November 4th 2004

Equiinet's eLearning content delivery device - CachePilot - Shortlisted for BETT Awards 2005

Stand B100, BETT 2005, 12 - 15 January at Olympia

CachePilot, the market leading content delivery and caching device from British eLearning company Equiinet, has been shortlisted for the Early Years and Primary Hardware category of the BETT Awards 2005. Equiinet has been selected against tough competition from a variety of educational software and hardware suppliers for this prestigious accolade, which has become renowned among teaching communities across the world for setting the standards in Information Communication Technology (ICT).

CachePilot is used by 4,600 UK primary schools to improve the effectiveness and delivery of eLearning content in the classroom, regardless of what bandwidth is available. Even with broadband, schools still experience problems when a whole class of PCs try to access the internet simultaneously during lessons.

Using CachePilot prevents problems such as slow downloads or network failure from interrupting lessons by pre-positioning as much information as possible locally, on a CachePilot device attached to the school's own network. That way, when content is requested in the classroom, it appears on every PC immediately without interruptions, increasing lesson productivity and teachers' confidence in ICT.

"High quality, media rich resources inevitably use a significant amount of bandwidth and can affect performance dramatically, even with broadband lines," says Mike Taylor, director of eLearning at Equiinet. "A caching and content delivery device solves the problem. We are delighted that CachePilot is shortlisted for this award as it highlights the importance of caching and content delivery hardware for e-learning in the classroom."

Ray Barker, Director of BESA and Joint Chair of the Judges, comments: "The BETT Awards provide that much needed link between the ICT industry and the teaching community. The BETT Awards also play a key role in demonstrating how ICT can be embedded into subjects across the curriculum. The year-on-year rise in entries illustrates how important the BETT Awards have become in the eyes of teachers and suppliers alike."

CachePilot can be supplied with e-learning content (CD-ROM and online content) from the top content providers including Espresso Education, Channel 4, Knowledge Box, Sherston and Immersive. Schools are free to add additional content at a later date. It is priced at £1125.00 and is available from education resellers.

CachePilot's caching and content delivery will be demonstrated at the BETT 2005 education technology show (12-15 January 2005, Olympia, London, www.bettshow.co.uk) on stand B100.

About the BETT Awards
The BETT Awards are run by EMAP Education, in association with the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), EC&T magazine and the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta).

The BETT Awards, launched six years ago, have become the benchmark for ICT product development. The awards recognise and reward creativity, innovation and commitment in developing the highest quality and most effective educational ICT resources. The winners of the BETT Awards 2005 will be announced at the BETT Awards Gala Dinner on 11th January 2005.

Note to editors:
For more information, photos or comment, contact:
· Therese Penny, Corporate Communications Manager, Equiinet, +44 (0)1793 603700, tpenny@equiinet.com
· Teresa Horscroft (PR for Equiinet), +44 (0)1420 564346, teresa.horscroft@btinternet.com

ABOUT EQUIINET
Equiinet, based in Swindon, specialises in integrated, appliance-based solutions that provide cost-effective, easy, fast and secure access to the Internet. The NetPilot range of Internet server appliances provides all the hardware and software needed for extremely secure Internet connectivity, multi-user email and user controls in a single multifunctional unit. New to Equiinet’s family of products is the CachePilot e-learning content delivery solution, making media-rich content available to schools and businesses regardless of bandwidth constraints.