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Admission Tickets as Text Messages

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hope-you-have-a-cell-phone dept.

lee1 writes to tell us that InfoWorld is reporting that Smartmachine and their partner Skidata have developed a new way to allow customers to purchase and receive tickets to events. The new ticketing system allows users to "have a ticket sent to their mobile phone via SMS (Short Message Service) in the form of a 2D (two-dimensional) bar code. At the gate, they slide their mobile phone display showing the bar code by a bar code reader." The new technology also claims to help combat the counterfeit, pilferage, and repeat use that can be such a problem for paper tickets.

6 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Like public transport in finland by slart42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've seen the same system in use for public transport tickets in Helsinki. People send an sms to some number, and the fare is deducted from their phone bill. As a proof of purchase the get a text message, which can be shown to the conductor on ticket controls..

    1. Re:Like public transport in finland by de_valentin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The real advantage for the average concert fan is that it makes it a lot harder for someone to buy all the tickets and go and sell them online for twice the normal value which I know is a major problem in Belgium and the Netherlands. As long as you can't just send the sms to the next guy.

      --
      It's no big deal some of my best friends are M$ certified engineers
  2. Old news in Korea by neoshmengi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Koreans have been doing this for years. To promote it they gave you a discount if you used the cell phone technique.

    It makes a lot of sense. It's convenient to order the tickets, also via cell phone, and then you don't have to wait in line. And everyone there has a cell phone.

    Funfact: In South Korea when you buy a movie ticket, you can buy a particular seat, like at a sports game.

  3. Re:What? by Bassman59 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    How does this combat counterfieting, pilfering and repeat usage? Are they saying a txt message is harder to generate than a realistic looking ticket?? Or a cell phone is harder to steal? Or that they're going to rip your cell phone in half once you pass through the gate? I can see some convenience advantages but I really don't understand that statement.

    Presumably, the "tickets" are generated uniquely by some mechanism that's "difficult" to hack. And once you go through the turnstile, your "ticket" is scanned and the database to which the scanner is connected marks it as used. This is no different from paper tickets with barcodes that are scanned at the gate.

    -a

  4. Re:And they'll pass the cost savings on to... by mottie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ticketmaster actually charges MORE for you to print your own tickets. How ridiculous is that? It's cheaper to go to their counter, use their clerk's time, and use their ink/paper.. I didn't realize that it cost so much to send PDFs out by email. They must be using Adobe Acrobat Professional or something..

  5. Re:Plan B by digitalchinky · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It doesn't matter what the phone uses 'over the air', your SMS can still be read out of the CCITT 7 which is beamed as part of a bog standard timeslot in a completely unencrypted T1/E1 between the cell station and the exchange. (Or mulitplexed in some other standard manner) Encryption usually only happens between the phone and the cell station, nowhere else along the chain.

    It'll cost a small chunk for the equipment, though all of it can be obtained off the shelf. Spec An, RX equipment, downconverters, modems, digital capture card, pc.