Introduction

Also referred to as Access Management and Access Control, People Access may be interpreted to mean mechanised crowd control. However, we write in the context of facilities that use Intouch Technology and more particularly the snow sport industry in North America / Australia / New Zealand. It is important to note People Access systems may not remove the need or obligation to assist people into a facility or onto a lift (or the associated cost). People Access is more precisely the verification of the right to use the facility.

Largely, the benefit to a business of systemised People Access is;

a) trapping revenue previously lost to theft of use, and
b) reduction in human resources costs associated with ticket verification.

Other values to be derived from People Access systems include demographic data of many permutations, which may assist a business in driving and targeting its marketing and operations expenditure more effectively. These values are challenging to systematise and associated benefits difficult to quantify. Particularly in context to the snowsport industry this might be translated into products that limit the use of facilities (such as beginner runs) or the more accurate policing of timed ticketing products.

The consideration of People Access technology necessitates that a business quantify the potential loss by theft, and verification-related human resources costs, to justify the intended investment.

Businesses considering the implementation of a People Access system must also consider the risk that the required investment may not necessarily translate to increased revenue. It is also possible that the total cost of ownership of a sophisticated People Access system may be a continuing liability, rather than an asset.

Intouch Technology Group has worked with People Access technologies for almost 15 years and has long maintained there will need to be a further convergence of need and cost to make many of these technologies attractive to more ski area operators (see Appendix 1. 1997 news article from Ski Area Press). The passage of time has justified this assertion.

Since 1997 we have not seen a significant change in the need for systemised People Access solutions (people are not tending to be any more or less honest) and there has not been a significant change in the equipment cost. However, more sophisticated use of e-commerce functionality as well as the fact that People Access software systems have benefited from a decade of development, mean the costs and risks now faced by potential implementors are continuing to decline.

Background

Ten years have passed since we first started to hear about RFID and Smartcard ticketing in the ski industry. Intouch Technology Group was one of the first ticketing companies to enthusiastically embrace these technologies and assess their viability for its clients.

Prior to 1997 Intouch had already worked with several Australasian ski resort operators to pioneer photos on polypropylene day tickets in order to stem transference of tickets and outright fraud by ticket counterfeiting. In the late 1990s, Intouch implemented one of the World's largest ticket scanning systems at Mammoth Mountain, California, using hand held wireless scanners.

1998 Intouch Powerscan

Intouch staff have also spent considerable time throughout this period traveling though Europe to assess and understand People Access gates being used there and the emerging complementary ticketing technology.

The European Experience

Fractional ownership of lifting infrastructure is common within the European ski industry and it is this business structure, and its associated revenue distribution requirements, which has largely influenced the viability of gates at European ski fields.

Of the more than 1,500 resorts located within the EU, it is estimated by providers of automated gate solutions that their product is presently used by approximately 1,200 resorts.

The fractional ownership model sees all owners of property located beneath a resort's lifts receive rights to a proportional amount of the funds collected by a shared ticketing mechanism. It is this need to distribute revenue based on use of facility that has seen gated systems, which provide the required mechanism and audit control, rise to such prominence.

Preferred Media / Data Carriers in the European market:

• RFID tickets
• Plastic Keycards
• Paper KeyTickets
• Paper barcode tickets

In North America

There are approximately 600 ski resorts in North America and within this market manual People Access remains overwhelmingly the preferred People Access methodology. Less than 10 resorts presently use any form of automation. These systems are from European vendors although some North American solutions were developed in the past.

First Trax gates in Northern California Circa 2000

Vendors of gate systems believe the reasons why this situation persists include:

• Cost of automated systems
• Misunderstanding of technology
• Ticketing costs
• Guest acceptance

On the surface, this synopsis suggests a rather bleak outlook for vendors of Access Control gates. However manufacturers are increasingly of the opinion that evolving technology is bringing forth a tipping point, at which investment in automation will become economically viable in the North American and Australasian markets.

