Axess is a trendsetter when it comes to new technologies in the field of people access systems and enhanced guest experiences. All over the world you can find the systems in various business fields. The Los Angeles Football Club was first in the U.S. to receive European gates for the Banc of California Stadium.
Being an international provider of innovative ticketing and access solutions specialized on integrated software solutions combined with e-commerce to serve all sorts of guest-related services, the company covers the stadium field in the U.S. with an own subsidiary: Axess Americas Events Inc. based in Williamsburg, VA, and run by Ren Steyn, passionate Managing Director and longtime specialist when it comes to stadiums.
The stadium market was always in focus and is recently the highest growing one. Axess puts a lot of soft- and hardware development into this field and was able to come out with new products that are growing in popularity every quarter.
The Los Angeles Football Club, which was founded in 2014, played its first game in Major League Soccer in March 2018. LAFC plays home games at Banc of California Stadium, which also hosts major concerts and events. The 22,000-capacity soccer-specific stadium wanted to be state-of-art-equipped, and so Christian Lau, CTO of LAFC, turned to Axess to provide its cutting-edge access control solutions with a variety of gates around the venue.
Banc of California Stadium has become the first in the United States to install the latest Axess NFC-operating gates. The project consisting of 36 entry systems was installed during the summer of 2020 and went live in April 2021 with reduced fans due to COVID-19 restrictions. By June, the stadium returned to full capacity.
The access solution contains AX500 Smart Gates NG Turnstile serving the front gates. They are Wi-Fi enabled and equipped with portable lithium battery-powered units. This not only makes the gates mobile and independent from cables and wiring, but it also makes the installation at the venue simple. If one gate is needed somewhere else, the club can just move them around easily with the integrated wheels on the bottom of the pallet.
NFC technology allows mobile ticketing using smartphones, no matter what operating system they are running on. Further, AX500 Smart Gates NG Flap Glass and 8 Pedestals Axess SMART POST 600 for the club and premium suites serve the areas of special guests and VIPs. These can also be adapted to any further needs, as the intelligent gates communicate with each other to prevent a ticket from being used for more than one person.
Besides the technology inside, the design itself sets these units apart, adapted to the colors of the football club. The elegant black of the modern gates creates a unique look, which perfectly complements the appearance of the football club.
Josef Fischer, Head of Product Development at Axess, never shied away from new tasks. “The joint project with the Los Angeles Football Club presented us with new challenges because it was the first time that we had to integrate NFC technology into our devices for convenient mobile ticketing, regardless of whether the mobile phones were Apple or Android based. My team was nevertheless able to implement it successfully in a short time, and we are already looking forward to many more projects in sunny California.”
Christian Lau is happy too, because being first and best is always his aim, this time once more. “With the NFC technology and mobile gates, we are ready for a new era of soccer games in our stadium. Always setting trends is my striving.”
This venue solution was published in partnership with Axess AG.
About Axess AG
Axess AG is an international provider of innovative ticketing and access solutions focused on e-commerce and enhanced customer experience. Business fields are focused on ski resorts and destinations, fairs and convention centers, stadia and arenas, leisure and attractions, and touristic transport. Headquarters are in Anif/Salzburg (Austria), where the head departments of sales, marketing, finance, and hard- and software development are located. At the Axess factory in Innsbruck (Tyrol), all innovative hardware products as well as the Axess Smart Cards for the various business fields are produced. More than 340 employees are working every day for customers in over 53 countries. Axess AG was founded 1998 and is operating with 20 worldwide subsidiaries.