U.S. ski resorts use RFID to manage assets and smart payments
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By the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, USA, there is a Snö Mountain playground (formerly known as Montage Mountain) that includes an alpine ski resort and a water park. Snö Mountain has now applied RFID technology to identify staff, identify tourists and identify rentable ski equipment and equipment. In addition, visitors can also use plastic RFID smart wristbands to purchase goods, services and ride the ski cable car.
Ski resorts use RFID system to improve management efficiency
Read sled and skier ID
In the autumn of 2006, the ownership of Montage Mountain Amusement Park was changed, and it was renamed Snö Mountain in January this year. At present, the playground has deployed PDC’s RFID smart wristband management system to manage ski cable cars and cashless payment POS machines. By this summer, visitors to the Snö Cove water park will be able to use this RFID system to enter and exit the park and pay for food and other services. Visitors to the amusement park can choose to buy a season pass card (an ID card with a photo of the skier) or a day pass (RFID wristband or ankle strap). Both season pass and day pass cards use RFID technology with built-in high frequency RFID chip (manufactured by Texas Instruments), operating frequency is 13.56 MHz, and the implementation standard is ISO 15693. If skiers buy day passes, they will have to pay for ski lifts, ski equipment rental, and other expenses. It is also possible to pre-deposit a certain fee on the RFID wristband to pay for food and other items; relevant consumption information will be written into the tag of the RFID wristband. In other words, with RFID smart wristbands, skiers no longer need to carry their wallets all the time.
There are 35 smart POS machines in the Snö Mountain amusement park for tourists to purchase souvenirs, food, drinks and related services using season pass cards or wristbands. The relevant hardware and software facilities of the POS machine are developed and designed by Micros Systems. The operators of the six ski cable cars in the amusement park use handheld RFID reading devices (produced by Northern Apex, readable and not writable), and Motorola (Symbol ) Associated with read-write equipment, Databrokers company provides operating software.
RFID smart wristband
According to Jim Held, the technical director of Snö Mountain, every ski lift has an RFID reading device, which can read the ID codes (season pass cards, wristbands) of skiers within 3 inches (0.25 feet). Etc.), the system can confirm whether the skier has paid for the cable car at that time. If the service time purchased by a skier is full and he wants to continue playing, he will be sent back to the ticket office for renewal.
The amusement park also uses RFID systems in other areas, including equipment such as RFID skis in rental shops. Each sled has an ID mark, and the system will match the sled ID with the ID of the skier’s wristband that rents the equipment to effectively do daily maintenance and management, and to ensure that the equipment is returned in time.
Under the RFID management system, each staff member and visitor has his own unique ID, and Snö Mountain can better track its whereabouts. To give a simple example, the operator of the ski lift will scan his RFID badge when he starts to operate the cable car and the system will record the corresponding time information. Snö Mountain uses six different types of read-write devices in the playground, with a total of 50 units. Among them, there are two types of reading and writing equipment, fixed and hand-held on the cable car. It is understood that Snö Mountain is the first ski resort to use RFID technology in all equipment. Held said that at the beginning, tourists did not understand RFID wristbands and lacked enthusiasm; later, slowly, everyone thought that wearing RFID wristbands was a “very cool” thing.
The biggest advantage of adopting RFID management system is better management and control of staff, more timely understanding of when tourists use the cable car, and more effective hotel and store fund management. Snö Mountain expects to improve the quality of service through the RFID system to attract visitors. Snö Mountain hopes that the number of visitors to the ski resort in winter will exceed 170,000, and the number of visitors to the water park in summer will exceed 500,000.
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