Keeping Young Athletes Safe with Mobile Check-ins

Intro

The BC Games Society brings together thousands of young athletes from across the province for biennial competition at the BC Winter and BC Summer Games. Keeping these athletes safe as they compete away from home is a top priority. Athletes range from 9 to 19 years old and stay in schools in each host city under the supervision of their adult coaches. To ensure that every participant has safely arrived back at their accommodation site each evening, BC Games Society developed a mobile tracking system. The objective is to have every participant scan the barcode on their accreditation badge before going to sleep each evening to enable staff to quickly confirm that all participants are accounted for.

Challenge

Since the BC Winter and BC Summer Games are hosted in a new city every time, there are new technical challenges to deal with, some of which may only surface days before the Games begin. Wi-fi access as well as firewalls and building design all add to the challenges with scanning badges.

Originally the non-profit had used a paper-based check-in process and then progressed to using the scanning app on mobile devices, which used open-source barcode scanning libraries. However, the open-source libraries had not kept up with the latest phone and browser updates and were struggling to read barcodes on badges, especially those with coloured backgrounds or with watermarks. The team set out to find a barcode reader that would stay current and read accurately regardless of badge design. Ease of use and reliability with various mobile devices was also a priority. As a non-profit, flexible licensing was essential. As the Games only happen every second year, annual licensing would not make sense.

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  Barcodes on varied badge backgrounds

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  Reliability with various mobile devices

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  Flexible licensing

Dynamsoft Barcode Reader has provided a solution to ensure our scanning process works every time. We’re pleased to work with this BC company to help keep our participants safe."

– Alison Noble, President and CEO, BC Games Society

Solution

The BC Games Society quickly identified Dynamsoft as a source for the barcode library and were pleasantly surprised to discover that they are a trusted local British Columbia company. The Dynamsoft Barcode Reader SDK trial version worked immediately and consistently on sample badges. The proposed licensing model was a good fit for a non-profit group operating a biennial event. Implementation was quick and straight forward.

For each Games, there may be 12 or more schools used as accommodation sites for the 5 days of the Games. At each school there will be a couple of devices for scanning participants’ badges as they check in before curfew each evening. The web-based app decodes the barcode, identifies the participant, and logs each individual into the society’s custom software. A quick check on each classroom will highlight any participants that have not scanned in. For a BC Summer Games, over 2,800 participants will scan in every evening.

Dynamsoft is very flexible about their licensing. It made complete sense for us as a non-profit that only needs scanning capabilities every second year."

– Alison Noble, President and CEO, BC Games Society

Impact

Previously, participants were checked in on paper forms and each form needed to be reviewed to determine if any participants had not checked in before curfew. The app made things easier but using the open-source libraries, they had encountered technical issues with connectivity and barcode readability. Now, with the Dynamsoft Barcode Reader SDK integrated into the web app, the scanning process is quick and easy. The evening check-in process can now be implemented with minimal fuss and inconvenience and is more accurate than the manual check-in process. A quick badge scan is all it takes to ensure all participants are accounted for and safe. The scanning technology was developed with the option to expand scanning to event venues and transportation and other scenarios if the organization wishes to do so.