Revel Systems, a provider of iPad point-of-sale solutions for restaurants, groceries and retail businesses, has installed its solution in the new stadium at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Ala. The stadium opened on Aug. 31 and is equipped with Revel's iPad POS stations at all concession locations, the company said in a news release.

The deployment is Revel's first large-scale sports installation, and the company said servicing a sports stadium required it to re-imagine how a POS system should perform for major sporting events, when most sales happen within a few minutes between gameplay periods

The company created its stadium POS system to be fast and redundant, the release said, including a streamlined order screen that runs an average of 14 percent faster than traditional POS systems.

More than 20,000 fans attended the opening game, and Gourmet Services, which is utilizing the POS system, said it rang up a record 5,721 transactions in a few hours. The new system helps simplify many tasks that were previously labor-intensive, Alfred Baker, Gourmet Services' executive vice president, said in the release

"[It] runs so much faster than the registers we were using before," he said, adding that it only took about a half-hour to train staff on using the POS. "We are saving a minimum of five hours a week on inventory. For example, we stocked 10,000 bottles for the game and only sold 3,000. Before Revel, we would have to count the remaining stock in each stand [to] place the order for the next game. Now I can just check all that from my computer or smartphone at any time, even as the game is in progress. Managing reports for 30 terminals was very time intensive, and with Revel it's a breeze."

Revel Systems said it has also created the only "offline" mode iPad POS on the market, which allows vendors to continue with transactions regardless of Internet connectivity. That paid off during the first game when one side of the ASU football stadium lost power for more than an hour because of mechanical issues. Most devices in the stadium ceased to operate, the release said, but the Revel POS continued processing cash and credit card transactions.

"We predict that the speed of iPad-based point-of-sale systems will start to disrupt the way concessions are being run in stadiums," Revel co-founder Lisa Falzone said in the release. "And Revel is the first to kick things off."

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