There’s a new security scanner system in town, and it’s off to a fast start showing how it can do what others can’t.
The TruePort security scanners from a startup named Xonar got their U.S. professional stadium debut last month, when the Xonar systems were deployed at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, home of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC).
First at a friendly match and then at the MLS season opener, the Xonar systems showed their worth by detecting (and keeping out of the stadium) more than 70 smoke bombs and by identifying a previously banned customer via facial recognition, allowing security to keep that person from entering. Both the ability to detect non-ferrous items like smoke bombs as well as to use incorporated facial recognition technology are features other popular scanning systems don’t have, which could lead to a business advantage for Xonar going forward.
And while other new “walk-through” scanning systems such as those from market leader Evolv have rapidly found homes in stadiums across the country, the fast-follower Xonar has also tailored its systems for fast and easy venue deployment, with each system having both sides of the scanner attached to each other via a base plate. Fans walk through the system one at a time, ideally without stopping. According to Xonar, its systems can scan approximately 1,200 fans per hour, which is much faster than the average traditional magnometer scan rate.
Xonar’s construction allows for portability (with attached wheels) and easy setup within minutes, since the connected sides mean the system doesn’t need to be calibrated. Stadium Tech Report previously profiled Xonar in its Security Scanners Market Report.
“We are ecstatic about the Xonar systems, and that’s not a word I use often,” said Christian Lau, chief technology officer for LAFC. According to Lau, the technology-forward BMO Stadium has been “doing due diligence” on security technology since 2019, looking for a scanning system that could not only detect traditional metal threats like guns, but also non-metallic items such as road flares or smoke bombs, which are more common among soccer fans.
“We looked at Evolv and at CEIA, but Xonar is radar-based and completely different,” Lau said. “It’s a very compelling product.”
Keeping smoke bombs out of the building
According to Xonar CEO Hans Hufschmid, the Tampa-based Xonar had originally been working on radar-based technology that could accomplish tasks like finding mines in front of tanks. Interesting, he said, but not particularly marketable. In 2018, the company started working on a prototype of a walk-through scanning system that would use radar instead of magnetic detection technology, which primarily looks for metal objects.
After about 2 million human walk-throughs and five years of construction, the device Xonar finally put into production is similar to other walk-through scanning units in that it has two panels that people walk past. However, it’s the extras that Xonar added in that may make the scanners a compelling choice for venues going forward, especially if those venues are interested in higher levels of security.
While all the security scanning system providers make claims about their systems’ capabilities, Hufschmid said that Xonar’s multi-sensor radar is completely different than other providers’ scanning technologies. TruePort, according to Xonar, can detect ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and non-metallic objects.
“If you are using mags [magnetic scanning] you may catch something or not, depending on the sensitivity setting [of the device],” Hufschmid said. “We can catch non-ferrous items, like smoke bombs, flares, or stainless steel or ceramic knives.”
For LAFC’s friendly on Feb. 11 against Mexico’s Club America, BMO Stadium had Xonar scanning gates set up at the entry for LAFC’s “ulitmate” fans as well as at the entry gates for the visitors. According to Hufschmid, the Xonar scanners not only processed lines of fans more quickly (other security lines using traditional magnometers, he said, remained backed up while the Xonar lines were clear), but also caught and kept 75 flares or smoke bombs from being brought into the building.
“That game was a good test, that was a pretty rowdy crowd,” said Hufschmid. For the first MLS home game, LAFC’s Lau said the stadium had Xonar scanners at all the entry gates. Currently the team has 20 Xonar TruePort scanners in use at BMO Stadium, Lau said.
X-ray for bags, cameras for facial recognition
Unlike some other providers of walk-through scanning systems, Xonar does not recommend that fans be allowed to carry bags through its TruePort scanners. Instead, Xonar offers a companion device, the TrueScan system, a self-contained system with an X-ray machine that looks inside bags and packs and gives a red light/green light determination of if what’s inside is safe or not. The TrueScan system, Hufschmid said, is also designed to be easily deployed by a single person, who simply folds out the parts around the X-ray enclosure.
The larger gate of the two-gate TruePort scanner also has two cameras built in, which can be used for facial recognition technology for security, or with facial authentication systems for ticketing. At one of the February games Hufschmid said the cameras on a TruePort system identified a previously banned fan. A text from the machine to stadium security allowed the venue to keep the fan from entering.
According to Hufschmid, the TruePort systems already have the ability to integrate ticketing information from Ticketmaster. Though venues we’ve talked to still aren’t sure they absolutely want to combine ticketing with security, Hufschmid said the TruePort devices are technically ready to do face scans for ticket verification.
With $10 million in recent funding ($5 million from friends and family and $5 million from a Series A round), Xonar is well financed and ready to scale production quickly, Hufschmid said. With system “shell” manufacturing in Indiana and components development in Tampa, Hufschmid said Xonar is currently able to manufacture 100 devices a week and will be able to scale to 200 per week soon.
While he would not cite an exact price for the TruePort, according to Hufschmid, the Xonar systems cost “much less than Evolv” and less than Xtract One but are more expensive than the CEIA Opengate systems.
