It was a ‘New Zealand first’ for Claudelands Arena last night, with the Hamilton venue introducing new scanner technology at the WBOP Magic v Mystics ANZ Premiership netball game.

Claudelands worked with its ticketing partner Ticketek to become the first venue in the country to adopt new IntraQ Portable Pedestal Scanners.

The self-serve scanners are battery-powered and wi-fi-connected, and can read both 1D and 2D printed and digital tickets with ease and efficiency.

H3 Business Development and Marketing Manager Denise McRae says the new technology is an exciting addition to Claudelands.

“We’re committed to constantly finding ways to enhance our customers’ event experiences, so being able to work with Ticketek to introduce the IntraQ Portable Pedestal Scanners into Claudelands is very exciting for our business,” says McRae.

“They say ‘first impressions last’ so it’s important to us that the arrival experience that event-goers have at Claudelands is as positive and efficient as possible. With the use of mobile tickets becoming an increasingly popular option for event-goers, a key benefit of the new scanners is their ability to easily scan these digital barcodes,” says McRae.

“The new scanners are also incredibly intuitive to use, meaning visitors can easily self-scan themselves into the venue, while staff are freed up to focus more on greeting and providing customer service assistance.”

Ticketek New Zealand Managing Director Trina Tamati said the installation of the Portable Pedestal Scanners showed Ticketek’s commitment to using technology to drive innovation in ticketing.

“Ticketek has a strategy of opening our internal network and systems to enable technology to meet the needs of customers in collaboration with our venues partners,” says Tamati.

“This installation at Claudelands will have a direct benefit on the event-day experience, but will also enable customers to enjoy a more flexible way to purchase and store their tickets.

“We strive to deliver personalised, connected and intelligent ticketing experiences for today’s modern, mobile consumers.”

Two IntraQ Portable Pedestal scanners – affectionately dubbed ‘Thelma’ and ‘Louise’ – are now operating at Claudelands.

Ticketek first introduced the IntraQ Portable Pedestal scanners at the Sydney International Convention Centre last year.