While the Olympic festivities are in full swing in Paris, over 9,200 kilometers away, the city of Hangzhou, amidst the scorching summer heat, welcomed its annual mass sports event: the Crossing of the Qiantang River.

On the morning of July 28th, the "ABC CUP-2024 Crossing of the Qiantang River Activity and the Qiantang River Open Water Challenge” arrived as scheduled. Participants gradually entered the water from the side of the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, swam north across the river, and landed on the "City Balcony" side of Qianjiang New City.

Within just over half an hour of entering the water, Sheng Zhehan, a 19-year-old freshman-to-be from the Hangzhou Lifesaving Team, was the first to reach the shore with a time of 30 minutes and 12 seconds!

Event Scene | Image Source: Official

Event Scene | Image Source: Official

Last year, due to weather and other factors, “the Crossing of the Qiantang River” was unfortunately canceled. This year's event has further ignited the passion of swimming enthusiasts, and their enthusiasm has soared. Through a combination of lottery drawings and swimming tests, a total of over 3,000 swimmers from the mass crossing group and elite challenge group successfully qualified to participate, with the oldest participant being 82 years old and the youngest just 6 years old, truly deserving of the title of a mass sports activity in a province renowned for swimming.

For such a large-scale event, traditional methods would require significant human and material resources for participant registration, check-in, timing, score entry, and other operations.

Replacing manpower with technology. Hangzhou ONTIME I.T. Co., Ltd., which has provided technical support for " the Crossing of the Qiantang River" event for several consecutive years, leveraged its mature RFID application solutions and extensive experience to easily achieve automatic data collection, accurately and efficiently completing the event's required services such as timing, score ranking entry, real-time display, and digital completion certificates. Once again, ONTIME successfully contributed to the successful holding of the "Crossing of the Qiantang River" event.

ONTIME staff at the event

How does ONTIME's RFID technology accomplish the data collection and processing of over 3,000 participants?

For this event, ONTIME introduced a custom-made RFID data-oriented acquisition system specifically designed for the competition. By deploying RFID read-write devices on-site and having participants carry RFID tags, coupled with a cloud platform data processing system, automatic data collection and publication of participant information were achieved.

RFID Reader: These devices provide real-time collection, automatic storage, instant display, immediate feedback, automatic processing, and automatic transmission functions, ensuring the authenticity, validity, real-time nature, and usability of on-site data. For this event, we upgraded the equipment, adopting a mode that primarily uses floor-mounted devices supplemented by channel devices for RFID information reading. This automatically reads information from passing personnel, comprehensively replacing manual scanning, entry, and sorting of information, further enhancing work efficiency and improving data accuracy.

RFID Tags: Participants wear RFID tags containing their corresponding personal information. When passing through the RFID read-write devices, the information is automatically read, recorded, and transmitted to the backend. This is a non-contact automatic identification technology that recognizes target objects and obtains data information through radio frequency signals without manual intervention, making it widely applicable. Moreover, it boasts advantages such as water resistance, anti-magnetic properties, high temperature resistance, long service life, large reading distance, encryptable data on tags, larger data storage capacity, and easy modification of stored information.

RFID Data Management System: The system seamlessly tracks the entire process of participant registration, entry into the water, and landing, uploading the collected data in real-time to the cloud platform. Leveraging the cloud platform's powerful data processing capabilities, a key data dashboard for the event is formed and displayed on large screens. Additionally, we added features such as competition rankings, completion certificate inquiries, and downloads to further simplify on-site operational procedures.

Event Results

Digital Certificate of Completion (Templete)

With its unique non-contact data transmission capabilities, efficiency in rapidly identifying multiple tags, adaptability to harsh environments, large data storage capacity, and precision in real-time item tracking, RFID technology has brought revolutionary changes to various industries, significantly enhancing operational convenience, data accuracy, and process automation levels.

The implementation of ONTIME's RFID system in this crossing event facilitated information sharing and coordination among various links, improved safety and work efficiency, and realized modern data management, bringing the entire event to a successful conclusion in a more scientific and efficient environment.