1. What prompted the need for a digital access solution at Chester Racecourse?
Mansur Akhtar: Chester Racecourse occupies 260,000 sqm of land and is divided into 7 enclosures with a total of 11 gates. An average of 25,000 people enter the racecourse on a race day. The problem: Due to the racecourse’s proximity to the city center, a vast majority of visitors arrive just minutes before the start of the race. This means that we face a huge influx of people at all of our gates and turnstiles at around the same time. We required a digital gate entry system that was both efficient and allowed fast entry.
Kevin Dixon: Customer behavior has changed. Compared to five years ago, digital solutions for access control and customer engagement have now become a must-have rather than a nice-to-have – especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has become critical to monitor who has entered the venue, and where they have been. Nowadays, it’s not a matter of convincing people to implement a solution, but rather fitting the solution according to their needs. What can the system do? Is beacon tracking possible? How can we track assets and staff? Can we have digital tickets? Can we put the ticket into an app? Can we put the ticket in the Google or Apple Wallet? These are the hot topics in this industry for the next two years.
2. How was the solution developed and tested?
Akhtar: We started trials in Chester, in England before expanding deployment to our racecourse in northern Wales. The deployment started from one to two gates, and then expanded to two enclosures. With the feedback from the entry operatives, we were able to compare devices and slowly develop and set up the solution for live gate testing.
The goal was to increase both the speed and efficiency of entry into the racecourse at all gates. Reducing the maximum number of tickets on a mobile phone app to four meant that a group of eight people could enter the premises with just two mobile phones with four tickets, as opposed to having to scan eight individual tickets. This resulted in a 60% reduction in time for ticket scanning.
The app was initially tested with our members of staff who were given receivers and an RFID card on lanyards. This way, the location of each staff member was transparent at any given time. Knowing which appropriate staff is closest to a respective issue, reduces the time needed to find the staff member, and the waiting time to fix the issue.
Dixon: We were able to integrate the solution into the previous ticketing system of Chester Racecourse. The propriety app provided was re-branded and put in the Google Store for Chester Racecourse.
3. What are the specific advantages of the solution?
Akhtar: There are four key advantages to this solution. The first is the offline capabilities of the handheld readers. Given that there are gates situated all around the racecourse, we are not able to provide Wi-Fi at certain areas. Having an offline copy of the database on the reader allows us to scan and verify tickets even without WiFi connectivity.
The second involves customer and staff comfort. Now that the ticket is obtained via the smartphone app, customers no longer have to worry about losing or forgetting their tickets. For staff, the solution is straightforward and easy to understand. Training sessions to use the hardware can be done in just under 20 minutes prior to the start of the event. Previously, a training session was required two days prior to the event.
The third is the data benefits of the solution. Having complete visibility of the customer base, gate entry locations, flow rate, crowd numbers, breakdown of customer behavior, ticket or enclosure type, which gates customers prefer to enter and at what time is a huge advantage. These insights are key to planning for future years. With more customer data, which is collected via the app, we are now also able to send surveys at the end of race days to all visitors. This also enables better customer engagement.
Dixon: The fourth involves the flexibility of the solution. With the handhelds, you can assign more stewards to gates that are busier. If gate three has longer queues compared to gate four, you can deploy two to three handhelds from gate four to gate three within minutes.
4. Why was HID Global chosen as a partner for this project?
Akhtar: We required a mobile solution that was front and center, rather than an afterthought. Although we did look at a number of solutions, HID Global impressed the most with their solution of handheld devices and backend dashboards. It was particularly appealing that we could see exactly who is entering, when and where they are entering from.
Dixon: One of the strengths at HID Global is the close cooperation we have with our customers. For each project, we sit down with our customers, work with them, see what they need, not only now, but for the next few years and develop a customized roadmap for them. It’s possible to start small. For Chester Racecourse, we started with a small number of handhelds, scanning tickets into the venue and then building on the modules. We then increased the number of handhelds, bound the ticket to the app and then talked about accreditation.
5. What are the plans for the future?
Akhtar: The next steps for us are to expand deployment in our racecourse in Scotland, to improve the safety and welfare of our staff, and to implement a monitoring system for our staff. We have around 1200 members of staff working on any given race day in 4-5 divisions. To ensure that staff are only allowed access to equipment that is necessary for their role for safety and security purposes, information on the staff member should be scanned at the point of entry, followed by an inspection of belongings and verification of credentials and location of work. We need to know who is on-site and why they are there. The rollout for this will take place with our 3rd party agencies.
We also plan to look into the tracking of high-value physical assets. Technical equipment like laptops, projectors, but also racecourse equipment like tractors, buggies and other mechanical objects should also be tracked on-site.
