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Alta Opts for RFID Lift Tickets
A third benefit RFID offers is the convenience to season-pass holders. Pass holders are issued hard plastic cards that they stow in a pocket or wear on a lanyard. With RFID, skiers need not dig out their passes from under multiple layers of clothing for ticket checkers to inspect. This is especially helpful during snowy days, when the area sees as much as 2 inches of accumulation per hour and skiers prefer to remain bundled up.
Finally, under the new system, skiers can keep the RFID-enabled card they are issued on their first visit of the season, then continue to use that same card thereafter by loading additional value onto it using a Web-based interface over the Internet, or a payment kiosk at the ski area. This means they can get to the chairlift more quickly upon arrival.
Two vendors, Skidata (see Aspen Signs With Skidata, RTP for Integrated RFID/POS System) and Axess, both based in Austria, vied for the Alta project. According to Maughan, Alta chose Axess for two main reasons: First, Axess offered back-end software that could control the RFID access gates and link the tag data with the resort's point-of-sale (POS) software. Because Alta offers a dual ski pass with access to Alta and the neighboring Snowbird ski resort, it wanted back-end software that it could meld with the latter's ticketing system.
Second, Axess was willing to develop a custom-designed access system for Alta that would not utilize a turnstile, which can be difficult to negotiate while wearing skis and carrying poles. Instead of a turnstile, the custom Axess system consists of a gate that swings outward to allow a skier to pass—more like a starting gate for a horserace, versus a turnstile entrance to a subway system—once the lift ticket is read and authorized by the reader embedded in the gate. Alta also requested that Axess build two vertical antennas into each gate—one on each side—that would ensure an RFID lift ticket would be read no matter on which side of the body a skier carried the ticket, or whether it was near the waist or closer to the neck.
What's more, because of the ski area's healthy snowfall—Alta just recorded its third-biggest snowfall in its 70-year history, with more than 700 inches—the gates needed to be easy to lift and move, to accommodate growing snowpack throughout the season, and to allow for snow-grooming machinery to pass underneath. Axess worked directly with Alta's operations team and snow groomers to design and install the gates, which are suspended from a gantry—an overhead beam that extends across the lift line. This allows the gates to be moved vertically, and to swung into and out of place to accommodate grooming, at each of the ski area's seven chairlifts.
Rather than issue RFID lift tickets that patrons would use once and toss in the trash, Alta decided to provide a more durable, thin plastic card that skiers could keep and use multiple times. For the first day's usage, a visitor pays $59 at the ski area's ticket office and is issued a plastic card, which can be attached to a zipper or stowed in a pocket. The card's embedded high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz passive RFID tag complies with the ISO 15693 standard and is encoded with a unique ID number. After the ticket is purchased, its ID will open any chairlift gate that day.
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Finally, under the new system, skiers can keep the RFID-enabled card they are issued on their first visit of the season, then continue to use that same card thereafter by loading additional value onto it using a Web-based interface over the Internet, or a payment kiosk at the ski area. This means they can get to the chairlift more quickly upon arrival.
Two vendors, Skidata (see Aspen Signs With Skidata, RTP for Integrated RFID/POS System) and Axess, both based in Austria, vied for the Alta project. According to Maughan, Alta chose Axess for two main reasons: First, Axess offered back-end software that could control the RFID access gates and link the tag data with the resort's point-of-sale (POS) software. Because Alta offers a dual ski pass with access to Alta and the neighboring Snowbird ski resort, it wanted back-end software that it could meld with the latter's ticketing system.
Second, Axess was willing to develop a custom-designed access system for Alta that would not utilize a turnstile, which can be difficult to negotiate while wearing skis and carrying poles. Instead of a turnstile, the custom Axess system consists of a gate that swings outward to allow a skier to pass—more like a starting gate for a horserace, versus a turnstile entrance to a subway system—once the lift ticket is read and authorized by the reader embedded in the gate. Alta also requested that Axess build two vertical antennas into each gate—one on each side—that would ensure an RFID lift ticket would be read no matter on which side of the body a skier carried the ticket, or whether it was near the waist or closer to the neck.
What's more, because of the ski area's healthy snowfall—Alta just recorded its third-biggest snowfall in its 70-year history, with more than 700 inches—the gates needed to be easy to lift and move, to accommodate growing snowpack throughout the season, and to allow for snow-grooming machinery to pass underneath. Axess worked directly with Alta's operations team and snow groomers to design and install the gates, which are suspended from a gantry—an overhead beam that extends across the lift line. This allows the gates to be moved vertically, and to swung into and out of place to accommodate grooming, at each of the ski area's seven chairlifts.
Rather than issue RFID lift tickets that patrons would use once and toss in the trash, Alta decided to provide a more durable, thin plastic card that skiers could keep and use multiple times. For the first day's usage, a visitor pays $59 at the ski area's ticket office and is issued a plastic card, which can be attached to a zipper or stowed in a pocket. The card's embedded high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz passive RFID tag complies with the ISO 15693 standard and is encoded with a unique ID number. After the ticket is purchased, its ID will open any chairlift gate that day.
