As venues across the globe look for ways to make it safe to hold performances (or gain government approval to do so), SeatGeek Stadium is taking a novel approach. Everyone passing through the entry points at the Illinois venue is passing through what one local news outlet calls a “futuristic disinfecting doorway system.”
The systems, designed by Sigouros, appear similar in design to airport metal detectors. For everyone passing through the devices, they do both a temperature scan, and a disinfectant mist.
“It’s about a 6 to eight second process as you’re turning, rotating,” says Dena Javaras, who co-created the company alongside Jason Gobeyn. “Overhead ozone as well as the atomized disinfectant and the far-UVC [hits each attendee as they pass through the devices], continues Gobeyn. “It disinfects those outer layers.”
SeatGeek Stadium debuted the tech on Sunday as the Smoke Me Out tour made its way to the venue, with as many as 5,000 fans in attendance. Natanael Cano, Fuerza Regida, Legado 7, Herencia De Patrones and others were on the bill for the event, which required attendees to pass through the devices, wear masks, and adhere to social distancing guidelines.
Such devices obviously do not make it 100 percent safe to attend any event, as Dr. Emily Landon of the University of Chicago noted. “While this may make you feel really good that somebody’s been bathed in a mist of alcohol, when you get past that mist, whatever’s coming out of their mouth, if it’s got COVID in it, is still coming out of their mouth with COVID in it. You haven’t done anything to solve that problem.”
That, Javaras and Gobeyn say, is why they don’t tout the system anything more than what it is – an added safeguard designed to pair with social distancing, enhanced hygiene, and masks to make public gatherings safer amid the pandemic.
“This technology can help. This isn’t the miracle cure, but it’s a front line of defense that can kill and tear down RNA. We have to be able to protect those big gathering points,” they say. “Airports are a must. We want to get our kids back to school, colleges. I’d love to see the entertainment industry comeback, I’d love to go to a concert again. Devices like this can potentially help get things back,” he said.
