Sep 16, 2014In May 2014, we wrote about plans by the three-day Osheaga Music and Arts Festival to give everyone onsite—performers, member of the press, the event crew and the 45,000 anticipated attendees—a wristband containing a passive 13.56 MHz RFID tag. The plan was for the wristband to replace the entrance ticket for audience members, and to grant access to specific areas of the event (see Osheaga Music Festival to Include New NFC-enabled Features).
Well, that event was held in August in Montreal, Canada. RFID Academia developed and installed the solution for music promoter evenko. Anthony Palermo, one of RFID Academia's founders, sent me a video shot during the event. What's innovative about what RFID Academia and evenko did is that they used encryption to ensure the transponders in the wristbands could not be counterfeited. They employed Near Field Communication (NFC) transponders, which enabled workers to check visitors in using an ordinary mobile phone running a special app. And they set up kiosks that allowed the guests to use the wristbands to take photos at the event and post them to Facebook. Cool stuff.
Check out the video here.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog, the Editor's Note archive or RFID Connect.