Serving small to large events, Wicket’s new facial recognition credentialing system is coming to the NFL stadium to verify thousands of staff, vendors and media members who come to watch big games. The pilot, rolled out to 6 stadiums in 2023, will expand offering other large capability venues high-security zones to host entertainment and sporting events. This includes deploying facial authentication software into private access areas for players only, such as changing rooms, the press box and the main target for note-perfect security, the playing field.
The new system will be deployed at NFL during the first week of the pre-season, which kicks off with the Patriots playing the Giants on home turf on August 8. Where vulnerabilities currently exist in software permitting unauthorised access to certain sections of the stadium, system developers and the technology itself provides assurances to only validate genuine identities that attempt facial authentication. The technology aims to mitigate illicit transfers of credentials, fraudulent credentials and poor enforcement of the restrictions when conducting real facial matching to the person. Each part of the venue should have separate security systems, for staff and spectators.
“One of the biggest things is accountability,” said Billy Langenstein, senior director of security services for the NFL. “(The league and the teams) know every single person who is being credentialed to work an NFL game, who they are, and the access levels they should have to do their job. And a big part of it is accountability for those individuals, embracing it, learning it and evaluating the safety and security of the program”.
For high-security zones, credential holders will have their live image compared to a user-submitted photo on the system.