Towards the Tipping Point

With a standard-sized US ski area facing an implementation bill in the order of US$600K to $US800K, the cost of moving to the desired level of automated People Access remains substantial. But broadly speaking, there are factors driving increased interest in automated people access and they fall into two categories; those which benefit the resort guest, and those which benefit the resort operator.

Benefits to Guest

The international ski market continues to become more competitive and customer service is increasingly being used by ski area operators as a key selling point.

Vendors of automated People Access systems are looking to cash in on this phenomenon by positioning their product as one which affords 'maximum service with minimum effort'. Resort operators are being told guests will be attracted to ski areas which decide to move on from the traditional 'stop & be scanned' philosophy to one of 'scan & go'.

But it is a resort's embracing of access-related e-commerce solutions, rather than their installations of turnstiles, which may see a transition to integrated People Access most significantly affect the guest experience.

Online purchasing of tickets and other products has the potential to facilitate a one-stop shop for all holiday packaging. More importantly, it allows guests to load all products and access permissions on to the one data carrier (loyalty card, season pass) if desired. Allowing a loyalty card holder to pre-purchase access, as well as other products, will result in significantly less time standing in on-mountain queues and benefit all parties involved.

The European experience suggests this element can be taken a step further. Planai, a large Austrian resort, has developed personal accounts on the resort's web site for loyalty card/season pass holders. Through this interface they can access http://www.skiline.cc/, where they can key in their ticket ID to receive personal skiing statistics such as, lifts used, distance and altitude covered.

Benefits to Operator

The positive impact upon profitability associated with the elimination of ticket fraud is the most-commonly cited justification of people access implementation.

Ticket Fraud

Ticket fraud - which usually takes the form of illegal copying and transference - is acknowledged as an industry-wide problem. Producers of people access solutions suggest European ski area operators without automated People Access experience a rate of fraud of 15 per cent on annual ticket sales. USA ski area operators, they say, are a little better off, with an annual rate of ticket fraud of 10 per cent.

Manual fraud counter measures available involve the increasing of ticket checking staff, or the increased training of these staff, or both. Given the recruitment challenges faced in the snowsports industry and its high staff rotation, such measures can be viewed as expensive and short-term.

Producers of People Access solutions are adamant that implementing an automated ticket verification system can reduce fraud rates "to almost zero", as the technology is accurate, unbiased, and always on duty.

Staffing

It is common within the USA and Australasian ski industries for recruitment of staff to be difficult and for human resources to be one of the most significant expense line items. Furthermore, low rates of pay for seasonal ticket-checking staff result in a high rate of staff and know-how fluctuation.

Producers of automated People Access solutions promote that a 50 per cent (or higher) reduction in ticket-checking staff can be obtained. One example cited in SKIDATA promotional material suggests a Quad lift requiring three-four staff during peak times can be operated by one person once an appropriate turnstile solution has been installed. This, it is argued, will result in considerably better service on the lift entrance as it will release staff from police jobs and give them more time for the guests' needs, of which ticket control, is not one.

Access Control Point developed by Intouch Technology Group and Skyline Skyrides to provide 'staff free' people access. The barrier is continued within a control 'hut' that provides protection from the elements for the equipment and a impassable barrier except for small children who can and do tend to 'scoot' under the turnstile and can enter without decrementing their ticket or without a ticket for a luge ride.

Transaction statistics & consumer behaviour data

Transaction data is of high marketing value as it can and does assist in developing targeted marketing activities such as incentive schemes and loyalty programs. Clearly, it is preferable to speak to resort guests one-on-one with some insight into consumer behaviour, and know your guests prior to financing expensive mass-advertising via television and radio. 

Yet accurate data describing skier behaviour can also improve customer relations as it will allow resorts to match ride data against demographic data. Not only will resorts know more about the groups of people visiting their resort, by tracing their lift usage they will also know much more about where and when each of these groups like to ski.

