Door tech fails in predictable ways — bad wifi, flat batteries, duplicate scans. Here is how to plan check-in so a 2,000-person queue moves.
Check-in is the only part of your event technology that every single attendee experiences, usually while standing in a queue in the cold. It is also the part most likely to fail, because it depends on connectivity at exactly the moment the venue's network is most contended.
Work out your throughput first
Before choosing anything, calculate what you need. A scan takes 3–6 seconds when it works. For 2,000 people arriving over a 45-minute window:
- 2,000 ÷ 45 minutes = ~45 people per minute
- At 5 seconds per scan, one lane handles ~12 per minute
- You need at least four lanes, and realistically five for headroom
This single calculation prevents most door disasters. Venues will tell you their doors are fine; the maths is what tells you how many scanning devices and staff to bring.
Assume the network will fail
Venue wifi degrades exactly when 2,000 phones arrive. Any check-in system that requires a live connection for every scan will stall.
Non-negotiable: the scanning app must hold the full guest list locally and sync in the background. If it cannot check in a guest with the network off, do not use it at scale.
The trade-off with offline mode is duplicate detection — two lanes offline cannot both know a ticket was already used. Mitigate it by assigning ticket ranges to lanes, or by accepting that duplicates get flagged on sync and handled by a supervisor.
The failure list to plan around
| Failure | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Venue wifi saturated | Offline-capable app; own 4G/5G router as backup |
| Devices flat by hour two | Power banks per lane; devices at 100% and screen brightness capped |
| Screenshot / forwarded tickets | Rotating QR or single-use codes; name check on high-value tiers |
| Phone screens too dim to scan | Staff trained to ask guests to raise brightness; accept manual lookup by surname |
| Guest cannot find their ticket | Search by surname, email or order reference — not just scan |
| Late walk-ups | A separate lane, so they never block the pre-registered queue |
Access control beyond the front door
Multi-zone events need the ticket to encode entitlement, not just admission: VIP areas, backstage, day-specific passes at a multi-day festival. Two rules make this workable:
- Entitlements live on the ticket record, not on a wristband colour. Wristbands are the visual shorthand; the scan is the truth.
- Re-entry policy decided in advance. Whether a ticket can be scanned twice is a policy question that the door staff should never have to improvise.
The half-hour that saves the night
Run a full rehearsal on site, on the day, with real devices on the real network:
- Scan a valid ticket in each lane
- Scan the same ticket twice and confirm the duplicate warning is obvious to a stressed volunteer
- Turn the wifi off and scan again
- Look up a guest by surname
- Check the live count on the dashboard matches what you actually scanned
If your ticketing runs on Tixibo, the door app and access rules come from the same system that sold the ticket, which removes the most common failure of all: a guest list exported an hour before doors and already out of date.
Frequently asked questions
How many scanning devices do I need?
Divide expected arrivals by the length of your arrival window to get people per minute, then divide by twelve — a realistic per-lane rate at five seconds a scan. Add one lane as headroom and one separate lane for walk-ups and problems.
Can attendees use printed tickets?
Yes, and you should support them. A meaningful share of any audience will print, and older audiences especially. Any scanner that reads a phone screen reads paper more reliably.
How do I stop ticket sharing?
Rotating QR codes that refresh every few seconds defeat screenshots. For high-value tickets, add a name check at the door. Both add friction, so apply them to the tiers where the risk justifies it.
