Rhuna and Alcatraz AI have disclosed a facial authentication pilot conducted at the UNTOLD music festival in Transylvania, Romania, this summer. Thousands of attendees opted to use their faces as entry credentials, linking ticket purchases to biometric checks at the festival gates.
The experiment was developed with venture studio CNKT Labs. Participants selected facial entry when buying a ticket and could then enter and re-enter the grounds without presenting a phone or paper ticket. Participation was optional. The companies described UNTOLD as a 500,000-attendee event, while specifying that thousands took part in the biometric pilot.
At the gate, an Intelligent Door used Alcatraz’s Rock reader to authenticate ticket holders. The companies say faces were converted into encrypted templates and compared locally on the device, rather than processed in the cloud, an approach they say is built to comply with GDPR, CCPA and BIPA. They also say the Rock does not hold names or photographs.
The reader includes real-time tailgating detection, which alerts security staff when someone attempts to follow a verified guest through the gate. Alcatraz, which closed a $50 million Series B round in April, says its technology protects more than five million employees at Fortune 500 companies, airports and stadiums across the United States.
Rhuna supplies a platform combining payments, ticketing, access control and data. The company, led by co-founders Sveatoslav Vizitiu, CEO, and Bogdan Radulescu, chief commercial officer, built the platform on more than a decade of operating UNTOLD. Its wider live-event software serves festivals, concerts, sports venues and conferences.
CNKT Labs, the venture studio led by founder and CEO Deian Markov, brought the companies together and connected Rhuna’s ticketing software with Alcatraz’s gate hardware. “UNTOLD demonstrated that even at the scale and pace of a major festival, facial authentication can deliver fast, effortless access without compromising individual personal privacy,” said Vince Gaydarzhiev, Alcatraz’s founder and president.
The biometric entry system remains in research and development, and the companies say detailed performance data will be shared as testing expands. Rhuna is bringing its platform to the U.S. market, while Alcatraz is extending its Intelligent Access product beyond offices, airports and stadiums into festivals and live events.
“UNTOLD is where we test what the next generation of live events will look like,” said Vizitiu. “Running facial entry at a festival of this size gave us a real-world proof point at a scale most pilots never reach, and it shows where access and payments are heading: one identity, from the ticket purchase to the gate to the bar.”
Sources: Rhuna
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
