European EPC Competence Center Expanding Its Services

Before visitors approach the chamber, they can view a large chart on the wall, displaying results from a test of eight different tag placements on a six-pack of Rexona deodorant in metal aerosol cans. With each tag placement, reader success rates varied dramatically.

Gerd Wolfram

The EECC trained 150 people from a variety of companies and industries last year, and plans to expand this offer by adding two additional workshop series in 2007. The curriculum, offered in both German and English, is tailored for those with a beginning, intermediate or advanced understanding of RFID. Fees range from roughly €600 ($782) to €700 ($912) per day. The beginning RFID class covers the technology basics, standards, business cases and an overview of lessons learned from various pilots.

The intermediate class, offered on the second day in the course series, focuses on the impact of different transponders on the performance of RFID systems, RFID system optimization, EPC data exchange and communication (e.g., EPCIS and ONS) and software architecture. It also provides practical workshops about EPCIS, transponders and Applied Tag Performance (ATP) tests, such as those performed by the EECC.

The third day of training covers such RFID air-interface protocols as EPCglobal Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6c. It also covers ETSI standards and rules, UHF RFID applications and application design, and practical demonstrations.

Along with equipment testing and training courses, the EECC plans to offer on-site and off-site consulting on RFID pilots starting this year. It says it will provide technical feasibility studies that include independent recommendations about the best RFID hardware and software for a specific application, since the center does not sell or endorse any particular hardware or software.