Nordic Ski Championships Choose HID Global for Access Control

HID Global smart cards and readers provided the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) with a physical access control solution that secured the slopes and helped avoid queues at the 2011 event in Norway – an event that attracted hundreds of thousands.

Nearly 600 competitors from 50 countries took part in the championships, which were attended by more than 270,000 ticket-paying spectators and more than 300,000 sports enthusiasts outside of the arena.

With such a large number of people involved, designing and implementing a security system presented a major challenge. In developing a physical access control system for the event, one of the primary concerns was avoiding long queues. In addition, the championships required the integration of an accreditation system into the overall security strategy. Finally, because of the size of the arena, the entire system had to be mobile and have the capability to be regularly updated through a wireless local area network.

After a lengthy bidding process, the FIS chose the Norway-based systems integrator Infratek Sikkerhet AS to provide a complete, custom-designed security system. Infratek then worked with HID Global, an ASSA ABLOY Group brand, to design a completely new and highly sophisticated access security system.

Through the HID Connect Partner Program,HID Global introduced Infratek to Smart Media Innovations (SMI) Ltd, the company responsible for the software component of the solution. SMI markets both hardware and software that adds a mobile dimension to an access control system, and its products are compatible with either iCLASS 13.56 MHz or proximity-based 125 kHz systems to enable a range of mobile functions.

“The integration and accreditation has been a great success for us because it has made the entire process easier,” said Trygve Lauritzen, chief of security for the Nordic World Ski Championships. “With the chip on the card, we have much more control of the whole process.”

The 1,000 A6-format identification cards that contained the HID iCLASS chip carrying various levels of accreditation provided access to the different areas of the large ski park as well as to the transport system during the event.