Such analysis will also identify opportunities for operational efficiency gains across a resort. Automated People Access provides a resort operator with statistics detailing how frequently a lift is utilised/unutilised, which areas of a mountain deserve/require further investment, and which lifts can be turned off during certain periods; allowing operators to save on labour, electricity, and servicing.

Verification of Right to Use - History

Historically, the verification of right to use has been by human visual check.

Coloured Ticket Stock

People with tickets can be verified by a range of visual means. The mechanisms employed have been colour of ticket stock and or message or code of the day. Prior to the use of computerised systems and thermal direct ticket stock, different coloured day tickets were issued with the ticket colour of the day being arbitrarily decided each day. The ticket was stamped with a date stamp and staff would expect to see a sea of blue, green or red tickets predominantly, representing the chosen ticket colour of the day. A closer visual inspection confirmed validity by date. This mechanism did not adequately deal with season passes or multi day tickets and was a precursor to more sophisticated product packaging.

Computerised Systems

Computerised systems brought about start and end dates on tickets, messages of the day, and security mechanisms to minimise transference of tickets.

The only certain way to confirm whether a ticket has been produced by the system and is valid is for each ticket to have a unique identifier and for that to be checked against a list of issued numbers in real time.

Real time ticket checking requires reliable, connected, and on-line systems which can provide instant verification. Until recently, this would have been difficult and costly to achieve in a ski resort environment.

For many years without connected networks, data encryption and compression to provide apparent real time operation, tickets produced by systems could have their validity information encrypted on the ticket device. Computer systems could encode the ticket with dates, serial numbers, and other data mechanisms which could (in all likelihood) confirm the ticket was genuine. The more sophisticated the encryption (like on a magnetic stripe), the surer the interrogation devices could be of the authenticity of the credential. And if non-human interrogation devices like magnetic stripe readers or infra red readers were used, then the higher would be the equipment cost.

The SmartCard Concept

A smartcard can be likened to an electronic purse. Value is stored on the device and this device is able to be read from, and written to, affecting the balance of value on the device.

Public transport ticketing systems tend to work on these principles. The information and value is portable on the device. The disadvantage of this is that if the device is lost it cannot be canceled. The bearer of the device has use of the value unless a password is also associated with the device, which in any case would also be able to be stolen.

Electronic Identifiers

The advent of the internet, broadband connectivity, and miniaturised computing devices such as cell phones and PDAs has produced an interesting anomaly in one respect making SmartCard technology obsolete, as nearly everyone already carries an electronic device that can potentially be used as a form of identification.

A simple unique identifier on a cheaply produced token is all that is necessary with broadband Internet connectivity to provide data interchange (of significant size) within seconds (if not milliseconds) from anywhere on Earth. Centralised data storage and logic systems are secure and ubiquitously available from any point accessible on the Internet

When we speak of the Internet we refer more broadly to Internet Protocol connectivity as opposed to the public Internet and includes LAN, WAN and Wireless technologies. The downside of a system requiring Internet connectivity can be compared to a cell phone; if you have no coverage, you have nothing.

Security

Excellent secure systems should combine both portability of data and real time verification. Ideally, if the real time data can be triangulated then you have an even better system.

All of these things are now possible and affordable using reasonably inexpensive, off the shelf, personal computing devices and wide area (including wireless) connectivity to the public Internet at minimal cost.

Means of Verification - Data Token

The options for data token can be a combination of any of the following:

Barcode

This technology involves a number encoded as a barcode symbology that can be scanned by an interpretive reflective light beam. When utilised a barcode can be printed on a human readable ticket using regular ticket printers.

Magnetic Stripe

This technology involves writing data to a magnetic material on a paper or card strait that is written to and read by a magnetic read/write head (same technology as most ISO credit cards) The token can be either a plastic ISO card or paper tickets. A thermal or die sublimation printer with encoding head can be used to produce an human readable and machine readable ticket.

