RFID Advancing Slowly, May Catch On in 2005

By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 1/10/2005

Proponents say the high cost of badges remains big obstacleWill 2005 be the year that Radio Frequency Identification takes off? The new scanning technology has the potential to revolutionize lead retrieval and access control, and replace bar codes and magnetic stripes. But as is the case with many new technologies, the costs of implementation are still too high when compared to the potential benefits.

Still, there are some signs that RFID is beginning to take hold. Several organizers have deployed RFID at small events. And the Intl. Assn. for Exposition Management not only included a well-attended session on RFID at its annual meeting, but experimented with the technology for access control by fitting Future Focus seminar attendees with RFID-enabled badges.

The big advantage of RFID over bar codes is speed. RFID reads data in milliseconds, while bar codes take seconds and can be hard to read if the badge is bent. RFID also allows more sophisticated attendee tracking and has the potential to generate reams of data. But organizers currently paying pennies for bar code badges are unlikely to start using tags that cost from 50 cents to $3 each unless the benefits justify the higher costs.

Vaughn Dietze, president of Chicago-based Dietze Enterprises, a producer of RFID tags for lead retrieval, has wrestled with the cost issues for years. He said he's been able to reduce the cost of tags to the equivalent of a magnetic stripe card by printing them on paper.

Dietze, who has been in the registration business since 1970, said he deployed RFID for lead retrieval at Shorecliff Communications' RFID World last year. "The exhibitors really like it because it's so easy. The next question is, 'What's it going to cost?' which is a stumbling block for a lot of people."

Although not well known in the tradeshow industry, Avante, a Princeton Junction, N.J., company, already has several deployments under its belt, including Ziff Davis' Business 4Site, the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute's annual meeting, and Convention Management Group's Food, Dairy & Beverage Exposition.

"It's picking up, but not as fast as we wanted it to," said Kevin Chung, CEO of Avante, a subsidiary of the adhesives firm, AI Technology. "Tradeshow industry people have to want to use it. They have to really want to know the data."

Avante holds more than 20 patents, including many on RFID tags. That makes some vendors in the field nervous. Dietze, who won a product award at the recent Exhibition for the Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Industry in Barcelona, said he has consulted with a patent attorney just to be sure. "We were told that we do not infringe on the Avante patent," he said.

Chung, who estimated that his company has spent $2 million to $3 million on developing the technology since 1999, said he has already warned some small shows about Avante's patents. "A few shows are infringing. We told them to cease and desist," he said.

Chung declined to name the shows, but he said that if Avante decided to pursue a lawsuit, "a whole chain of people" would be named.

Still, he said his company is less interested in suing someone and more interested in leasing its RFID portals, which go for $1,000 each, and in providing RFID tags. "Most small vendors don't have much money, and all we'd be doing is pushing them into bankruptcy. Normally, for the most part, we want to be friendly."

Corbin Ball, a consultant who specializes in meeting industry technology, said he hopes that intellectual property fights won't dampen the uptake of RFID. "The patent question will be an interesting thing," he said, adding that, "the courts have been discouraging these broad, overreaching patents."

Another potential pitfall centers on attendee privacy. But proponents say RFID entails no more loss of privacy than bar codes or magnetic stripes. A lot depends on what frequency is being used and whether the application is active or passive. Active tags can carry more data and be read at longer ranges. Ultrahigh-frequency RFID, operating at 915 MHz, has a maximum range of 12 feet, compared to high-frequency RFID, operating at 13.56 MHz, with a maximum range of 3 feet.

Still, Ball sees the biggest hurdle as the cost of tags, which he doesn't believe will become affordable for trade-show organizers until after the technology has been embraced by other industries. "That's going to drive costs to less than a penny. Those days are coming, but it's going to be a few years before it's in widespread use."