Celebrate at the Gate

The New Year’s Eve Celebration at the Brandenburg Gate

This year’s New Year’s Eve production by sib Silvester in Berlin Veranstaltungen GmbH had the motto “Celebrate at the Gate”. As in the previous year, Johannes B. Kerner and Andrea Kiewel led the programme of the almost five-hour live show directly at the Brandenburg Gate, presenting not only international music acts but also live broadcasts to celebrities all over the world and into German living rooms.

For the organisation of the entire crew as well as the artists and media representatives, the organiser “sib Silvester in Berlin Veranstaltungen GmbH” used Guest-One’s accreditation system “Crew-Control” for the first time. In addition to the structured recording and administration of the data of all persons involved, this also involved the management of complex access authorisations as well as the compliance with and documentation of the pandemic-related hygiene regulations. An integrated catering administration rounded off the service package.

The Guest-One team began setting up and configuring the web-based system as early as September. The still dynamic pandemic situation and the frequently changing official orders associated with it made regular readjustments necessary.

“Thanks to the modular structure and the diverse configuration options of “Crew-Control”, we were able to react to changing requirements at short notice and adapt the system accordingly at any time,” said Yvonne Mahling – overall project manager for “sib Silvester in Berlin Veranstaltungen GmbH” – enthusiastically about the flexibility of the system.

The entire accreditation process runs electronically with “Crew-Control” – from the invitation of the employees to the online registration to the dispatch of the so-called eTickets – all steps as well as the entire communication with the involved trades and employees are centrally stored and documented in the system. This saves the organiser’s resources and creates transparency for everyone involved. Compliance with the strict DSGVO regulations is a matter of course – every “Crew-Control” instance runs on secure servers in one of the largest German data centres.

An important component of “Crew Control” is the central organisation of all access authorisations. Individual authorisation profiles can be created from zones, areas and event periods and assigned to staff. The crew passes or wristbands are equipped with RFID tags that are scanned at the respective entrances using smartphones. The stored authorisation and, if available, the employee’s picture are displayed on the smartphone. This procedure offers several advantages – on the one hand, different badge variants and complicated pass sheets can be dispensed with, and on the other hand, one can react flexibly if individual authorisations are to be added or withdrawn.

For the project in Berlin, two separate accreditation areas with corresponding hardware were set up. For the daily check-in of the employees as well as the authorisation checks at neuralgic access points and at the catering, Guest-One configured the necessary smartphones for the employees of the security and order service. All devices are managed via mobile device management in “Crew Control” and can also be reconfigured or located remotely if necessary.

Two Guest-One project managers supported the production in Berlin and, together with the team of “sib Silvester in Berlin Veranstaltungen GmbH”, ensured a smooth accreditation process during the one-week set-up and event phase.

“Every project has its own processes and requirements and we are very happy to have found a solution with “Crew-Control” that can be tailored very specifically to the project,” Yvonne Mahling continues.

The cooperation that has begun is to be continued for the 2022 New Year’s Eve production.