Though access control has become a headache worldwide and is causing organisers huge losses, after the success at the Durban A1 Grand Prix, it's well under control in South Africa.
"South Africa clearly has the access control technology and management skills to present any large event. And that's good news for 2010," says Marius van Niekerk, director, DexSecurity Solutions, which provided the Durban A1's access control systems.
Although tens of thousands of spectators attended the A1 Grand Prix in Durban, there wasn't a single case of anyone gaining access with an unauthorised ticket.
Whereas the A1 GP experienced considerable logistic problems last year with unauthorised access, this was entirely eliminated this year.
Access at this year's A1 GP was controlled by a number of SA designed "intelligent" turnstiles equipped with two-dimensional bar code readers. This South African system is highly rated internationally and is already being used successfully at certain football stadiums in South America and Europe.
It is no longer necessary for tickets to be inspected visually by security personnel at the gates. Everything is done by means of a two-dimensional bar code on the ticket, which contains encoded information. This is read by the scanners at the gate, and it's then verified as a valid ticket that hasn't been used yet, or placed on a "red list".
The gates are centrally controlled by means of a wireless network. The system registers the use of each unique ticket on a central database and verifies it before the turnstile opens and allows access. All this takes place in a fraction of a second.
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