Bringing e-learning to remote schools in Africa

neXat puts together the perfect combination of services - successful operation and experience - to serve e-learning applications in rural areas, thanks to sophisticated yet proved technology.

We have developed a high-value solution targeting e-learning applications in rural areas. After serving many other sectors in very remote locations in Africa, neXat has now put together the perfect combination to serve e-learning applications in rural areas thanks to in-the-eld experience for serving sites located in remote areas.

neXat's complete and innovative solution for e-learning brings education in a seamless way to the most remote schools in Africa, thanks to sophisticated yet proven technology.

E-Learning in Africa

neXat has developed a high-value solution targeting e-learning applications in rural areas. Indeed after serving financial institutions, corporates, public administrations, mining and forestry companies, ONGs and so many other sectors active in very remote locations in Africa, neXat also gained multicasting experience within the radio and TV broadcasting sector.

The mix of the various services which neXat has been providing since more than 6 years has allowed put together the perfect combination to serve e-learning applications in rural areas thanks to:

• In-the-eld experience for serving sites located in remote areas
• Service: wide array of solutions possible to customize to the demand of the client
• Equipment: micro-VSAT, affordable and easy to install
• Local presence: a vast network of local partners provides the necessary access to licenses and takes care of the installation and maintenance of the equipment in remote locations

Service Requirements

The successful and professional operation of e-learning in remote areas, which allows offering a truly qualitative service to the schools relies on the following requirements:

• High-Quality Video: real-time uplink and delivery of the teaching in the studio to the classrooms, with very high audio and video quality
• Real-Time Interactivity: from the teacher in the studio to the remote classrooms, and also feedback from the classroom to the studio and other classrooms
• Interactive Chat Room: students in the remote areas must be able to interact with the teacher, the process being managed centrally from the Chat Room to the studio and other classrooms
• Reliable interconnections: the availability of the service is >99.5%

Equipment and Service

2 distinct types of site are taken into consideration: the studio (most generally located in the main city) and the schools (spread out over the country in remote locations and not well served by traditional terrestrial communication means).

Studio

A teacher teaches in front of a digital camera with microphone, which produces the video stream sent to the video conferencing server.

The Studio benefits from a qualitative traditional terrestrial connection (ber, radio local loop, etc.) which allows to effectively transfer the 768 Kbps video stream from the Studio towards the neXat Service Delivery Platform in Belgium.

Further on, neXat brings the stream to the satellite Hub where it is uplinked and delivered to the schools thanks to the satellite multicasting technology.

Schools

neXat set-up a VNO (mutualisation of the bandwidth) allowing the operation of the videoconferencing (e-learning) application as well as providing Internet access in both the Studio and classrooms in the entire territory.

Each school is equipped with a satellite telecommunication equipment, for direct educational purpose, a PC with educational content and interactive chat room, a projector/screen/loudspeakers set, a camera and microphone and solar panels.

Each school runs the videoconferencing (e-learning) application and has access to the Internet.