Chelsea Village, home of Chelsea FC, has undergone a six-year redevelopment program involving the rebuilding of much of the stadium and providing new facilities, including two luxury hotels, restaurants, a Megastore and nightclub.
As part of the overall security improvements, an automatic ticketing system was created for season ticket holders in the family and corporate sections of the South Stand. Designed by AC Controls, one of Europe’s leading integrated security system specialists, the automatic ticketing system is used to speed up the process of allowing ticket holders to enter the stadium, whilst maintaining a high level of security.
Season Ticket holders are issued with proximity cards that are individually programmed with each members access allowance. The turnstiles in the South Stand have been installed with proximity card readers so that each time a season ticket holder arrives for a match they can automatically gain entry to the South Stand simply by showing their card to the reader on the turnstile.
Automatic ticketing provides many advantages compared to the usual paper ticket system.
Chelsea’s Stadium Ticketing database of season ticket holders, stores information such as contact details of each member, membership details and match allowance. That information is downloaded to the controllers on each turnstile.
A member’s card can only be used once at each game preventing people abusing the system by passing cards back to ‘ticketless’ friends. If members do try to pass back cards, the system will trigger an alarm. The same applies if someone tries to enter without a card.
The alarm notifies officers in the control room who can observe the turnstile through the CCTV system. They can then provide assistance as required.
The practical benefits such as a reduction in staff to man the turnstiles have shown the automatic ticketing system to be a valuable investment.
It is quicker for supporters to enter the terraces on match days. Typically supporters do not enter the terraces until just before kick-off and this can cause overcrowding, which then causes numerous crowd safety and security issues. Now members can quickly enter the terraces using their proximity cards, leading to a quicker flow of traffic.
For security purposes, staff can instantly produce a report of where season ticket holders in the stand are, so should an incident occur each individual can be accounted for instantly.
Security will not be breached if a card is lost or stolen, as it can be cancelled immediately, and the turnstile will refuse access to the stand to anyone attempting to present the same card.
AC Controls have been responsible for the design and installation of the complete Security System development during the six-year project at Chelsea. The automatic ticketing system is just one phase of the fully integrated security system at Chelsea Village, incorporating CCTV, Access Control and Alarm systems in and around the Stadium, Hotels, Shops, Leisure Facilities and Underground Car Park.
Source
SMT
Postscript
Douglas Maclaine is the Sales Director for AC Controls.
