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Fast-track hospitality at new Silverstone clubhouse

Silverstone is renowned as the venue of the British Formula One Grand Prix. It is also the home of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), widely regarded as the most prestigious motor racing club in the world. In addition to the Grand Prix, the BRDC annually hosts more than 30 race meetings at Silverstone.

As part of an extensive redevelopment project, the old clubhouse at the entrance to the pit lane was replaced with a new building that offers improved facilities for club members and their guests. The impressive three-storey building houses a restaurant, bars and club accommodation, as well as pit lane and roof terrace viewing areas. In January 2001, the BRDC appointed Climarque Tag & Trace as technology consultant and solution provider for the upgrading of the access control system at their new clubhouse. Climarque Tag & Trace selected Controlsoft's KeyMaster Pro access control and asset security solution for the installation.

According to Climarque's Andrew Dolman, KeyMaster Pro was chosen because it was the only system that could provide the 'buddying capability' (accompanied access) required by the client. "The BRDC needed a system that admits guests to the clubhouse only after access has been granted to the members who invited those specific guests," explains Dolman.

With 1000 members and 3500 guests typically generating 16 000 access transactions over the course of a three-day Grand Prix, it was also crucial that the registration and admission of members and guests be accomplished efficiently.

Using built-in Visual Basic scripting capabilities, engineers programmed the KeyMaster Pro system to import a list of members and their guests from a standard Excel spreadsheet. The program 'buddies' guests with the members who invited them, and then applies a simple rule to ensure that a guest is only granted access if his or her inviting member has entered the site earlier on the same day. A guest's access rights expire automatically at midnight.

According to Dolman, a key strength of Controlsoft KeyMaster Pro is that it allows the implementation of customer-specific features that cannot be achieved otherwise. The system's integrated asset tracking capability was another major consideration. "KeyMaster Pro was selected for its anticipated use as an asset tracking platform for clubhouse memorabilia and we are entering discussions for this now," said Dolman.

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