RocketPort - Serial Hub - TGI Friday's

Sector:

Hospitality/Retail/POS

Technology User:

TGI Friday's

Application:

POS to Kitchen Automation

Product(s) Used:

RocketPort Serial Hub

Integrator:

In-house

Challenge

Streamline order processing and improve customer service by developing a solution for connecting kitchen printers together.

Technology Solution

Using Comtrol’s RocketPort products, this restaurant is able to connect peripherals such as printers, scanners, credit readers, mice, and keyboards; to one central PC. This eliminated five computers per restaurant, using Comtrol’s Ethernet-connected RocketPort Serial Hub. They chose this Ethernet solution for all 250 corporate restaurants to eliminate distance limitations and downtime—information is automatically forwarded to another printer on the network in the event one goes down at the grill, dessert area, or even worse ... the expeditor's station.

Comtrol’s family of serial hubs delivers:

Ethernet connections to 4 or 8 serial ports
USB connections to 4 serial ports
TCP/IP addressing, for Internet-enabling serial ports
RS-232/422/485 connections

All ports appear as "native" COM ports that can be assigned to, and controlled by, different servers.

"Comtrol's RocketPort Serial Hubs provide native COM ports that have helped us streamline our kitchen system and are now installed at 250 TGI Friday’s restaurants. Each station used to have a dedicated computer. Now, one computer serves all stations and the printers are linked to that unit."

—Software Development

Carlson Restaurants Worldwide