"As 100,000 tennis fans entered the Shanghai Qi Zhong stadium last month to attend the Tennis Masters Cup 2005, they waved RFID-based tickets past RFID interrogators (readers) stationed at all 16 gates of the stadium. The interrogators read each ticket's section and seat number, the date of the game and a unique ID associated with this data. If the data matched similar information in a database, the automated gate admitted the ticket-holder. The RFID ticket format was used to fight ticket counterfeiting."

The above quote is from an article in RFID Journal illustrating a successful use of RFID in tickets for a sporting event. Texas Instruments, one of the largest manufacturers for RFID in ticketing and access control applications, supplied the 13.56 MHz Tag-it HF-I RFID inlays embedded in the tickets.

Judging from the emails that I get, there seems to be growing interest in RFID-enabled access control cards, badges and ticketing applications. (I admit, this is not a scientific market survey by any means -- rather, consider it "grassroots research.")

Tickets for sporting events make the headlines, of course, because of the consumer appeal.

But, actually, using RFID to control access to different parts of buildings, campuses, large construction sites, sprawling technical facilities with varying security levels, hospitals, museums, or even within large business conferences and trade shows, seems to be generating the interest. The motivation to explore RFID in these settings is not to prevent counterfeiting. Rather, it is about who can go where, or possibly even about being able to track after the fact which employees went where, for security purposes or sometimes even efficiency reasons.

I'd like to see some case studies about using RFID in access cards, badges or tickets. I'd also like to hear from companies which offer RFID access control or ticketing solutions -- either consultants, integrators or manufacturers. Leave a link below if you have something to offer along these lines.