DIY ticketing for Melbourne Motor Show

Stephen Withers
Friday, 29 February 2008 10:17

Business IT - Technology

The Symbol devices deliver around six hours use on a single charge, as the nature of the application means it is not appropriate to drop into sleep mode during periods of inactivity.

The display confirms the validity of the ticket, and presents the operator with information about the ticket category (eg, family vs individual tickets).

Messages - notably those relating to venue security - can be transmitted to door staff without the need to use the PA system or to equip them all with radios.

If visitors claim to have lost their tickets, they can be reprinted at the venue after the system checks they has not already been presented and the customers' details have been compared with the information recorded at the time of sale.

The use of a wireless network to connect to handhelds with the server is ideal for temporary installations in open spaces. The Motorola hardware selected can be quickly installed, partly due to the use of Power over Ethernet which means there is only one cable per access point.

This is especially useful for VACC, which also holds events at venues such as showgrounds and racecourses.

Damian Stock, consulting systems engineer at Motorola subsidiary Symbol's enterprise mobility business, says the company is about to release access points that operate in a wireless mesh configuration, removing the need for data cabling.

A first for the Melbourne Motor Show will be the use of self-service kiosks to purchase tickets at the venue. Each transaction takes around 10 seconds, and the door scanners are updated with details of the latest tickets about a second later.

The VACC is "in negotiations" with other unnamed organisations to provide ticketing services for their events. The system is all electronic, said Wright, which provides a cost advantage. "Our overheads are lower, and we can pass that on."