SmartCard Chip

These devices contain a data chip onto which information can be written. Smartcards can be read by smartcard readers (contact devices) or combined with RFID to provide a proximity device with more information than just a unique identifier. A smartcard reader/encode is required to read and write that data. Equipment to read/write/encode and print human readable information on smartcards is not commonly available.

RFID Chip

This is a device containing a unique identifier that is read by a radio device. Like smartcards RFID cards are not human readable. The devices can be either pre-numbered or can be encoded by the issuing equipment. A combination RFID and human readable ISO card produced with a Die Sublimation printer is commonly used for membership cards and season passes. The fast production of day passes and temporary credentials will require the convergence of RFID chips laminated within thermal tickets, currently an embryonic technology. A number of frequencies are available (with no clear standard for tickets) falling broadly into two types.

Active
These devices are powered to emit a signal (unique identifier) and require light weight technology to receive the signal. Active devices can be read from a large distance.

Passive
These devices are not powered and rely on entering an activated field in order to emit their programmed and encoded unique identifier. Passive devices require close proximity to an antenna in order to work. The further the device is away from an antenna the larger and more sophisticated the antenna needs to be to reliably 'excite' the device.

Token Presentation

The options for token (ticket) presentation can vary from having to make contact with an interrogation device or for the token to be read at some distance. This relates both to hand held barcode scanners and RFID scanners and fixed scanners. The longer the read range the higher the equipment cost. The longer the read range desired the more complex the equipment required to delineate access lanes and provide reliable reading of the token no matter where the token is carried. There has been a long standing preference for contactless systems where the guest does not have to physically present a ticket (because they have their hands full with ski poles). This element of People Access systems involves the highest capital cost component and the largest contributing factor to the total cost of ownership.

Means of Verification - Data Carrier

The data can be on the token or external to the token. If the lookup is external, then the options can be lookup local or lookup remote or combination of the two by programmed logic. For instance the ticket may contain data they says 'this ticket is good for this date'; - the gate needs only to know what date it is to verify access. Or the ticket contains a unique identifier - the data is sent to a central server which turns around an answer to the gate to say OK to the ticket or not.

It is our opinion that fast, ubiquitous, reliable networks and the sealed nature of a ski area renders the use of portable data tokens (data on the token) unnecessary.

Use of a simple token carrying a unique identifier with replicated data to local area networks provides a fast, efficient, and economical data carrier mechanism. Furthermore, when the tokens are further used in the environment as gift cards, stored value cards, electronic purses, room keys, and loyalty cards, the data is safe from theft and unintended transference and can be easily revoked, canceled, and/or replaced at will.

Access Control Barrier

Turnstiles

Traditionally a turnstile has been presented as a barrier to entry. Turnstiles use a solenoid switch to prevent 'free wheeling' unless tripped by a positive validation.

In the ski industry three arm turnstiles encounter problems. While the multiple arms provide a way to progress through the barrier and effect flow control preventing 'piggy backing' of one person on a preceding person's valid entry, a person on skis can get tangled in the multiple arms. In recent times, this has been mitigated by removing arms to provide either a one-arm or two-arm mechanism.

Turnstiles possessing fewer than three arms have problems of their own; the most pressing being that it is not possible for the arm to continue full circle using people power. It is therefore necessary for them to be motorised and motorised turnstiles are, obviously, more complex than non-motorised devices. That said, the costs associated with the addition of electronic sensors for flow control is not insignificant.

Motorised Arms

There are three kinds of mechanical arms from a single stanchion which can be employed:

Other physical barriers are available - such as a scissor action gates commonly used in railway stations - however they are not well-suited to the snow sport industry because of the complexity of the infrastructure required to support them.

Access Control Point developed by Intouch Technology Group and KML for Skyrail comprising 'scissor' style gate and uses magnetic stripe tickets.

