Measuring the Total Cost of Ownership in AVI (Part 1)

There are three primary areas of AVI that incur initial and follow up costs.  They include the readers, the tags and the service / maintenance.  This three part series will look at each aspect of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and illustrate how to calculate TCO.  In our first part, we evaluate the readers themselves.

When paying for an entirely new install, the customer is inclined to look at the bottom dollar price and will fail to include the additional costs that come from operating a technical AVI system.  Readers, while often not the largest single line item (tags are because of their quantity), they do have the largest initial single item cost.

One thing that will increase the TCO is the lifecycle length of the reader.  If your reader does not include backward compatibility and a long lifecycle, then your total cost over the lifetime of the project can increase dramatically.  Replacing a single discontinued reader may involve a total system replacement.

A second issue is the reader’s compatibility with

ACTS Allows for Bus and Pedestrian Access to Logan Bus Depot

TagMaster NA’s embedded software system authorizes personal access using proximity cards in addition to vehicle access using long-range RFID tags.


TACOMA, Wa. | April 17, 2013 — TagMaster North America, Inc., the leading provider of long-range and high-performance Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems for Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI), was installed by Scheidt & Bachmann at the Logan International Airport Green Bus Depot.

ACTS (Access Control Tracking System) Essential, powered by ArmID, is reader embedded access control software that can control up to two long-range TagMaster readers: a Main reader and a Sub reader. Each tag read is an event that is verified against the database, time stamped, and logged. The web interface is where the database is updated and maintained, reports are downloaded, and gates can be opened remotely with the touch of a button.

TagMaster NA ACTS Essential Wireless Kit Allows for Remote Access

Wireless Access via TCP/IP using TagMaster’s LR-series readers and ACTS Essential Software

TACOMA, Wa. | February 07, 2013 — TagMaster North America, Inc., the leading provider of long-range and high-performance Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems for Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI), announces the ability to wirelessly access the ACTS Essential software embedded on LR-series readers using the ACTS Essential Wireless Kit.

An LR-series reader embedded with ACTS Essential is able to act as a standalone remote access control system. With the addition of the Wireless Kit, system managers are able to access the reader and the embedded software from any computer on the same network. Connecting the access point to the internet allows for access from the internet (with proper password access) to configure the reader, access the web-enabled user interface, and

TagMaster RFID Installed at Queen City Square Tower

GuardLink provides AVI and parking revenue for an 11-level parking garage in Ohio.

TACOMA, Wa. | January 22, 2012 — TagMaster North America, Inc., the leading provider of long-range and high-performance Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems for Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) was installed by GuardLink for hands-free parking access to Queen City Square Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati, Ohio.

With four entrance/exit plazas and 2,200 parking spaces, TagMaster’s AVI enables regular parkers to enter and exit the garage hands-free without the need to insert an access card or code, or even lower their vehicle window. This eliminates delays caused by congestion at this premier location.

With the installation of SKIDATA Pay on Foot machines and TagMaster AVI, GuardLink converted this high profile building into a completely unmanned revenue and access control system while still fulfilling the client’s wishes to keep the existing intercom and HID card reader system.

Outdated equipment was removed and replaced by