News

23.11.09 - Cutting edge RFID technology brings the Beatles to life in Hamburg

Almost 50 years after their Hamburg debut, the Beatles are honoured in the north German city in a new permanent interactive exhibition which uses the very latest in RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to bring the Fab Four's story to life.

Situated at the end of the Reeperbahn in Hamburg's famous red-light and club district, and close to many of the locations where the Beatles performed, "Beatlemania" is a 1300 square metre celebration on five floors of the Liverpool band, from their early days in Hamburg's Indra club and Kaiser Keller to their break-up in 1970. Technical partner for the ambitious project is Hamburg-based Amptown System Company. In addition to audio, lighting and video technology and integrated media systems, ASC developed an RFID-based ticketing system to provide each visitor with an interactive, individual tour.

"We wanted to build a creative exhibition that could be developed further - not a museum," says Ulrike Saiten, project manager for FKP Ausstellungs- und Betriebs GmbH, the company behind Beatlemania. "ASC was the only supplier who could deliver both the technical media expertise and the RFID solution. The ASC team showed us just what you can do with RFID."

The client brief called for a ticketing system that used RFID to coordinate ticket desks with visitor flows, guide visitors through the exhibition in an enjoyable way, guarantee safety, generate meaningful visitor statistics without involving staff in time-consuming data analysis and meet data protection requirements by deleting visitors' personal details at the end of their visit."You can't buy RFID off the peg that easily," explains Alexander Chiappa, who managed the project for ASC. "The technology has to fit in with the exhibition, and so we got involved as a partner in devising the processes and the organisation in order to provide the Beatlemania team with more than just a technical solution. We've developed an RFID communication and control system that can be adapted and extended."

Central to the solution is an RFID strip contained in a passport to the exhibition. Visitors begin the tour by creating their own passports in an old-fashioned photo booth that prints each visitor's picture with a Beatle haircut. Several exhibits are equipped with RFID transponders. If the passport is held in front of a "magic spot", it calls up audio and visual background information in the form of interviews with contemporary witnesses, film clips and recordings of Beatles concerts. Several interactive features enable visitors to become part of the show. A modern karaoke box lets visitors sing a choice of four Beatles hits and save the performance in their passports, while in another feature a digital Sgt Pepper album cover can be edited to include the visitor's photo. Both the recording and the cover can be downloaded onto a guitar-shaped USB stick and purchased as a personalised souvenir. 

In turn, Beatlemania's management benefits from a wealth of statistical data including how many visitors are present at a given time and which exhibits are particularly popular so that the exhibition can be adapted to visitors' needs.

Beatlemania Hamburg is open 365 days a year and can be found atNobistor 10Reeperbahn22767 Hamburg.

More information under www.beatlemania-hamburg.com