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NSCAN Contactless Entry Update from the Tessitura Product Team

Chris Szalaj
$organization

Hi Everyone, 

As many of you are discussing what reopening will look like, I want to give you an update on our progress with contactless entry using NSCAN

Timeline:

A few weeks back I posted on the forums that we were looking to have a beta version of contactless scanning using our NSCAN product and existing devices owned by our members ready to test in early July. We have moved that timeline forward and now expect to have something that we can test with members in June. I'll detail more in this post about what we're thinking for th user interface, compatible devices, and what the pedestals look like. 

Objective:

Our objective is to provide a fast, low cost, easily implemented solution for contactless scanning.

Device Compatibility:

Any Zebra TC Device with Datawedge 7.5.56 or higher supports Presentation Mode, the scanner operating mode required for contactless scanning. 

User Interface on the Scanning Device

We are updating the NSCAN device software display so that it is more suitable for scanning using Presentation Mode. This includes doing things like:

  • Updating the Success and Failure indicators so that they are much larger and easily read by patrons, rather than ushers or scanning staff. This is probably along the lines of a large green success indicator and success sound, and a large red failure indicator and accompanying sound, with a message that indicates the member needs to speak to an attendant or proceed to the ticket counter. 
  • Removing additional information from the interface that is foreign to the patron. We want to keep the interface simple and easily understood.
  • Removing messaging from the interface. Again, we want to keep this very easy to understand. Pass/Fail + see an attendant. 
  • Rotating the interface 180 degrees, so that it is readable by the patron, since the scanner is held upside-down by the pedestals. 

Pedestals: 

To make contactless scanning workable, you will need to have something on which to mount your scanning device. A specific pedestal is not required for contactless scanning to operate. We are currently looking at two pedestal providers that came at the recommendation of Zebra, the company that provides the majority of scanning devices used by Network members.

At this time, we plan to source these for members that wish to purchase them so that you only need to work with the network, rather than multiple suppliers.

The two pedestals we're considering are:

These pedestals will sit on a countertop, and are not floor-standing. 

Remember that you will need to run power to the locations where you place the devices and pedestals. 

You may also choose to build or source your own pedestals. Duct taping your device to the back of a chair would work, if the aesthetic was in line with what your organization could manage. We're putting forward the pedestals here as a guideline for durable, recommended options if you need them.

Conclusion:

We will be doing a small, short beta with a few members in June who can give us feedback on the early interface using Presentation Mode. Once we've gotten feedback and incorporated that we hope to have something that is generally releasable shortly thereafter. We'll keep the community informed as the timeline develops. 

Thank you all for your continued input and suggestions, we look forward to delivering this and other improvements that accommodate a holistic contactless experience for your staff and patrons. We'll be posting more information soon. 

Chris Szalaj

Product Owner, Business Facing Products

Tessitura Network

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  • $organization

    and  and others, 

    Can you paint a little better picture for me of what you might expect an app that monitored the scanning process to do? I can imagine a bit about it, and would like to know more about how you see it working?
    Thanks for the suggestion and input, 

    Chris Szalaj

    Product Owner, Business Facing Products

    Tessitura Network

  • $organization in reply to Chris Szalaj

    Hi Chris,

    We still need to have more internal conversations about this, but at the moment, we are envisioning something that allows staff to see the live activity happening at each contactless ticket scanning station via a tablet or other mobile device in some sort of dashboard format. If a scanning error occurs, such as a patron trying to scan a ticket that is rejected, that would make an audible sound and the appropriate widget of the dashboard would flash red (or something like that) so that the staff member knows which station the error occurred. It would also show the reason the ticket was rejected - similar to what a staff member might see if they were using a scanner directly. The staff member would also have the ability to view all scan errors quickly for the event just in case something needs to be resolved that somehow wasn't caught at the time the scan occurred.

    There would need to be some configuration abilities; for example, we might want the option to have one staff member monitor all contactless stations or we may choose to divide them up between two or more staff members depending on the distance between stations (i.e. we would want the ability to configure it so staff members only see the stations they are responsible for monitoring). We might also want to have one lead or supervisor staff member who can view all of them at the same time.  Note that it is possible it will just be a 1:1 staff member to contactless scan station, but we don't know for sure at this point and I would imagine that need will vary from organization to organization.

    Another example of configuration would be a way to customize how different scan errors are treated. For example, we might want to notify the staff member differently if a scan error was due to misreading the barcode versus denial of entry (i.e. perhaps because it is the wrong event or a stale scan number because the ticket was reissued). That configuration would also help us adapt as we learn more - i.e. we may start off with one notification profile and after a few events, we learn of changes we want to make based on practical experience.

    I hope this helps. 

    Thanks!

    David

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  • $organization in reply to Chris Szalaj

    Hi Chris,

    We still need to have more internal conversations about this, but at the moment, we are envisioning something that allows staff to see the live activity happening at each contactless ticket scanning station via a tablet or other mobile device in some sort of dashboard format. If a scanning error occurs, such as a patron trying to scan a ticket that is rejected, that would make an audible sound and the appropriate widget of the dashboard would flash red (or something like that) so that the staff member knows which station the error occurred. It would also show the reason the ticket was rejected - similar to what a staff member might see if they were using a scanner directly. The staff member would also have the ability to view all scan errors quickly for the event just in case something needs to be resolved that somehow wasn't caught at the time the scan occurred.

    There would need to be some configuration abilities; for example, we might want the option to have one staff member monitor all contactless stations or we may choose to divide them up between two or more staff members depending on the distance between stations (i.e. we would want the ability to configure it so staff members only see the stations they are responsible for monitoring). We might also want to have one lead or supervisor staff member who can view all of them at the same time.  Note that it is possible it will just be a 1:1 staff member to contactless scan station, but we don't know for sure at this point and I would imagine that need will vary from organization to organization.

    Another example of configuration would be a way to customize how different scan errors are treated. For example, we might want to notify the staff member differently if a scan error was due to misreading the barcode versus denial of entry (i.e. perhaps because it is the wrong event or a stale scan number because the ticket was reissued). That configuration would also help us adapt as we learn more - i.e. we may start off with one notification profile and after a few events, we learn of changes we want to make based on practical experience.

    I hope this helps. 

    Thanks!

    David

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