What will an ICT suite cost?
The ball-park cost
As a very approximate guide, you should budget between £250 and £1000 per student for an ICT suite. Of course, that's quite a large range, so some of the factors that will affect the cost are detailed below:
Would you like us to supply laptops or PCs?
If this is an additional area, you may want us to provide the laptops or PCs. If we are upgrading an existing area, we can re-use your existing PCs, with an obvious cost saving.
Is this an existing room, or do we need to create an area?
If you have an existing self-contained area, such as a classroom, that you are converting, there will be no need for additional screening. If you wish to create an area within an area, dividing screens may be required.
How many students do you wish to accommodate?
Larger numbers of students tend to bring the price down because of economies of scale. For example, an electrician for a day can wire-up one suite of 5 students, or one suite of 15 students.
Is the room a particularly odd shape?
A very odd-shaped room with extreme space constraints may need specially machined tops to make use of the available space. Most areas, however, will use more conventional worktops.
Do you have special requirements, such as PC holders or USB faceplates?
CPU holders (which allow you to 'hang' the PCs under the desk add cost, but they can allow you to fit more students into the same area. The available depth of the desking can affect this, so we can determine the most cost effective route during the site-survey.
Will you use a wireless network or hard-wired network points?
Using a wireless network in a laptop environment will save money in structured cabling. Generally, however, we would recommend the structured-cabling option (ie, hard-wired network points) because of the difficulties that can be experienced with large classes connecting to a wireless network at the start of a lesson. Of course a wireless network in a 6th form free-study area would not face such issues.
Would you like good, robust functionality or a showcase for the school?
If you will be using your ICT suite to 'sell' the school's facilities to prospective parents, you may choose to upgrade from a standard worktop to a high-grade solid-core laminate for a beautiful finish.
Will you use flat-screen arms?
Flat-screen arms will improve security of flat screens and can increase the number of students in your area, especially where depth is limited. We can recommend the most effective solution following our site-survey.
Site-specific factors
There are many other factors that will affect the cost, all of which can only be determined during our detailed site survey. Some examples are:
- Is there a power distribution board close to the suite?
- Is there a network switch close to the suite?
- Does the network switch have capacity for the additional connections?
- Will existing power-sockets need to be removed?
- What type of electrical containment will be most suitable?
- How many doors and cupboards do we have to work around?
- Do we need to use deep, shallow or customised worktops?
- Is steel or wooden framework most suitable?
- Are there acoustic issues that need to be resolved?
- Will we need to include RCD fused spurs, and if so, how many?
- What type of laptops, PCs and TFTs do you prefer?
- Will monitor arms need to include security?
- How much re-decoration is required?
A fully inclusive price
Using the information that we gather from our initial meeting with you together with the detailed site-survey and some design work, we will be able to provide you with one fully inclusive price. If you are able to give us an indication of your budget, that will enable us to provide as much as we possibly can for that budget.
The ball-park cost
As a very approximate guide, you should budget between £250 and £1000 per student for an ICT suite. Of course, that's quite a large range, so some of the factors that will affect the cost are detailed below:
Would you like us to supply laptops or PCs?
If this is an additional area, you may want us to provide the laptops or PCs. If we are upgrading an existing area, we can re-use your existing PCs, with an obvious cost saving.
Is this an existing room, or do we need to create an area?
If you have an existing self-contained area, such as a classroom, that you are converting, there will be no need for additional screening. If you wish to create an area within an area, dividing screens may be required.
How many students do you wish to accommodate?
Larger numbers of students tend to bring the price down because of economies of scale. For example, an electrician for a day can wire-up one suite of 5 students, or one suite of 15 students.
Is the room a particularly odd shape?
A very odd-shaped room with extreme space constraints may need specially machined tops to make use of the available space. Most areas, however, will use more conventional worktops.
Do you have special requirements, such as PC holders or USB faceplates?
CPU holders (which allow you to 'hang' the PCs under the desk add cost, but they can allow you to fit more students into the same area. The available depth of the desking can affect this, so we can determine the most cost effective route during the site-survey.
Will you use a wireless network or hard-wired network points?
Using a wireless network in a laptop environment will save money in structured cabling. Generally, however, we would recommend the structured-cabling option (ie, hard-wired network points) because of the difficulties that can be experienced with large classes connecting to a wireless network at the start of a lesson. Of course a wireless network in a 6th form free-study area would not face such issues.
Would you like good, robust functionality or a showcase for the school?
If you will be using your ICT suite to 'sell' the school's facilities to prospective parents, you may choose to upgrade from a standard worktop to a high-grade solid-core laminate for a beautiful finish.
Will you use flat-screen arms?
Flat-screen arms will improve security of flat screens and can increase the number of students in your area, especially where depth is limited. We can recommend the most effective solution following our site-survey.
Site-specific factors
There are many other factors that will affect the cost, all of which can only be determined during our detailed site survey. Some examples are:
- Is there a power distribution board close to the suite?
- Is there a network switch close to the suite?
- Does the network switch have capacity for the additional connections?
- Will existing power-sockets need to be removed?
- What type of electrical containment will be most suitable?
- How many doors and cupboards do we have to work around?
- Do we need to use deep, shallow or customised worktops?
- Is steel or wooden framework most suitable?
- Are there acoustic issues that need to be resolved?
- Will we need to include RCD fused spurs, and if so, how many?
- What type of laptops, PCs and TFTs do you prefer?
- Will monitor arms need to include security?
- How much re-decoration is required?
A fully inclusive price
Using the information that we gather from our initial meeting with you together with the detailed site-survey and some design work, we will be able to provide you with one fully inclusive price. If you are able to give us an indication of your budget, that will enable us to provide as much as we possibly can for that budget.