Access Control point developed by Intouch Technology group and Team Axess to be installed at SkyLine SkyRides.

Problems with Barriers

People Access in European resorts work best with permanent fixtures housed undercover from the elements. The operators introduce snow upon which to ski/board in these areas. The benefit of being undercover is that operators do not need to consider the variable height of the natural ground (snow depth), which is a significant problem to be dealt with when gates are stationed outdoors.

A European undercover gondola staging area.

Having permanently fixed barriers also means the stanchions of the gates can be used by snowboarders to propel themselves through the gate when access is granted. An undercover setting also creates a virtual safety speed zone, which may not be so easy in an outdoor setting. The challenge in many smaller ski areas in North America and Australasia is the exposed nature of the lift staging areas and maintaining in reliable operation sophisticated equipment that may not be able to a permanent fixture.       Quad char lift at Cardrona Ski Area, New Zealand under consideration for a turnstile People Access system.

Access Control - Reaction

The effect of scanning a ticket can be a combination of:

• Having to progress through a physical barrier
• Sounding of an audible alarm.
• Triggering of a visual alarm.
• An alarm at a monitoring station.

The use of each of these 'control' elements hampers the flow of people through the check point. It begs the question if 85-90% of people have a valid ticket why subject all persons to the inconvenience of a physical barrier, audible response and visual response?

Portals

Portals, such as a metal detector in an airport, are devices a person needs to pass through.

They provide an implied barrier and they are capable of identifying a guest with an infraction/invalid ticket. In a multiple portal configuration this allows the control monitor to identify in which lane the infraction has occurred.

The portal may be designed to be portable and relocatable and has some merits for replacing hand held scanners, particularly in circumstances where one operator - only dealing with infractions - can be used in place of up to six ticket checkers at the base of a large lift. It has the benefit of being hands free and barrier free greatly reducing the complexity of the equipment exposed to the elements.

Basic Principles of RFID 

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a well established high-performance electronic identification technology similar to chip cards(SmartCards), which are already well known in the market. In contrast to chip card systems, the reading (and writing) from and to the device is done wirelessly, using electromagnetic fields, without requiring any contact. 

RFID tags can now be produced in continuous rolls like traditional ski lift tickets.

Data is recorded on an electronic data carrier (Token) which can be read or processed with read/write devices. In the simplest (so-called Read Only) applications, the unique serial number of the data carrier is read and referenced to additional data in an external database or server.

RFID Technology satisfies the growing requirements of supply chain management. Data, text, barcodes and graphics can still be printed on labels in the usual way, but at the same time complementary information is stored on integrated circuits utilizing radio frequency, ready for future reading or editing as required. In fact these printers treat the addition of RFID data as just another barcode. So for the user or programmer, no knowledge of RFID is necessary. Just send the data as part of a label format and the printer does the rest.

HF 13.56 MHz 

The frequency typically used for high frequency (HF) RFID systems is 13.56 MHZ. The HF frequency range is accepted worldwide. A typical HF RFID system uses passive tags and offers fair performance in the presence of metals and liquids. HF systems are widely used in library, mass transit and product authentication applications.

UHF 869.5 

The frequency used for ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID systems varies between 860 and 960 MHz. UHF RFID systems operate at 915 MHz in the United States and 868 MHz in Europe. UHF RFID systems are being widely deployed due to RFID mandates from several large corporations, including international retailers, and the U.S. Department of Defense. In addition to retail, UHF systems are employed in various supply chain management applications.

RFID systems consist of two main components:

The transponder (clip + antenna), an electronic data storage unit, which is attached to the object (or person) to be identified.

A reader (also able to write) which includes an antenna to communicate with the transponder (or tag).

