Stone Group paves the way for time, energy, space and money savings at BETT 2009
- Wide range of new products, services and partnerships makes Stone the perfect partner for education institutions as they strive to achieve their IT objectives in 2009 -
14 January 2009, Staffordshire, UK – With concern about energy and cost savings high on the agenda for education institutions across the country, at BETT 2009, Stone Group, a leading IT provider and the UK’s second largest original equipment manufacturer, will demonstrate how its range of products, partnerships and services, can play an instrumental role in helping education institutions save time, energy, space and money. New products being shown by Stone at BETT 2009 to help schools and LEAs realise their objectives, include desktop devices, notebooks, netbooks, servers, and graphics workstations. More information on these products can be found at http://bett.stonecomputers.com/ Highlights of the Stone Group stand (E46) at BETT 2009, include:
Stone Computers ITX Desktop
This amazingly compact system is less than a third of the size of Stone’s current smallest desktop PC, yet doesn’t compromise on performance. Utilising the latest ITX motherboard format, the system can run up to an Intel® Core™2 Duo processor. The unit is designed to fit neatly onto the back of a TFT screen, saving valuable desktop space. Its no compromise design provides capacity for 4Gb of memory and a hard disk of up to 500Gb.It also features up to eight USB 2.0 ports, a card reader, network interface and an optical drive. As with all Stone desktop computers, the unit comes with Stone’s renowned warranty, available for up to five years.
Stone Doceo 510 notebook
This is the next-generation educational notebook from Stone, replacing the Stone 5500 Series Notebook. Developed following feedback from customers, the Doceo features a 15.4” matt glass screen eliminating the irritating glare experienced with many notebooks currently on the market. N standard wireless and Bluetooth are now offered, and an integrated webcam is included to further enhance the communication experience. Supporting up to Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile Processors, in conjunction with the nVidia® GeForce™ 8200M chipset, this product offers fantastic performance and value for money, all backed up by industry leading support service from Stone, which covers the hardware - including the battery - for up to three years.
Stone all–in–one desktop
For environments where space is at a premium, this product offers a practical solution to the real estate challenges faced in schools. Boasting a large 19” screen with toughened glass to avoid any unwanted damage, it this looks like a typical TFT monitor, but boasts the added benefit of a built in PC. Based on the very latest Intel® Centrino™ 2 platform, performance is everything customers have come to expect from a traditional Stone desktop PC. A whole host of ports are included as standard, including HDMI, e-SATA, Serial and USB, in addition to a card reader and integrated DVDRW. Gigabit LAN is standard, but there is also the option for wireless connectivity. The ability to wall mount the device means this really is the most versatile of products, and both compact yet powerful.
Stone Netbooks
Stone offers the ultimate in netbook technology. Its range of netbooks offer screen sizes of up to 10.2”, combined with 3G connectivity. Integrated PC Express slots allow connection to a whole host of peripheral devices never available before on netbooks, making them the most complete solutions on the market. Continuing the long and trusted partnership with Samsung, the stunning NC10 boasts a fantastic six hour battery life, and completes Stone’s portfolio of this new and existing product category.
Stone Modular Server
A neat all-in-one solution which cost-effectively unites computing, storage and networking infrastructure, the Modular Server is ideal for schools and small to medium sized educational establishments where space is at a premium, and simplicity is critical. The Modular Server on display at BETT 2009 includes a rack-mount chassis designed to house up to six server modules, a range of shared hot-swap disks and networking hardware. A tower version is also available for non-racked environments.
Stone Graphics workstation featuring an nVidia® Quadro graphics card
Designed for OpenGL 3D graphics applications such as Autocad, the Stone Graphics workstation provides plenty of performance without eating up desk space or budget. The nVidia® Quadro graphics card ensures wide application compatibility, stunning 3D performance as well as easy to use driver tuning based on the application type. Quadro graphics with Mobile Xtreme and Quad Core processors are also available in the rock laptop range.
In addition to demonstrating new products at BETT 2009, Stone will also highlight how its industry partnerships and complementary services also enable educations institutions and LEAs to save time, energy, space and money.
