Overview
Oztix is Australia’s largest independent ticketing company, owned and operated by Ticket Solutions Pty Ltd. From modest beginnings in Brisbane in 2003, founders Brian Chladil (Director), Stuart Field (Director) and Alex Bamber (Founder) realized the need for a full-service, yet flexible ticketing company with a focus on assisting event and venue operators to build their brands, not the ticketing company’s. Keeping this in mind, they created Oztix, which now provides comprehensive ticketing solutions for some of the biggest venues and events in Australia . These include the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), the Fremantle Arts Centre and the University of Sydney, as well as national music festivals, such as the Big Day Out, Soundwave Festival and Falls Music & Arts Festival. Continued investment in staff and systems development allows Oztix to offer its clients complete solutions, from ticket sales to patron entry, that can be used for small events or Australia’s largest music festivals.
The Challenge
In recent years, a significant challenge for the industry has been access control and ticketing fraud. As trends in consumer purchasing behaviour lean more and more towards e-tickets, which are essentially PDFs, the problem of replication has grown. Oztix started looking for a solution that could ensure accurate, reliable data capture and verification, allowing only legitimate patrons entry to events, thereby avoiding the negative impact of ticketing fraud. It was essential for the solution to facilitate the capture of statistics, such as entry numbers. Knowing how many patrons are at the event at any given time is essential for safety, in the case of an emergency. This also helps understand demand management for each event.
The Solution
Oztix developed two systems for Patron Access Control and Reporting - Single-Point Barcode Entry System (SPBES) and Multi-Point Barcode Entry System (MPBES). Oztix uses the Memor™ mobile computer and the Lynx™ PDA from Datalogic for the MPBES solution, while the majority of venues using the SPBES solution operate with the Lynx PDA.
The Memor and Lynx devices were chosen for their compact size, performance, battery life and robustness. They are ideally suited to be an integral component of the SPBES & MPBES solutions, especially the newer Lynx models due to their 3G/4G capability, Wireless-N capability (802.11b/g/n) and extended battery life.
The Lynx PDA’s ability to connect to the internet via 3G/4G (HSPA+) cellular modem and/or WiFi works seamlessly with Oztix’s SPBES to download the bar code details of all tickets for a given event. Once the data has been downloaded, the PDA uses it to validate tickets upon entry to an event. This makes scanning quick and easy, as all validation happens locally within the scanner’s memory and local storage.
The Lynx PDA’s versatility is also highlighted in its ability to work with Oztix’s MPBES where Datalogic mobile computers operate as the front-line component of a broader onsite scanning solution. The MPBES solution is specifically designed for simultaneous use of several mobile computers, such as at events with more than 1,000 patrons, and is capable of handling events with well over 100,000 patrons. Thus, the need for a capable and reliable device, such as the Lynx PDA, which verifies tickets and captures information at top speed.
The Lynx PDA proved to be the perfect solution for Oztix, with its ability to work with both types of entry systems at small and large events without compromising performance. Even at Australia’s largest music festival, the Lynx PDA proved to be a success, with over 80 terminals used for access control. The system ensured smooth, rapid patron entry into the event.
Results
Today, patrons demand electronic ticket options that can be delivered to their email addresses and/or smartphone devices. Datalogic mobile computers with their robust, industrial design, built-in 2D bar code scanner and extended battery life, provide the ideal solution to event ticketing with high speed scanning of printed or electronic tickets presented on mobile device screens. The Memor mobile computers and Lynx PDAs running the Oztix SPBES or MPBES solutions provide an effective, efficient and reliable solution.
Customer: Oztix
Industry: Entertainment Industry/Events
Application: Access Control
Country: Australia and New Zealand
Datalogic Products: Lynx PDA, Memor mobile computer
