• On October 12, stadium and arena operators from Germany, Austria and Switzerland gathered at Red Bull Arena Salzburg for the Axess Tech Summit 2026 – and experienced the premiere of Axess VENUE OS, our new cloud-native SaaS platform for stadiums, live in action. 

Under the motto “Let’s Unzip What’s Next”, representatives from professional football across the German-speaking region joined us to see first-hand how VENUE OS is set to transform access control on matchday. In keynotes, live demonstrations and many personal conversations, the focus was on first practical experiences and joint projects.

Whether you joined us in Salzburg or couldn’t make it this time, we would like to share the highlights with you!

Great venues. Great events. Great people.

Christian Heidegger, Head of Sales Stadia, welcomed the guests and opened an afternoon packed with insights:

- CTO Vision & Technology Strategy – Daniel Wakounig, CTO
- Presentation of Axess VENUE OS – Manuel Schröder, Product Manager
- New access hardware & facial authentication – Manuel Schröder, Product Manager
- Live demo stations with our project management & operations team
- Guided stadium tour, followed by a get-together with dinner, drinks & networking

Christian Heidegger, Head of Sales Stadia, welcomes the guests and presents the agenda of the Axess Tech Summit 2026.

 “One second”: the moment of truth at the gate

In his keynote, CTO Daniel Wakounig put the fan at the center: one second – that is how long a fan actually sees our system. And in exactly that second, it is decided whether anticipation turns into frustration.

He also addressed one of the biggest challenges in today’s stadiums: data silos. Ticketing, accreditation, F&B, loyalty and parking often run on five different systems with five different “truths” – and a season ticket holder rightly asks: “Why do I have to have five accounts?” The answer is one common core: one identity, one permission system, one database. One fan. One profile. One platform.

The same platform already powers access at turnstiles, leisure attractions, exhibition entrances and parking barriers. Stadiums therefore start on technology that has been proven under peak loads in daily operation.

Daniel Wakounig, CTO of Axess AG, during his keynote “One second”.

Product launch: Axess VENUE OS – the stadium solution of the future

Product Manager Manuel Schröder then presented Axess VENUE OS in detail. Built entirely around the demands of matchday, the new platform offers:

- Changes that take effect immediately – all the way to the gate
- A Ticket Provider Gateway for seamless integration of ticketing providers
- Cloud SaaS that reduces the infrastructure customers often have to run themselves
- Live monitoring, dashboards and reports that give venue teams a full overview at all times
- A modern web application with guided workflows, SSO and MFA to make daily work easier

“VENUE OS is consistently tailored to the requirements of matchday: changes take effect immediately all the way to the gate, the Ticket Provider Gateway connects ticketing providers, and as a cloud SaaS, VENUE OS reduces the infrastructure that customers often have to operate themselves,” says Christian Heidegger.


From left to right: Manuel Schröder, Daniel Wakounig, Oliver Suter, Christian Heidegger – with the Axess VENUE OS facial authentication terminal. © Axess AG

Simple for fans – state-of-the-art behind the scenes

What is barely visible to visitors at first glance marks a major technological leap for stadium operations. Behind it lies a state-of-the-art system landscape: a new backend, central control and monitoring functions, and significantly more transparency across all processes during live operations.

“With VENUE OS, we are rethinking stadium software from the ground up. Our goal is a platform that works reliably in the background and gives operators a full overview at all times,” says Oliver Suter, CEO of Axess AG.

New access hardware and facial authentication – live at the demo stations

Alongside the software, Axess presented new access hardware and facial authentication. At the live demo stations, our project management and operations team showed guests how everything works together in practice – from the backend to the moment a fan passes through the gate.

With 170 venues in 25 countries, Axess has a strong foundation to bring this vision to life. The first go-live has already taken place, and the full rollout will follow in 2027.

The Axess VENUE OS facial authentication terminal and check-in through Axess gates at the event.

The go-live is just the beginning

Together with one of the leading football clubs, Axess is now gathering valuable experience from live operations. These insights flow directly into the continuous development of the solution.

“We are very proud to present VENUE OS, the most advanced system for ticket control in stadiums. The cloud-native solution based on Axess Intelligence sets new standards before, during and after the match: hundreds of thousands of tickets are processed within seconds, and from 2027, accreditation of media, staff and partners will also be handled directly in VENUE OS. On matchday, flexible rules that can be adjusted live and a clearing function that checks every problem ticket within seconds ensure maximum operational efficiency. All data is available in real time – at every moment of matchday,” says Daniel Wakounig, CTO of Axess AG.

Stadium tour and get-together

To round off the day, guests took a guided tour behind the scenes of Red Bull Arena Salzburg – with Axess VENUE OS taking center stage on the arena’s big screen. The summit then ended with dinner, drinks and plenty of time for networking. We were delighted to see our team, customers and partners coming together for such open and inspiring conversations.

Axess VENUE OS on the big screen at Red Bull Arena Salzburg.

Networking at Red Bull Arena Salzburg.

Thank you for joining us at the Axess Tech Summit 2026

It was inspiring to welcome so many stadium and arena operators to Red Bull Arena Salzburg and to exchange ideas on how VENUE OS can shape the future of matchday operations.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us! We truly appreciate your interest, your feedback and the great discussions throughout the day.

We look forward to the next steps together. See you soon!

Thank you from the whole Axess team!