Microsoft
Stone is an active participant in Microsoft’s ‘Anytime-Anywhere’ program, developed to help students easily access their virtual learning tools ‘Anytime-Anywhere’. The program makes it easy for students to learn and teachers to teach—independent of location or time of day. It also enables education establishments to drive more use and value out of their existing facilities, through the creation of more learning areas that provide connectivity to a virtual learning environment outside of the conventional classroom.
Orange
The Home Access programme is designed to enable all families to access technology at home to support learning, by offering a cost effective way to purchase a powerful, secure, education-ready computer with internet access. As an established and respected ICT provider to the education market, Stone has been announced as a key supplier in the pilot trial, due to be rolled out this year across Oldham and Suffolk.
Dot Hill
Stone is now accredited to sell V2 (Dot Hill) networked storage solutions through the National Server and Storage Agreement, which is accessible by a broad range of Higher and Further Education establishments. This respected accreditation enables universities and higher educational establishments to benefit from competitive pricing, both saving them money when acquiring storage solutions, and providing them with reassurance that they are buying from an NSSA accredited reseller.
Nuance Communications International
At BETT, Stone will also outline the reasons behind its decision to partner with Nuance, a leading provider of speech solutions. Stone will offer Nuance’s Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® 10 on Stone Computers destined for the education sector. The provision of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the world’s best-selling desktop recognition software, will increase PC accessibility levels for students of all learning abilities, irrespective of their PC and computing skills, saving them both time and effort when creating or editing their work.
NEC – Eco monitor range
With energy-saving high on many agendas in 2009, Stone will demonstrate that with NEC’s Eco LCD monitor range, going green needn’t result in a compromise of a monitor’s performance or feature set. Featuring an ecomode setting, the LCDs operate at a maximum brightness of 60%, therefore reducing their carbon emissions. The savings which are made by operating NEC’s LCDs in ecomode can be viewed through NEC’s own NaViSet administrator software which is included with the displays. This means that from a single workstation, it is easy for the network administrator to generate reports and easily see the eco savings and LCD carbon footprint across all displays.
Kell Systems
Stone has partnered with Kell Systems, a provider of acoustically-sealed rack mount systems designed to house servers, storage and networking components. These systems are designed to be ergonomically compatible with working environments such as classrooms, and are quiet enough to just run in the background with minimal disturbance. Their compact design negates the need for a dedicated server room, saving space and money.
Parago Software
Parago Software has developed a leading asset management solution specifically for schools and colleges. The company works alongside 17 local authorities to aid best practice asset management in schools. Currently, Parago is used by primary schools with 100 assets, to academies with 5,000 assets. Through the development of a wholly web-based system, Parago has enabled schools to easily track their computers, software and all other assets both on the school site and at home, saving the IT manager considerable time and effort.
VM Ware and Net Voyager
Many organisations have already adopted a virtualisation strategy to save time, energy, space and, ultimately, money. Server virtualisation is where most organisations start and now desktop virtualisation, coupled with thin client devices, is becoming increasingly popular. Stone will use its expertise and experience in this area to discuss and demonstrate the benefits that virtualisation can deliver to the education market.
DISE
DISE is a versatile digital signage platform which is used for disseminating public and internal information and much more. DISE is a scalable solution, applicable to diverse industries including education, and can be used for both small scale installations as well as large scale installations with thousands of players. With a broadcast quality approach to digital signage, DISE has proven that digital signage can be produced with industry standard hardware and software to create networked digital signage channels with live and dynamic content that looks and feels like a standard TV production.
Commenting in Stone Group’s presence at BETT 2009, James Bird, CEO and founder of Stone Group, said: “2009 presents more ICT challenges than any year before it. Education institutions have to manage the seemingly conflicting needs of saving time, energy, space and money without compromising the quality of ICT-based teaching that they deliver. At BETT 2009, Stone will demonstrate how its combination of products, services and partnerships with the global technology leaders, makes it easy for schools and LEAs to address these challenges while still delivering a world-class learning experience.”