Streamlining Stadium Entry, Bringing Facial Recognition to the Big Leagues

Our client, sought to introduce facial recognition technology to enhance security, streamline identity verification, and reduce queues and wait times at stadium gates. They engaged us to help integrate their hardware providers with the four Credentialing applications, from Orion Sports Management Platform, that they use to manage access for media, vendors, VIPs, player guests, and front office staff. 

We integrated the facial recognition hardware provider’s system with the Orion Credential Platform to share stored image galleries, which were maintained for the purpose of printing user passes. These passes were worn by users and used for quick identification and security checks inside events. The teams involved in the league were required to populate these galleries with photos when registering users for all mapped events associated with the league’s seasons, both at the start and throughout the season. 

In the run-up to events, the profile photos would be pushed to the hardware provider’s event gallery via a scheduled process. A scheduled executor service automatically and immediately pushed user profiles to the respective galleries under the following conditions: 

• When users were initially printed for applicable events 
• When users were reprinted for applicable events 
• When credential or access types were updated and users were subsequently reprinted with a new barcode 
• When the barcodes of previously pushed users were deactivated 

Once received, the hardware provider’s facial recognition algorithm analyzed the images to extract key facial feature metrics, including threshold values for the eyes, nose, mouth, and the distance between the eyes. These biometric markers were then securely stored in the hardware provider’s database for that specific event. 

When members arrived at the stadium, facial recognition devices scanned their faces and matched them against the stored threshold values in the gallery. The device validated the facial data and retrieved the corresponding member information from the club’s event gallery. Simultaneously, the League also scanned users’ pass barcodes — unique identifiers assigned whenever a user’s pass was printed — and sent them to the Orion Credential Platform for verification through the barcode validation API for tracking purposes. The result of this validation was then displayed on the facial recognition hardware provider’s device, determining access eligibility in real time. 

The integration was first tested and successfully deployed during a showpiece event at the end of the League’s 2023/24 season, where it facilitated the admission of over 7,000 attendees. Following its success, the League scheduled it for roll out across the 165 events planned for its 2024/25 season. To date, it has been used to verify the entry of over 48,000 staff, guests, media personnel, and vendors. Users have given the system glowing reviews, noting that it reduces entry verification to milliseconds and significantly accelerated the overall admission process.