Acorn News - Acorn Computers at WCCE 95 (PR??/23.7.95)

Acorn Computers Delivers World-Class Solutions at WCCE 95

23 July 1995

World Conference Computers in Education (WCCE 95)
International Convention Centre, Birmingham
Acorn stand no: 69
23-27 July 1995

Acorn Computers, one of the world's leading providers of information technology to education, will be presenting the very best in educational technology at the sixth World Conference on Computers in Education (WCCE 95). With a track record spanning more than 16 years designing and developing educational IT systems, Acorn's unrivalled experience and unique understanding of education's technology requirements will be on show in the WCCE 95 conference and exhibition.

On stand 69, Acorn's range of solutions will be themed to illustrate the ultimate in multimedia, the best curriculum software, really personal IT, and the latest in educational networks. At the conference, Acorn is enabling leading UK educationalists to share their expertise and cutting-edge experience with delegates, through the presentation of workshops and papers on topics ranging from classroom use of multimedia, interactivity, computers and the curriculum to developing IT and the challenges of special education.

Sam Wauchope, Managing Director of Acorn Computer Group plc, comments:

"Acorn's success is built on delivering innovative and effective IT solutions to enhance and support education. We are successful because we work with educationalists to understand what schools need. Our knowledge of the educational process and our leadership in educational IT allows us to identify and develop, often with commercial partners, technology solutions which offer real educational value to learners worldwide."

The Ultimate in Multimedia

The new Risc PC, Acorn's high performance dual processor computer system, will be on display, showing the innovative design features, the powerful multimedia performance and graphics facilities and the multiprocessing functionality which allow users to run both IBM PC and Acorn RISC OS software. The Acorn Risc PC was voted Gold winner in the secondary schools' category of the UK's 1994/95 Educational Computing and Technology Awards, and was chosen as Best Product of the Year 1994 by Chip, one of Germany's foremost computing publications.

The Acorn stand will also feature a digital interactive TV (DiTV) demonstration, allowing visitors to explore the implications for education of this emerging interactive multimedia technology. The display will show Acorn's work to date in developing educational services which can be delivered over the broadband networks of the future. The first practical implementation of Acorn's work in this area will occur as part of the Cambridge Interactive TV Trial when Acorn Computers Limited becomes the official provider of educational services to the Trial.

Best Curriculum Software

The wealth of top quality curriculum software available on Acorn's RISC OS platform is key to the decision of the majority of UK schools to purchase Acorn computers. Five of the leading software houses join Acorn to exhibit a selection of the very best in educational and curriculum software currently available. In particular, Sibelius Software's advanced music software, for the Acorn RISC OS platform, is winning wide acclaim from music and education professionals. Sibelius will be demonstrated by a string quartet from London's prestigious Royal Academy of Music who will be performing on the Acorn stand throughout the show.

Iota Software will be demonstrating The Complete Animator, a multimedia package for creating animation, films and moving diagrams. Oak Solutions will be showing its creative multimedia authoring package, Genesis, which is widely used by schools across the world, as well a Computer Aided Design (CAD) solution, Apollonius. Icon Technology will be demonstrating a range of wordprocessors, from TalkWrite, an entry-level talking wordprocessor, to EasiWriter Professional, which has automatic index and contents generation and spellchecking.

Really Personal IT

Acorn is bringing UK education's ideal of one computer per child within reach for schools and parents with its practical and economical range of Pocket Book hand-held computers. The Pocket Book, currently the world's most widely used palmtop computer in schools, is light and strong enough to be used by pupils for homework, in the classroom or on field trips, and is also proving an ideal tool for teachers for recording pupils' achievements, lesson planning and note-taking.

Networks that talk to everyone

Acorn's Universal Networking (AUN) range of products includes practical solutions for every educational networking requirement, from first steps into networked desktops, to complex, site-wide communications between multiple platforms, and connectivity to the Internet. Visitors can see the recently announced Acorn SchoolServer, the first high performance network server capable of sharing printers, hardware and software resources across Acorn, PC and Mac environments, and one of the first products to be based on IBM's PowerPC technology. Access to email, the Internet and World Wide Web via Acorn's InterTalk software and networked multimedia with Acorn's core networking products, Access+ and Access CD Share will also be on show.

Acorn Computer Group plc: Acorn Computer Group plc is the holding company for Acorn Computers Limited, Acorn Australia, Acorn New Zealand, Acorn GmbH and Online Media. Acorn Computer Group owns 43% of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Online Media, a division of the Acorn Computer Group, was launched in 1994 with the objective to design interactive multimedia products.
Acorn Computers Limited: Founded in 1978, Acorn Computers Limited designs, develops and markets appropriate technologies to identified markets and is one of the world's leading suppliers of information technology to education. The first supplier of low-cost 32-bit RISC based personal computers in 1987, Acorn remains one of the most cost-effective research and development organisations in the industry, renowned for technology innovation which has led to the formation of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd and Online Media.
Online Media: Online Media is a division of Acorn Computer Group Plc and has the full strategic backing of Acorn's parent company, Olivetti. Established in July 1994, Online Media provides innovative affordable interactive television products in hardware, enabling software and services to meet the requirements of the markets emerging from the information superhighway. The company focuses on cost competitive designs, which exploit emerging standards and its first product, an intelligent digital set-top box, is already in production and in use. Alongside hardware products, Online Media offers authoring systems, services and consultancy in service development, as well as other areas. All Online Media designs are available under licence.

Acorn has a community of over 400 specialist hardware and software developers and has technological and commercial agreements with: AB Dick ITEK, Blue Micro - IBM Microelectronic Division distributor, Colourgen, D2D, Future Technology Devices International, Granada Microcare, IBM Personal Software Division, Kodak, Psion and Tesco. Online Media, a division of Acorn has partnerships with: Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, Advanced Telecommunications Modules Ltd, Anglia Television, BNP DDB Needham, BNR/NorTel, Cambridge Cable, DEC, ICL, ITN, Macromedia, Microsoft, NatWest, NOP, Omnicom, Oracle and SJ Research.