Rose's New Tablet
Today Rose got her first tablet. Like many people she is excited to use her new gadget. But unlike many people using a tablet device Rose lives in an assisted living facility. Her family spent months trying to find the perfect place where she would be the happiest. Rose has her share of challenges but the new home caters to her needs including art classes, visiting entertainment, plays, field trips and more. One of the reasons her family picked this facility was that it has WiFi throughout the facility. When they are visiting they have the connectivity they need to be with her and meet the work and family commitments they have as well. And now Rose can share in the excitement and read her favorite magazine or book and even see her children and grandchildren through a video chat. Many leading assisted living facilities recognize the changing needs of their residents and families and have adopted WiFi as part of their value add.
But for all the planning of the facility, today Rose is not getting to enjoy the new tablet. She can see the network name and her 12 year old grandson, Mark, has been working on connecting the tablet for over an hour, but it just wont' connect. Mark walked out to the lobby and it worked fine and he walked down the hall to Rose's room, still no problem. They he walks into the room where Rose is sitting and then it loses its connection. So Mark walks back to the door and into the hall then back into the room and the same thing happens again. Finally Mark shrugs his shoulders and tells his grandmother, "Gramma, I just can't figure it out, maybe it's broken."
Disheartened at the lost ability to connect to her extended family around the country, she asks Mark to find the maintenance man, Sammy. Sammy talks to Rose every day. It is part of their routine and whenever something is broken, he's the guy to fix it. Sammy loves working here and truly cares about making each resident's experience as positive as possible. All the residents have good days and not-so-good days but having a familiar face and a friendly conversation makes it feel like home. So Rose asks Sammy to take a look. Sammy is a jack of all trades and can usually figure it out, but not this time. So Sammy sends a message to the Director of the facility, Camille.
Camille is responsible for ensuring the residents are provided with the services they signed up for and if there are any issues, she can get them resolved. But Camille is not a technician so she is just as stumped as Sammy. But what is really confusing is that when Camille takes her laptop into Rose's room, it works! So Camille, Sammy, Mark and Rose are all there in Rose's room, looking at two WiFi connected devices but only one is connecting…huh?
Now everyone is really confused. Camille asks Sammy to come outside the room and talk. She asks Sammy about the WiFi system they have and who set it up. It appears there is some issue but it is going to take an engineer to resolve it. This just does not make sense at all. Sammy tells Camille not to worry about it and he will check it out with the guys that set it up. Sammy goes to the room where all the wires come in and on the wall is a list of ways to contact the original team that installed the system. Sammy sends an email to them describing the issue. After providing the room number the engineering team reviews the system that they manage remotely and determine that there are no obvious system issues and sends out Buddy, one of their lead engineers. When Buddy arrives he immediately sees what is going on and recognizes the familiar scene.
Buddy has seen this issue many times in many locations. One device works and another doesn't in the exact same spot. And it is usually where a laptop used to work. Rose asks Buddy, "so what is the problem, Buddy?". Actually Buddy is getting an inquisitive look from everyone in the room. Sammy jumps in before Buddy can answer, "Man, I tried everything and I am stumped. I'm not used to not being able to fix something." Sammy turns to Rose and gives her a wink and says, "especially when it comes to my favorite lady!" After a brief tension breaker courtesy of Sammy, it's back to the task at hand. Buddy takes a deep breath and begins, "Well guys, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Wifi system here was originally designed to support devices with a stronger radio. This system supports the Nurse Phones and was designed to support laptops. But over the last few years the tablet and phones have come out and they are much smaller. With the size or these devices they have really small batteries. And those little batteries are only able to power a low-power radio inside. So although you can see the signal from the radio in the hall, your tablet cannot talk back.
As usual, Buddy's geeky explanation is met with blank stares from Camille, Sammy and Rose. Mark had school today but if he was there he probably would have gotten it. Rose is the first one to break the silence. "Buddy, that all sounded good but what does that mean in English, and what about the 'good news' you mentioned?" Buddy, expecting this response, answers with the following, "Rose, the good news is that your facility has partnered with a company that knows what they are doing and I have a piece of equipment to extend the signal. It is a temporary fix until we upgrade the facility. The short answer is that when I leave here today you will be up and running with your new tablet. And I will be happy to stay here and make sure you can do a web chat with your family and get to your magazines and eBooks. What happened here is that new technology is being made available for people faster than the existing infrastructure can keep up. And when that happens it's like sitting in the grand stands at a racetrack and trying to hear a grasshopper in the parking lot. Sure the grasshopper is still making a noise, but all anyone can here are the race cars. The original track was built for race cars and we are expecting the grasshoppers to be able to be heard among all that noise. If we leave the grandstand and get back near the car, we can hear the grasshopper again now that we are closer to where the sound is coming from."
Buddy plugs in a pre-configured range extender as a temporary solution and Camille, Sammy and especially Rose thank him for the help. They are still not quite sure what happened but they know it works and they are confident that the technology partner will be there to help should the problem arise again. And in 10 months the refresh of the new WiFi system will be starting. The new design will have more radios to handle the new devices and they residents and the families that support them will be ready to use the latest and greatest technology to keep them connected, engaged and involved in the lives of their families and the world around them for many years to come.
As Buddy drives back to the shop he looks down at the ring on his finger that he got from his grandfather many years ago and remembers his words, "Buddy, I consider our relationship one of the greatest gifts in my life. Although we are on opposite sides of the country I feel like we are right next to each other when we use the webcam. This is an amazing world you will grow up in. Make sure you use your special skills and abilities to help those around you and make a difference in people's lives." As Buddy closes out the support ticket he knows that he is fulfilling his purpose and making a difference in someone's life.
Technology today will allow us to stay connected in ways we never thought possible. When selecting your WiFi partner, realize that there is more on the line than bits and bytes. Needle Solutions is all about "Making Connections That Matter". Contact Needle Solutions for help today!