With
the development of wireless communication technology, the Radio-frequency
identification(RFID) is used in more and more industries, such as products
tracking in the warehouses, animal identification, etc. And in the recent
years, more and more events like Tomorrowland music festival, Taste of Toronro festival, Ryder Cup, etc. began to use this technology in order to bring more convenience
to their customers and data collection to themselves.
However,
many a people may confuse that what RFID is, here is the answer: it is a
technology that relate to a tiny electronic device with a small chip and an antenna. Its application is similar to the bar code and
magnetic strip of credit card, which is for the purpose of identifying for
items or people. But compare to the barcode, it can avoid the label is ripped
or soiled, and it can scan the unique items instead of the standard manufacturers
and products.
Being
one of the most popular trend of events, RFID was implemented by an increasing
number of event holders, the Tomorrowland music festival, one of the biggest
electronic music festival in the world, is a typical one. This event replaces the
tickets with RFID wristbands, which not only reduce attendees’ entrance time
(10 times faster than barcode scanner) but also could linked to their Facebook
accounts. When the festivalgoers press the buttons on the wristbands at the
same time within a certain distance, their wristbands will save their Facebook
name and send an email to each other, which could provide more interaction
among the attendees.
Besides
the interactive value to the attendees, this wristband also brings more accessibility
of data collection to the event holders. In general, people always are not
willing to type their information manually, however, as the wristband are
associated to participants’ Facebook accounts, event holders can engage to
their personal information without intrusion. In addition, this wristband
also could track the foot traffic flow during the festival, which could help
the organizers to improve the on-site layouts like toilets, concession stands,
and any other facilities. Organizers also could use this information to gain
the insight of popularity of bands or show sessions.
While
RFID has amazing benefit to improve the event, it also brings certain risks.
Firstly, RFID system is expensive, although it
will save money on staff. During the Tomorrowland music festival, delegates
will using RFID wristbands, cards or devices to entrance via handheld readers, all
of the equipment can be costly. When
pricing an RFID system, they not only need to
consider costs over the system, but also maintenance
cost. Moreover, Tomorrowland need to care about the information security problems. Because of the
RFID tag is related to people’s privacy. Identity thieves may use the
information they find to drain your bank account or ruin delegates credit
rating. How to ensure the information security of clients will be an importance
issue for Tomorrowland. In addition, one of the biggest risks of implementing RFID for Tomorrowland music
festival is that the technology could fail. Internet problems or power goes
down for instance. It will bring huge crises
for the event.
To
conclude, with the development of event technology, more and
more events are trying to use RFID system to improve the visit experience for
their delegates. From this article, it is mainly concerned about the Tomorrowland music festival. Although RFID may costly, information
security threat and technology risk, it may benefit for people to reduce
attendees’ entrance time, provide more interaction among the attendees and more
convenient for event holders to collect the information.
Written by Pulin CHEN and Huishan LI
References:
- http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/technology-article.asp
- http://www.bizbash.com/tomorrowland-tomorrowland-music-festival-took-place-belgium-weekends-july-r/gallery/149107
- http://www.tomorrowland.com/en/opening-hours
- http://www.eventbrite.com/blog/academy/the-top-10-benefits-of-using-rfid-for-events/
- http://atlasrfid.com/jovix-education/auto-id-basics/rfid-vs-barcode/
- https://www.intellitix.com/services/accesscontrol/
- http://www.inria.fr/en/centre/lille/news/is-rfid-dangerous
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