The Vocera Smartbadge is a small, lightweight, wearable communication device purpose-built for healthcare. The Smartbadge is powered by the Vocera Platform, enabling interoperability with the majority of clinical and operational systems used in healthcare.

The Smartbadge gives caregivers the agility to respond to the complex and unpredictable patient care environment by enabling real-time situational awareness and allowing them to receive a prioritized alert and alarm notifications, make and answer calls hands-free, and send messages securely.

The salient features of the Smartbadge are:

Hands-free calling and answering calls.
Smooth, natural bi-directional conversation.
Seamless texting as done on a smartphone.
Receive phone calls, messages, and alerts with essential information available at a glance.
Present priority items to the end-user.
Integration of hardware, software, and firmware within a single device.
Real-time situational awareness and help in reducing interruption fatigue.

For detailed documentation, refer to the following documents:

Vocera V-Series Smartbadge (User Guide)
Vocera Release Notes Library (Previous versions of the release notes)
Vocera Device Configuration Guide (Information on firmware installation)
Feature Applicability (Information on the minimum required server and firmware versions)

Supported Versions of Vocera Servers

Before installing this firmware, ensure that the following Vocera products are installed:

Vocera Voice Server 5.10.4
Vocera Edge Server 4.15.0

This firmware version is incompatible with a standalone Voice Server or a combination of the Voice Server and Vocera Messaging Platform. It requires an integrated environment with both the Voice Server and the Edge Server.

Note: Voice Server 5.10.4 is packaged with firmware version 5.6.1.12. You should manually upgrade the firmware to 5.7.0.224, to enable the new features such as simultaneous login, unified messaging, and unified alerting.

New and Enhanced Features

This section summarizes the new features.

New Features in 5.7.0.224

This release adds support for Edge server and mobile app enabling the following features:

Simultaneous login―Smartbadge users can now simultaneously log in to the Vocera Edge mobile app for voice calls and messaging.
Unified presence―Presence information of a Smartbadge user is now shared with Edge clients.
Calling―Smartbadge users can now initiate and receive voice communication including calls, broadcasts, and emergency broadcasts with Vocera Edge mobile app users.
Unified messaging―Smartbadge users can now participate in one-to-one or group messaging with Edge mobile app users, with features like message prioritization, read receipts, patient-tagged conversations, quick messages, media attachments, and acknowledgment requests.
Unified alerting―Smartbadge users can now receive Edge alerts in addition to the existing Engage alerts.

Fixed Issues

The following list contains fixes and improvements for firmware release and the V5000 product.

Fixed Issues in Release 5.7.0.224

G5W-15897 A buffer overflow vulnerability in Busybox has been fixed.
G5W-15898 A stack overflow vulnerability in Busybox has been fixed.

Known Issues

The following section lists the known issues in this firmware release and the V5000 Smartbadge product.

Known Issues in 5.7.0.224

The following list provides information about known product issues in the 5.7.0.224 firmware and the Vocera Smartbadge:

G5W-7356 V5000 Smartbadge performs complete 802.1X authentication when it roams to a new Access Point (APs) that has a profile with 802.11w and OKC enabled.
G5W-6344 Message indicating successful PIN setup pops up for less than a second.

Applicable only to the Edge-Engage-Voice solution

G5W-15942 The Smartbadge does not display the message content when receiving a message with an image attachment.
G5W-15937 The Smartbadge does not allow adding groups marked as browsable in the Edge server to the favorites.
G5W-16022 The voice command "Delete all text messages" fails to delete the messages.
G5W-16077 Smartbadge users cannot play urgent messages using the voice command "Play old text messages" after issuing the voice command "Delete Text Messages."

Vocera V5000 Release Notes

Version 5.7.0.224

Release Date: November 2024

Updated: December 14, 2024