RFID
DVD
According to a
news article from RFID Journal, many companies that rent videos,
DVDs and computer games struggle to track their inventory. Movies
are often picked up by customers and put back in the wrong place,
and thieves find ways to spirit coveted titles out of stores. TVL, a
software application development company that focuses on asset
tracking, has integrated
RFID DVD
technology from Matrics, a Columbia, MD based systems provider, with
its own Rapid Rental software to help solve both problems. The
system, which TVL demonstrated at an industry trade show held in
Las
Vegas last week of Aug, 2003, RFID DVD is
comprised of the Rapid Rental software, RFID tags on the items to be
tracked, and RFID readers situated in the store shelves, above the
return bins and at the exits.
Two-inch by
two-inch Matrics tags, which operate at 915 MHz and are based on the
Auto-ID Center's proposed Class 0
Electronic Product Code specification, are inserted under the
factory label on the disc or videocassette. The unique serial number
on the tag is associated with the rental title in the Rapid Rental
software.
The RFID DVD
system keeps track of each title's position on the shelf. If someone
picks up the item and continues shopping, its status is changed to
"roaming." When the person checks out, the system is updated so that
when the customer passes the exit reader, no alarm sounds. When the
title is tossed into the return bin, a reader scans the tag, and the
item is automatically checked back into inventory so it can be
rented again immediately. So what a great ease in RFID
DVD.
"This solution
for RFID DVD is designed specifically for this industry," says TVL
president Todd Edmondson. "Right out of the box, a rental chain can
begin getting value from it."
John Shoemaker,
VP of corporate business development at Matrics, says the tags cost
about 50 cents each, and the smart shelf technology, which can be
added to a company's existing shelves, costs about $30 or $40 for
each three-foot section. Prices for RFID DVD will come down as
volumes go up. But in the short term, deploying the RFID DVD system
in a large video rental store would be an expensive proposition.
Still, the
system could pay for itself over time. RFID DVD rental companies
will save labor costs associated with taking inventory, and the
system could reduce losses due to theft. But the biggest benefit may
be increased revenue. Rental companies derive 70 percent of their
revenue from new releases rented on Friday and Saturday night, so
knowing where all the copies of hot movies are in real time should
increase turns.
"We're bringing
visibility to the video management industry," says Shoemaker. "With
this system, store owners will know what they have and what
customers want to rent and don't want to rent. That's very powerful.
It could make or break stores operating on thin margins."
TVL says its
Rapid Rental point of sale and rental management system is used by
more than 6,000 video and DVD stores in the United States, Canada and the United
Kingdom. The target market for the
new system is chains that manage several million dollars worth of
inventory.
Edmondson says
the system will become more attractive if the studios agree to put
the tags on the RFID DVD. That's not out of the question. Since the
studios typically get a cut of each rental, the tags would provide a
way for them to better track how often movies are rented. And they
could probably pass some of the costs along to the chains in the
form of higher prices for each DVD or videocassette.
A Canadian
chain that did not want to be identified has expressed interest in
the system. TVL and Matrics will run a pilot with the company. An
entire store will be outfitted with smart shelves to determine the
business benefits of deploying the system.
