Beyond Hygiene Exploring how contactless technology can make facilities more efficient and profitable, Gwen Luscombe caught up with Jonas Leisure Chief Executive Mike Henton, and Centaman Entrance Control’s General Manager, Michael Bystram.
W
hile the global pandemic has supercharged the need for contactless technology, leisure facilities and attractions alike have adopted these measures and invested in additional ones, improve their overall efficiency and profitability. Henton explains “like with any challenging time, we’ve innovated and found new ways of working. The learnings gained through the pandemic have allowed facilities to look at their processes and apply efficiencies. “An example of this is the growing number of businesses introducing ‘self-service’ offerings for customers both to minimise physical contact during the pandemic, and also to give customers more control over their bookings. Going forward, the increased use of online and kiosk platforms will also reduce admin for customer service staff, freeing them up to focus on delivering exceptional service to those customers that require it.” Venues utilising contactless technology for everything from ‘tap and go style’ payments to ticketless entry has surged.
64 Australasian Leisure Management Issue 142
Henton says these enhancements will improve the overall visitor experience and help facilities improve retention by building a loyal customer base. Bystram agrees, noting “one of the changes we’ve seen throughout the pandemic is increased demand for automated entrance control technology that reduces common touchpoints. These modern access gates are taking workload off reception teams by automating the process of customers entering and exiting a leisure or fitness facility. They are also improving security by providing improved identification of visitors and making sure everyone who comes into a facility should be there.” And it’s not just the hardware that’s improving the way facilities run day-today. Centaman Entrance Control’s new facial recognition add-on for the access gates are providing aquatic facilties and gyms across Australia and New Zealand with better security and ease of access. The new EasyAccess facial recognition reader scans users’ faces to identify them before providing access through a gate or door. The read can also be set up to scan whether visitors are wearing masks and prevent entry to any who are not, if required. Advising that facial recognition technology was already being used in corporate offices in Australasia, but the functionality and price point has, until now, largely ruled it out from use in aquatic facilities and gyms, Bystram adds “it is an ideal way for leisure centres and gyms to provide secure contactless entry during the global COVID-19 pandemic and adds convenience for members by removing the need for them to carry an access card with them at all times. “It also provides increased security by preventing entry by unauthorised visitors who have stolen, found or illegally ‘borrowed’ an access card belonging to an existing paying member of your facility.” One of the advantages of the new reader is that it works with almost any gate or door and could be retrofitted to many existing Centaman Entrance Control gates. The reader can store up to 50,000 faces in its internal database and faces can be scanned from up to three metres away. It also includes anti-spoofing detection support that enables it to distinguish live faces from photos and videos. Henton explains “the demand for upgraded entrance control solutions has meant some providers have struggled to keep up. “We’ve been fortunate that our scale means we have been able to install new gates faster than most. However, there is some lead time when installing gates, as is the case for any physical infrastructure,
