As arenas, stadiums and event venues finally reopen their doors to fans, customer safety is still a priority concern.
Until vaccination rollout is successfully completed, the pandemic remains a grave concern. That said, operated correctly, things like sporting events and concerts can be the first step in a return to normalcy. To ensure that fan safety takes absolute precedence, venue owners and management teams should, without a doubt, be deploying facial recognition technology.
Above all else, stadiums and event sites are looking to promote themselves as safe and secure environments that customers can visit without issue and feel encouraged to return to.
Facial recognition makes this possible in a variety of ways - first of all, by making every aspect of the experience contactless. From event entry to in-venue purchases, facial recognition technology allows all interactions and transactions to transpire without any communal surface-touching required.
In the event that someone who had attended the event does receive a positive COVID test, the technology would be able to track their path through the event and determine who to alert for contact-tracing purposes. Doing so would save time, ensure accountability and preserve liability for the venue, as well as eliminate unnecessary worry for event-goers who were not in any contact with the infected individual.
Facial recognition can also be an effective tool for promoting social distancing. Cameras today can be programmed to detect too many faces within close proximity of each other, enabling event security teams to easily monitor the crowd and direct management personnel to intervene if need be. The technology also has the ability to identify and check for improper mask wearing. Considering masks will still be part of society for the foreseeable future, this feature is essential to maintaining satisfactory event safety.
On top of providing first-rate security, facial recognition technology opens the door to a consumer environment designed around convenience and ease of access. With these cameras in use, long and frustrating lines will become a thing of the past. Stadium and arena owners want event-goers inside the venue as quickly as possible, both for safety reasons and because that’s where they’ll spend money on concessions and memorabilia. Not to mention, with facial recognition granting access and facilitating transactions by pre-loading biometrics and card information, there’s no longer a need to bring a wallet to any sporting event or concert —
your face can act as both your ticket and your credit card. Privacy, always an utmost concern, is carefully protected — with this technology, customers and venues make a mutual pledge where safety and security are fully assured in exchange for personal biometric information which is deleted permanently at the close of the event.
Facial recognition technology, in a few years’ time, will likely be universally implemented among stadiums and event venues. Long after the pandemic is finally behind us, the many security and financial benefits owners, management companies and fans alike receive from having the technology in place will remain too invaluable to ignore.