A transponder can be described as an electronic data carrier, which can be read and written to contactlessly and without sight and contact. A transponder has many different characteristics. Transponders vary significantly, not only due to their basic frequency. Memory type, capacity, access mode, security level and protocol all influence the suitability for an application. The transponder stores data in microchip that is attached to small antenna for communication with the reader. When a reader communicates with the tag, it induces power via a magnetic or electromagnetic field, and transmits a data pulse to the transponder, which carries out the instructions issued by the reader.

The RFID system is triggered when the reader antenna sends an electromagnetic wave to the tag. This is the basis of contactless identification. The design of the reader antenna greatly influences the performance of the whole system, so care must be taken to design an antenna that takes full advantage of the technology for the specific application.

The reader manages the contactless communication with transponders. Integrated or external antennas connected to the reader send commands (through electromagnetic waves) to the transponder and process the information returned by the tag. The primary task of the reader is to generate the transmission signal, filter the return signal and prepare the data for processing by a controller attendant to the computer system.

RFID Benefits

Advantage over other auto-ID-systems

+ High level of security (unique ID prevents counterfeiting).

+ Contactless communication. No galvanic contact required between the reader and transponder.

+ No line of sight required between the reader and transponder.

+ Withstands harsh environments. Hardly affected by moisture.

+ Rugged transponder construction. Withstands mechanical stress.

+ Large data storage capacity.

+ Simultaneous identification. Several tags can be read in a single transaction.

+ Orientation insensitive. Can be read from most orientations (frequency dependent).

+ Memory flexibility. Can be programmed, reprogrammed or locked.

+ Data protection feature. Transponder can be programmed to prevent unauthorized reading.

Some RFID - System Limitations

- Cannot read through metal. Proximity metal can influence performance.

- Can be affected by interference from radio systems in proximity with the tag or reader (Like cell phones).

- Dependence on national and international radio regulations. (Lack of standards in some regions.)

- No possibility of reading data from the tag in the event of system failure (may require human readable backup text).

- Counterfeit and transferability issues.

Overall viability

With the cost of media of RF cards declining, and the Internet giving rise to increased capacity to sell products and services, manufacturers of automated People Access solutions universally promote the possibility of full cost recovery within one to two seasons of implementation. Supporting economic analysis of how this may be achieved is however not yet available.

Some return on investment is - hypothetically - easy to quantify. These include labour cost reductions associated with lift attendance and ticketing, and increased sales through additional channels.

Other gains are less tangible, such as fraud reduction, benefits of targeted marketing and CRM, and operational capacity savings. It is also important to note the degree to which automated People Access generates benefit in these areas will vary widely between resorts.

The following table is given as a guide to help calculate possible costs of people access implementation. The Intouch ScanPass system forms part of Intouch Subscription Enterprise Licensing level which adds a 15% premium to the cost of a system that does not include People Access as a guide to software cost.

Conclusions

If a facility is unable to quantify revenue leakage by fraud that unequivocally justifies a significant investment in a People Access system then trailing a system and equipment, which is both cost-effective and able to be re-utilised, should be considered as the first step.

The most capital cost-effective way to implement People Access control is using portable hand-held wireless scanners. The ingredients are:

• People access control staff
• Wireless networking infrastructure at scanning points
• Sufficient hand held scanners
• People Access control software

	Hand held PDA scanner with Intouch PowerScan software.

Once the business systems are in place and your guests are used to having their tickets scanned then to reduce access control staff, self-scanning of tickets and some form of barrier may be considered.

Self scanning barcoded ticket with Intouch ScanPass

The most cost effective token is one with a barcode, followed by the magnetic stripe and then RFID, and finally SmartCard. Barcode scanners are also the most cost effective interrogation device.

Self Scanning Portals

A self scanning portal provides a means of flow control where the ticket is scanned and then the person progresses through a flow detector. If an invalid ticket is scanned and the person attempts to pass the portal a reaction is invoked. People flow will not be adversely effected if there is feedback to the guest when scanning a ticket, allowing persons with invalid tickets to fall out of line prior to passing through the portal, thus avoiding the hassle of the reaction to an infraction. Software provides accepted logic to prevent ticket pass back. The use of portals has not been tried and proven in the ski industry. However, reducing equipment complexity with a portal style of check point will reward the implementors with a longer life span and reduced total cost of ownership.

