Wi-Fi-Based Active RFID Technology Increasing Event Safety At California Venue

With a capacity of more than 62,000, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum hosts more than 100 events a year -- everything from professional baseball and football to the latest music concerts and family shows.

With so many events at the venue, coliseum officials recently installed a Wi-Fi-based active RFID system from AeroScout and VenueSoft to help staff quickly deploy personnel, such as security, police, medical or facilities staff, if issues arise during events.

With the venue being so large, a different response service may be served by each different company or department. If something occurred during an event that required immediate attention, coliseum officials wanted to make sure that the right response team is called to the right area, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

That’s where the RFID solution comes into play. More than 150 ushers positioned throughout the facility have VenueSoft’s VenueAlert handheld devices equipped with AeroScout T2 active RFID tags.

Thanks to the active RFID system, tags integrated into the handheld devices are used to determine where each usher is located. The location information is sent to a third-party facilities management system integrated with AeroScout’s MobileView software.

Located on the device are eight one-touch buttons that perform a certain function, such as “notify police,” “notify medical” and “notify cleanup crew.”

If a medical emergency occurs, the usher presses the button to call the response team that serves in the specific area of the coliseum.

“AeroScout is the ideal partner for the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum implementation because its technology is reliable and works with standard Wi-Fi networks, and because its MobileView software easily integrates with a wide range of third-party applications,” said Randy Wingate, COO of VenueSoft. “The joint VenueSoft and AeroScout solution has already been tested and used during three events. Based on the success of the project so far, facilities management at the complex is now planning to extend the solution to the ORACLE Arena as well.”

About the Author

Brent Dirks is senior editor for Security Today and Campus Security Today magazines.

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