KiTa Tulpenstraße
"The kindergarten cannot be a media-free room. We therefore looked to Synology to help us set up a wireless network so we could best prepare our children for the digital future." Martina Böhm, Director of KiTa Tulpenstraße
The Company
Diakoniewerk Neuss-Süd e.V., founded in June 1966, manages four all-day primary schools in Neuss, Germany. The association is also active in elderly care, and organizes daycare centers for children in the Neuss and Kaarst areas. Their workforce comprises of almost 500 full-time employees and hosts a large number of volunteers and employees participating in the Voluntary Social Year (Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr) program.
Since 2018, the KiTa Tulpenstraße (Tulip Street Kindergarten) has been sponsored by Evangelische Jugendhilfe Neuss-Süd Gemeinnützige GmbH, a subsidiary of Diakoniewerk Neuss-Süd e.V.
The kindergarten cares for 70 children aged 2 to 6. The children are split into three teaching groups and occupy 580 square meters over both floors of the kindergarten building.
The Challenge
Children today grow up intuitively using technologies like TVs, computers, and mobile devices. Just like reading, writing, and arithmetic, KiTA Tulpenstraße believes it is also important for children to learn how to use these technologies effectively.
The kindergarten occasionally receives generous donations of iPads, Wi-Fi enabled microscopes, and other smart IoT gadgets. These devices form the basis of media education, which aims to show their children how to use these technologies to realize their own ideas and goals. The only thing missing was a network to bring the devices together securely and conveniently.
Building a wired LAN throughout the building would be difficult, and it wouldn't provide a significant speed advantage over a wireless one. It was therefore decided they would find a WLAN solution that was not only reliable but could also be easily set up and managed by the kindergarten staff.
The Solution
KiTA Tulpenstraße decided to create a mesh Wi-Fi network using a Synology RT2600ac as the main router and three MR2200ac mesh routers as satellite nodes. Thanks to the three satellite nodes, the entire building was blanketed with a strong and reliable Wi-Fi signal, enabling all devices to stay connected regardless of location. The advantage of using a mesh-based solution was that the entire network was accessible through a single SSID, or network name. This meant devices only needed to be paired to the network once and could then have seamless roaming. The entire network was centrally managed using Synology Router Management (SRM).
One of the built-in tools, Safe Access, was particularly useful to KiTA Tulpenstraße. They used it to limit when children could access the internet, and to protect them from inappropriate content.
Recommended Models
- RT2600ac
- MR2200ac × 3
Recommended Features
- Automatic band steering with Smart Connect
- Parental controls with Safe Access
- Mesh Wi-Fi for seamless roaming