Wireless On The Move At DemoMobile

At DemoMobile, held here last month, several vendors showed off products that add new capabilities on top of wireless LAN and WANs.

Vocera, Cupertino, Calif., announced at the show its Vocera Communications Systems, an in-building VoIP application that runs over 802.11 networks. Using a small badge that can be worn around the neck like an employee ID, the system can be used to call another worker on the network, locate and page a worker, or check e-mail.

"Our emphasis from the beginning was to improve communication and increase productivity through a simple, easy-to-operate voice system," said Vocera CEO Julie Shimer. "When you wear it, you can communicate hands-free while you continue working."

A company spokeswoman said the technology can be used by solution providers for a number of vertical applications. Retail stores can use it to keep track of employees within stores, and employees can communicate with each other wirelessly within a building, she said. Hospitals can use it to dispatch doctors and nurses to specific patient rooms or to employ paging functions that previously required cell phone calls.

Pricing for the Vocera Communications System is based on purchases of Vocera Server Software, Vocera Communications Badges and software maintenance agreements. Server software licenses start at a list price of $20,000 for a 75-seat users' license, and the Vocera Communications Badge, which can be shared by shift-based workers, is listed at $400.

Vocera has signed 14 solution providers to its new channel program, and the company is continuing to recruit additional partners, company officials said at the show.

One partner, DataVision-Prologix, has been working with the Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Center, said Bill McKenna, business development manager for the Warminster, Pa., solution provider. "This system addresses one of the major inefficiencies in health care: the ability to locate quickly other health-care professionals," he said.

McKenna added that new technologies are helping to extend 802.11 installs for solution providers. Data-Vision-Prologix is interested in managing wireless networks more like a service provider as additional technologies become available, he said. In such a scenario, the solution provider would operate the network based on a service-level agreement, McKenna explained. DataVision-Prologix would then charge customers per employee for the install and maintenance, rather than charging an up-front fee.

The solution provider, which has been servicing the health-care market for more than five years, sees other opportunities for services on top of 802.11 networks. Location-based technology can be used to track equipment and other assets, McKenna said. "A nurse would be able to check and find the nearest crash cart" using such technology, he said.

Newbury Networks, which demonstrated version 3.0 of its LocaleServer at DemoMobile, is aiming to help customers track devices and control network usage based on location technology.

Matthew Gray, Newbury founder and CTO, said the company has teamed up with integrators to deploy these solutions at universities around the country. Many universities are beginning to restrict Internet access from hotspots in certain locations. "They only want students to be able to access course notes and schedules from the classroom," he said.