A stylised flow control portal

Gates

Gates provide a more structured mechanism for access control, physically preventing progress with or without other reaction elements occurring.

For those ski area operators wishing to explore a gated solution, we would advocate integration with known, proven current gate technology, ideally employing purpose built undercover staging areas where equipment can be permanent fixtures. Alternatively, equipment can be fabricated on gantries to provide snow grooming and variable ground zero levels.

2007 Award winning RFID and Barcode gate with either three arm, two arm or single arm turnstile.

There are two proven systems for access control gates developed in Europe available for implementation in the North American and Australasian ski markets. All major ticketing vendors support one or both of these systems, either using their own software logic or the one provided by the gate vendor. But in any case you don't have to replace your already integrated ticketing system.

RFID Ski Lift Access Gate with swing arm includes visual and audible alarm.

RFID Ski Lift Access Gate with two arm turnstile.

But there are Compromises

Appendix 2 cites some recent examples of the compromises that still exist moving from traditional ticketing with comments about recent RFID installations in Utah. There is a $5 surcharge for the RFID ticket and clearly, the guests still want to see the price of skiing come down. There is and always will be a significant price variance between a traditional lift ticket and any other device. Multiply that difference in cost by a resort's skier days and add that to the pre-season start up cost and you have a significant financial challenge to overcome.

But there is another cost to the traditional ticket that may ultimately affect the balance of the equation: Intouch was enthusiastic in its advocacy of replacing the 'sticky wicket ticket' with composite polypropylene tickets for a number of reasons including that the ticket printed twice as fast (only half the ticket feed length) and it eliminated the trash of adhesive ticket liners and wickets that plagued resorts that used them. The problem persists that there is a significant environmental impact in the use and production of traditional, disposable tickets. Perhaps future far sighted political lobbying could help resolve the problem?

Alta has gone skiing only, banning boarders. Boarders don't 'have their hands full' so hands free ticketing is not a huge advantage to them, while having to propel themselves past and through a gate does pose a problem that the design of gate (A) pictured above attempts to address.

Alta has lost some friends by banning boarders and presented a paradox in evidently promoting 'old fashioned' skiing while introducing 'new fangled' technology. Perhaps a big fence around the resort and Disneyland style entry gates might be a better future metaphor for ski areas. (Then you could employ the '17 year old stoners' to stalk the perimeter to identify intruders putting their computer games skills to effective use.)

All levity aside, it is difficult to assess the issues confronting a facility considering People Access without the ability to understand all the elements that come into play and that much of the information available is not impartial and that there may be other ways to solve the problem that does not involve the current technology as it is being sold. Notwithstanding the author's own acknowledge partiality, we trust this article is of assistance.

Further Discussion

This article will be expanded upon to keep it relevant to advancements as they happen and or as opinions and perspectives change.

Currently Intouch Technology Group prefers to use its own software logic, a combination barcode/RFID token and external lookup to automatic fail over, replicated databases via TCP/IP using ASTA data compression and encryption. The solution is robust and proven in both hand held scanning and gated situations. We have worked with a number of established industry standard gate vendors and believe that a composite solution galvanising the best of the Intouch Ultima system for ski areas and European gate technology is the best platform for an automated People Access solution in North America, Australia and New Zealand. For Intouch subscribers, it is our opinion that Team Axess gates with Intouch as the prime vendor and integrator would be the preferred structure upon which to base a project.

If you wish to discuss People Access options for your facility with the author you may do so by telephone or email. Some interesting reading on RFID can also be found in Wikipedia.

Klaas Sybranda
Director
Intouch Technology Group
USA 805 682 9999
AUS 08 9322 9099

klaas@intouch-usa.com