Gwinnett County, Georgia has installed and deployed 270 new school beacons that use the Glance School Zone Flashing Beacon system on its streets. The cloud- and web-based system provides a cellular modem in each beacon that allows personnel to monitor and update the entire system remotely, making it the most advanced system of its kind.
Gwinnett County Public Schools is the largest school system in Georgia with 139 schools and approximately 178,000 students. Since upgrading the school beacon system in 2016, officials have noted a 90 percent reduction in the number of calls related to faulty operation of one or more beacons.
Developed by Applied Information and powered by the AT&T mobile network’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform, the system provides instant alerts in the event of a lamp or battery failure as well as remote adjustments of the beacons for weather events, school timing changes, holidays and emergencies.
“This project showed the power of ‘low friction delivery,” said Bryan Mulligan, president of Applied Information. “The AT&T cell connectivity is tightly bundled with the pre-configured Applied Information field hardware and cloud software. This enabled the contractor, Temple, Inc., to work in conjunction with the county’s installation team to deliver and install all 270 beacons in just five days.”
[…] Gwinnett County in Georgia was an early adopter of Applied Information’s forward thinking. They connected all of their school beacons—those flashing lights you see on the road during school hours—to the internet, which allowed for a more effective delivery and monitoring system. Shortly thereafter, they reported a 90% reduction in citizen complaints about school beacon operation. […]