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Scotcomms
score with Arcom
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Scotcomms
Technology Group, (http://www.scotcomms.co.uk),
based in St. Andrews, Scotland was formed in 1993 to offer a wide range of card based transaction
services to serve the needs of 'closed loop users’. These are
defined as groups of people who have a common physical location
combined with a common interest and who can benefit from being
linked using smartcard technology. Teamcard, (http://www.teamcard.co.uk)
was formed as a
division of Scotcomms in 1996 to specifically address the large
spectator sports sector using these pioneering multifunction
smart card solutions.
TeamCard
system was established to allow supporters of major sports teams
to lower the cost of support by accumulating added value TeamCard
points through spending money at local retailers.
Subsequently, these points could be redeemed as season tickets or
payments in the club shop or bar. In
addition to the loyalty function on the card, it also acts as an
electronic season ticket which led to the requirement for an
embedded processor as the core of the turnstile entry devices.
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Scotcomms
first proposed, and finally won the contract to install
and offer the benefits of the system to the Bolton
Wanderers Football Club. The system architecture provided
a link from smartcard readers located at each of the
entrance gates to the back office TeamCard system. It is
TeamCard who manage and administer the network and back
office application on behalf of the sports club. The club
supporters details and attendance record are maintained on
the smartcard and uploaded via an Ethernet network to the
central database (a standard Windows based PC). To
implement this application Scotcomms needed a simple
embedded processor which could readily support the serial
input from the Gemplus Smartcard reader, offered a
parallel interface for some LEDs (to instruct the gate
operator) and included an Ethernet port. Furthermore,
given the project time scale, it was essential that it was
pre-configured with an operating system, a Flash based
filing system and a TCP/IP stack. Scotcomms' Technical
Director, Dave Robb said they searched the web and
reviewed several hardware solutions. Most were too costly
or did not offer the software features.
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Finally
they decided to buy an Arcom
MERLIN board Development Kit which was based on the Intel
386EX and which offered all the features they required.
Dave Robb further stated that they needed to write the
application quickly and for the communications to be
reliable and the flash filing system to be robust even in
the event of power interruptions. The combination of
Borland’s compiler tools, the Datalight ROM-DOS
operating system and integrated TCP/IP stack made it very
easy to build up the application. By using a network, the
smartcard can easily be checked at each game for
transactions, game attendance and to check for copied or
rejected cards. Dave Robb says that they implemented the
software in three months with only a handful of calls to
Arcom for technical support. The
system is now installed and operational at Bolton Wanderers
stadium and will soon be installed at the London stadium of
Crystal Palace.
The
MERLIN is one of the first low cost general purpose hardware
products on the market to offer an operating system and
communications stack as standard.
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