornwall can afford to ignore.

If you own a bar, restaurant or hotel in Cornwall or the South West and want to know more – have a look at the presentation we created and give us a shout.

We’d love to see if we could help your business benefit from social wifi.

Since the launch of the New Primary Curriculum in 2014 it has redefined the way pupils are taught the use of technology.

Computing revolves around how computers and computer systems work, and how they are designed and programmed. Pupils studying computing will gain an understanding of computational systems of all kinds, whether or not they include computers.

After the success of our Summer Term Workshops, we are busy planning the schedule for the new school year in September. PlanIT Primary are delighted to offer fantastic computing opportunities to your pupils!

You don’t need to have the equipment, or the qualified member of staff to teach it, all you need to do is provide us with a workspace, we will provide the rest!

These workshops are an engaging way for pupils to be taught valuable computing skills by a qualified teacher, while also using top technology!

Workshops

• Drone Programmer (Half day/Full day) – During the sessions, the pupils will be set a variety of fun, engaging tasks using coding on our drones and iPads. We will teach your pupils the art of programming – they will learn the basics of code, using tech that they can see live, whilst making sense of how coding works!
• Pro Animator (Full day) – We can tailor this workshop to fit around any topic you are doing! Using your topic, we will work with pupils to create ‘stop animation’ videos, add background music and voiceovers. By the end of the day you will have a great product to share with parents.
• Game Maker (Full day) – Ever wanted to create your own computer game? Using Chromebooks and Scratch, we will work with your children to show them how to build their own computer game. A fantastic opportunity to demonstrate those hard to teach skills.
• Future Inventors (Half day) – A great way to introduce your pupils to creating circuits and basic programming using our littleBits kit, this workshop enables them then to create their own inventions.
• Apprentice Inventors (Full day) – Does your school have the future Tim Dyson? During this day, pupils will work in groups to create an electronic product using our littleBits kit, film an advert and write a pitch! A fantastic way to combine computing, science and literacy.

A Chacewater schoolboy has described having the “best day of his life” after Microcomms replaced one of his flood-damaged Christmas presents.

Seven year-old Rhys Lobb was smiling from ear to ear as he stood up in the Chacewater Community Primary School assembly on Friday to collect his brand new Samsung Galaxy tablet.

The tablet, which was donated by Microcomms, replaces one destroyed by floods just one week after the schoolboy received it for Christmas.

Rhys was overwhelmed with thanks and couldn’t wait to get started on his new toy.

He said: “It feels really, really, really good.

“I was really sad when we lost everything.

“It’s really special and definitely the best present ever.”

The Lobb family had a terrible start to 2014 after they woke up on New Year’s Day to find the ground floor of their house under a foot of water.
Hope was restored when three year old Samuel Hoskin from Mawgan, near Helston, prompted his family and the local community to collect vouchers and toys to replace the ruined presents.

But there was one present the funds couldn’t replace – Rhys’ electronic tablet. After hearing the family’s plight, Chacewater Community Primary School’s head teacher, Chris Gould, contacted the schools IT supplier, Microcomms, and asked if they could help.

Microcomms have supported Chacewater Schools IT infastructure for many years,

The company were more than happy to donate a replacement and decided to present it to Rhys during an assembly which addressed the theme of “crisis”.

Simon Murley, the managing director of Microcomms, said: “It was touching to see so many generous people pull together in another family’s time of need and we are proud that we could be a part of that.

“We hope Rhys has fun playing all those games on his new Samsung tablet and hope this small gesture will go some way to ensuring he and his family can get back to normality after the unfortunate floods over Christmas.”

Rhys’ mother, Carly Lobb, attended the crisis assembly with her seven-month-old daughter, Freya.

She said: “It’s really fantastic because not only did Rhys lose his Christmas presents but it was his birthday on the 28th so he lost many of those presents too.
“He told me today was going to be the best day of his life because he was getting a table and having a Chinese!”

*Article written and published by The West Britton

Xirrus Provides Coverage and Performance for Club Applications and Fans Sharing Match Day Experiences Over Social Networks

Xirrus, the leader in high-performance wireless networks, today announced that Liverpool FC – one of the world’s most historic and famous football clubs – has deployed its Wireless Arrays at Anfield, the home of the Club since its formation in 1892. The first phase of the deployment covers the two-tier, 12,000-seat Centenary Stand and adjoining corporate facilities, enabling fans to access and share digital content during games as never before.

The wifi network

The wifi network will be available to Liverpool fans for the home game against West Ham on Sunday 7 April. By offering wifi to its fans, Liverpool is hoping to improve their overall match day experience and encourage them to share the excitement of the game with the global Liverpool fan base. It also opens up a new way for Liverpool to gain insight and feedback from its fan base which hasn’t been possible up to now.

Andrew Robinson, head of digital media and technology at Liverpool Football Club, explains: “Running our own data network based on Xirrus technology means we can provide our fans with a dedicated, robust and high quality experience. The added reliability and performance of high capacity Wi-Fi over 3G connections will encourage our fans to use social networks like Twitter and Facebook to share their experiences with fans unable to make it to the game.”

Robinson continues: “a massive driver for this new network is that we can gain more insight into our fans than ever before. Sign-in will be via a one-time registration process using an email address and fans will be encouraged to tell us their likes and dislikes. The technology will allow us to find out what devices fans like to connect with the Club on so we can invest in digital platforms accordingly. We will also find out more about how fans use the stadium and its facilities so we can adapt these to better serve them.”

“The experience that we’ve created from day one is something we think fans will get very excited about. We’ll be providing in-match stats, food and drink offers, access to online retail, in-play betting in partnership with Paddy Power and also the ability to engage with a global audience outside of the stadium through social media platforms.”

On choosing Xirrus, Robinson explains: “We looked at a number of options, but decided to go with a leader in this space. Xirrus combines a flexible range of wireless hardware solutions with the capability to handle huge capacity and bandwidth demands. Xirrus has very innovative technology that allows us to prioritise key applications and connect more devices to the network by optimising Wi-Fi spectrum usage. These factors are critical to our long-term vision of providing our fans with the best match-day experience possible.

Sean Larner, VP International at Xirrus, comments: “This is not only a highly prestigious deployment, it’s also technically demanding, and we’re naturally pleased that Liverpool FC has recognised that Xirrus is the best option on the market. Stadia such as Anfield require specialised high capacity wireless networks to ensure an acceptable user experience for a very large number of concurrent users and devices.”