Dec 08, 2016Spanish event ticketing solution company Ticketea has launched a radio frequency identification system that it can build into its existing event-management solution for festivals that request the technology. The Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID-based system provides events with access control, while also enabling them to offer attendees cashless payments and links to social networks via an RFID-enabled wristband. Most recently, Ticketea provided the system to Monkey Week, a music festival that took place on Oct. 13-15 in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain.
Monkey Week, held annually in Southern Spain since 2013, features more than 200 bands performing on 13 stages. The festival not only includes performances by well-known bands, but also serves as a discussion forum for those working in the music business. Attendees pay €65 ($69) for access to the three-day festival. Approximately 1,500 people attended this year's event.
The festival has been using Ticketea's management software each year. This year, however, it incorporated NFC technology into the system as well.
Ticketea was founded in 2009 as an events technology company focused on selling solutions enabling customers to manage their ticketing and related services themselves. "We want to bring the ability to organize an event to everyone, and provide all the tools to do so," says Andrés San José, Ticketea's head of international business development.
In the past, this consisted of providing the tickets and software to manage ticketing. Last year, however, Ticketea became interested in offering RFID technology in order to make festival access for ticket-holders automatic, and to enable event managers to provide attendees with payment options, as well as the ability to link to social networks.
"Until we launched, there were several players in the festival market which were offering (RFID) services on a standalone basis," San José recalls, so that access control or ticketing might be offered, but not payment or social networks. "We had some experiences with some of the players in the market, but the full experience of offering RFID was not as seamless as you would like it to be." The company decided to develop its RFID functionality as part of its full solution. "We offer it because we try to provide a 360-degree solution to event organizers," he explains.
The technology consists of an NXP Semiconductors NTAG216 chip and a MiFare Ultralight C NFC tag built into every festival wristband or ticket. The company also built an NFC-based mobile application for use with Famoco Android devices, as well as some Samsung tablets and smartphones. "Basically," San José says, "if the device runs on Android and has an NFC reader, we can use it."
Monkey Week provides wristbands to all attendees, while employees wear NFC-reading smart devices on lanyards in specific locations. Guests first pay for their tickets online, then receive their tickets electronically, which contain a 3D bar-code. Upon arriving at the festival, an attendee presents his or her ticket to an employee, who scans the bar code and reads the NFC tag in that person's wristband, thereby linking the two together. The ticketholder then wears the wristband. As they enter the gate, attendees hold their wristbands next to a staff member's device, which captures each bracelet's unique ID number. That ID is linked to the ticketholder's data in the application. If the application confirms that the ticket is authentic, it forwards the data to Ticketea's cloud-based server. The Android device flashes a green prompt, indicating that the guest can enter.
For payments, personnel at the point of sale are also equipped with NFC-enabled Android devices. Here, individuals who have pre-loaded accounts, or a link to a credit card account, can tap a wristband next to the Android device. This links the wristband's ID number to that person's account information, and the amount of the sale is applied to his or her account. This data is then managed in Ticketea's cloud-based software.
Although Monkey Week did not opt to use the social-media functionality, San José says, other customers are interested in this feature. In this case, employees can take pictures of attendees at an event. When a worker taps his or her device next to a specific guest's wristband, the device's app forwards the appropriate photos to that person's social-network account (assuming he or she has provided the account's login ID and password).
Altogether, Monkey Week employed 20 NFC reading devices—two at the gates and the others at point-of-sale locations and bars. With the system in place, San José says, the festival achieved an increase in sales and a reduction in non-ticket-holders sneaking into the event.
Ticketea is currently in conversations with other festivals in four different countries, San José reports. "We plan to move [beyond] festivals," he states, "as the potential is also really interesting in sports and other verticals."
