EY has come to the aid of sporting fans and others who want to get back to attending matches and other live events, with the launch of a wireless-enabled technology solution designed to address social distancing concerns
The firm’s ‘proximity monitor’ is a technology solution that measures the effectiveness of events’ social distancing and awareness communications and highlights any pinch points for those fans attending that may lead to social distancing restrictions not being adhered to.
It can be worn as a tag on a lanyard, as a wristband or downloaded as an app to use through most smartphones.
Once the tag is activated, the user is effectively in their own Bluetooth bubble and the system monitors their proximity to other fans in the venue.
The tag is battery powered and works by sending and receiving Bluetooth signals from other nearby tags every few seconds – the app works the same way but through the user’s phone.
Fans' proximity to each other is sent to a control room, where their distance to others is noted as low, medium or high risk whilst on the site and the data is reported to a central system that monitors user proximity every few seconds.
Chris Gant, EY global leader – proximity monitor, said: ‘This technology allows organisers across sport and entertainment venues to keep events open to fans and run monitored hospitality.
‘The data gained provides relevant authorities with evidence that the events’ social distancing measures and awareness communications are working. The solution is easy to deploy at any scale and is very cost efficient to run.’
EY proximity monitor has been deployed successfully at three of the European tour’s golf championship events in the second half of 2020 to measure the effectiveness of social distancing of players, support staff and hospitality guests.
EY is also looking to deploy the solution at a Premier League football match in the new year once the UK government’s Covid restrictions allow.
Catriona Campbell, EY client technology and innovation officer, said: ‘The simplicity of the technology is its strongest differentiation.
‘Solutions that offer events a social distancing measurement solution do exist, but they often rely on deeper data access or more cumbersome base infrastructure which comes with a longer build time.’
