A market leader of all-in-one Smart Terminals™, JAOtech, who are now incorporated by Barco, are a leading manufacturer of patient entertainment and point-of-care terminals for hospitals. They needed to ensure that its solution provided an effective user interaction that worked reliably, every time. JAOtech’s Smart Terminal technology is installed in hospitals and clinics worldwide enabling hospital patients to access information via a Smart Terminal all done wirelessly at a patient’s bedside.

Philip Corri, the Asian Operations Director for JAOtech wanted the Smart Terminal to access information through a hospitals’ WiFi system with a consistent, reliable connection. The Smart Terminal is a communication LCD terminal with a computer screen and telephone attached in one unit. In a hospital room, it is located near a patient’s bed. It has a keyboard, which gives patients full wireless access to the Internet and a phone for telephone services.

Quinlan evaluated the situation and came up with a custom-tuned antenna, the PC-11, a dual band 2.4-5.2 GHz, PCB dipole antenna. It uses the open WiFi system and is flexible, so that it can be stuck directly on the terminal housing. It gives a better connection to the WiFi network, greater sensitivity especially in low signal areas and higher data throughput rates.

There are no set standards for device performance in the WiFi market, so Taoglas tested the PC-11 antenna within the Smart Terminal for WiFi performance. The tests showed that the PC-11 was optimized for JAOtech’s device with the farthest range of connection and the best data throughput.

Rooms that were not connected before can now access the wireless system. The bottom line is that hospitals can now have full WiFi access cheaper and more efficiently. It also opens up the possibility of real time video transmission and streaming on the terminal.”