Jan 23, 2013In today's world of wireless devices and digital media, the ticketing systems typically used for concerts, festivals, special museum exhibits and other events or activities can be downright archaic. That's the opinion of Liam Rabbit, who has worked as a DJ, a sound system provider and a club promoter for the past 30 years, and is now the CEO of Ticketfriend, an Irish company striving to bring the ticketing process into the 21st century. The firm is using Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID technology to entirely eliminate the need for paper tickets, thereby making gate lines shorter and ticketing slightly less expensive, while also enabling event promoters and ticket holders to share more information about an event online.
Ticketfriend stores a purchased ticket reservation on a server, and then presents information regarding that reservation at the concert site using NFC technology, either on a card with a built-in NFC RFID chip, or on an NFC-enabled phone.
There are several problems with traditional tickets, Rabbit indicates. Transferring tickets from one person to another requires a physical handoff of the printed tickets. If someone were meeting a friend to share tickets, for example, but suffered a flat tire en route, the tickets would remain unused. What's more, he says, expenses related to the printing and distribution of tickets simply increase the cost to the public, as well as for promoters who do not want to price their tickets so high that consumers cannot afford them.
The Ticketfriend solution is intended to resolve the problem via a cloud-based server, using NFC technology as a means to access that server and provide proof of purchase to staff members at a venue's entrance.
The Ticketfriend server, which was taken live on Jan. 14, 2013, stores details about events provided by promoters, and also sells tickets to those venues. Consumers can purchase tickets at the Ticketfriend Web site, store that purchase in their personal account on the site, access that ticket on a mobile phone and send proof of the purchase to ticket-checkers manning the doors at the time of the event, via NFC RFID technology. Individuals lacking NFC-enabled phones can utilize an NFC RFID card supplied by Ticketfriend to provide a link to the ticket purchase data. Several venues are presently testing the technology, including the Savoy Club, in Cork, the Campsie Karting Centre, an indoor kart racecourse operator located in Dublin, and the Shackleton Endurance Exhibition, at the Dublin Ferry Terminal, which relates the trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914 to 1917, led by Irish-born explorer Ernest Shackleton.
Promoters wishing to sell tickets can list and sell seating for an event. A chat room is also made available, in which customers are invited to interact and discuss the event, as well as share details via social media or with other friends. Promoters pay a fee for the service, and either pass along that cost to customers or simply absorb the expense themselves.
While most mobile phone users will eventually have NFC-enabled handsets, Rabbit says, the majority of current customers will likely opt for the NFC-enabled ID card. After creating an account, a user can order a card containing an NXP Semiconductors Mifare Ultralight RFID chip encoded with a unique ID number linked to that individual's account. The card can then be used repeatedly at events for which he or she has purchased tickets through Ticketfriend.
Upon reporting to the venue's entrance, a user simply holds his or her Ticketfriend card next to the staff member's NFC-enabled phone, and the ID number then links the phone to the Ticketfriend server and that individual's account. This provides proof of a ticket's purchase, while also enabling the promoter to store data regarding the number of individuals attending a show or event, as well as their identities.
If the ticketholder has an NFC-enabled phone, the ID card would be unnecessary, in which case that person would simply tap his or her phone against the employee's phone. Ticketholders would not need to download an application, though the staff would need to do so, using their phones to read ticketholders' data.
The system is still being trialed by companies selling tickets on Ticketfriend's Web site, with approximately 5,000 NFC-enabled cards distributed to ticket buyers to date. In the future, Rabbit says he expects the technology to be used for purchases at events as well. For example, an individual could use his or her NFC card or phone not only to gain access to an event, but also to purchase food or souvenirs onsite.
Beginning in May, the system is slated be trialed in that manner by a European resort located on an island accessible only by ferry. Users can purchase tickets to the resort and create a prepaid account on which they can present their ID card on the ferry, prior to reaching the resort. They can then use the card again for other purchases, such as cocktails, or for accessing nightclubs or renting a beach lounge chair. Rabbit declines to specify the resort that is testing this system.
"The concept has been 10 years in my head," Rabbit states, "and just now, it seems all the technologies are working together."
According to Rabbit, staff members at the Electric Picnic 2012 music festival, which took place from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, had to ride buses to the event and provide credentials while boarding those vehicles, and they tested the Ticketfriend NFC cards and server as a way of providing those credentials. Although it previously took 20 to 30 minutes to load each bus, he says, only five minutes were required when using the Ticketfriend ID cards. In that case, he notes, about 300 cards were issued to workers transported in three buses.
