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Alien Technology® and Innovative Timing Systems Achieve Unparalleled Tracking Success with RFID System at World’s Largest 5K Race
Jaguar Race Timing System provides real-time results and successfully accounts for thousands of race participants at the world’s largest 5K event.
“”]29 June 2010, MORGAN HILL California – Alien Technology, an industry leader in UHF Gen 2 radio frequency identification (RFID) products and services, and St. Louis based integrator partner, Innovative Timing Systems (ITS), today announced an unparalleled read success rate with the UHF RFID based Jaguar Race Timing System, where nearly 100% of all accounted participants crossing the finish line were read and timed at the world’s largest 5K event. The ability to read a mass sea of tagged participants in such a densely crowded environment is an incredible achievement for UHF RFID.
“”]“”]This year’s 71,000 plus participants at the Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure® were offered the opportunity to be timed with UHF RFID technology. Innovative Timing Systems stepped up to the challenge with its Jaguar Race Timing System, enabled by Alien Technology RFID ICs, readers and antennas.
“”]“”]Said Kurt Hansen, Innovative Timing Systems President, “It was quite surreal to see people crammed tightly together, shoulder to shoulder… it looked like a scene from a movie where 71,000 people were trying to evacuate a city at the same time. With such a large mass of people, safety was paramount, so the system was designed for extremely high read reliability without any potential trip hazards – antennas were mounted overhead, unlike legacy “ramps or mats” which are traditionally placed on the ground. Not all of the participants choose to be RFID timed, but those that did were happy to know that their results would be displayed in real-time, with no delay.”
“”]“”]Added Victor Vega, Marketing Director at Alien Technology, “The fruits of countless hours of characterization and true system engineering effort were clearly evident when ITS achieved such impressive results in one of the most challenging UHF RFID applications. Innovative Timing Systems is relentless in achieving perfection and their devotion shows in the results. It’s hard to imagine how such a high success rate could be accomplished with such a dense pack of people flowing continuously through the read zone… truly impressive! I can certainly see how this accomplishment can be useful beyond traditional marathons or 5K running events, for example, easily extending the system to monitor participant interest at conventions, at theme parks, or for crowd control at large entertainment or sporting events.”
“”]“”]About Innovative Timing Systems
Innovative Timing Systems is a privately owned company, providing leading-edge sports timing systems, race timing event services, and general purpose RFID solutions. Innovative Timing Systems products are planned to be used at as many as 2,000 events in 2010. Innovative Timing Systems is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and offers solutions world-wide. For more information, please visit: www.innovativetimingsystems.com.
About Alien Technology
Alien Technology is a leading provider of UHF RFID products and services, including RFID ICs, inlays, readers, services and education. Alien is headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, with Alien Technology Asia in South Korea and the RFID Solutions Center located in the Dayton, Ohio region. Alien also maintains sales offices in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Learn more about Alien’s award-winning Higgs™-3 RFID IC, our performance-leading Squiggle® inlay product line, our high performance readers, and the renowned RFID Academy at: www.alientechnology.com.
“”]“”]Alien, Alien Technology, the Alien logo, Higgs, and Squiggle are trademarks or registered trademarks of Alien Technology Corporation in the United States and other countries.