Are the limits to the number of iPads + Bluetooth Keyboards you can use in a room?

My school is looking at buying iPads for all students, and having bluetooth keyboards for every iPad.

This would make up to 24 iPads + bluetooth keyboards in any one classroom. In addition we have a lot of wifi hubs around the school, and nearby classrooms would be using iPads + keyboards as well.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of roll-out of bluetooth keyboards? Can we expect a lot of interference problems?

This is a critical question for us as the keyboard is something we really want.

note: I posted this thread in General Discussions as I think it is relevant to multiple environments, not just schools.

 

Can't find anything. All I could find was the potential for interference between wi-fi and bluetooth.

I don't think it would be a bandwidth problem. Bluetooth uses the entire range of the 2.4GH wi-fi bandwidth frequency hopping all over the place so fast that there should be room for lots of connections with minimal interference. There should be more than enough room for 24 keyboards with minimal collisions. But that is admittedly just guess work; not facts.

If you are also using wi-fi, make sure the classroom has a good signal. That seemed to be the take away from the wi-fi/bluetooth issue.

 

We have had more than 40 in a room, no problems whatsoever.

 

Am surprised by the cost quoted- $100k, for wiring up a school for wi-fi hotspots. How big is the school you assume here? And by the way there a hundreds of schools in the US already using iPads on 1-1 mode, in the classrooms. Can we check how much they spent?

 

Would you be able to comment on the wireless infrastructure setup in your school? How many access points per class? Size of the classroom? Are all 40 using the iPad simultaneously? What is the total bandwidth to the internet service provider? Thanks.