Conducted at one of METRO Group's Distribution Centres in Germany, the Varena trials were designed to improve RFID tag read performance in high-density reader environments and to validate the robustness of the RFID portal dock door solution inpreparation for Metro's UHF rollout expansion plans scheduled for 2007. "The Varena trial demonstrates Checkpoint's strong commitment to its positioning as a major hardware integrator for the worldwide retail RFID sector. It is a good example of our new strategic emphasison RFID solutions for our retail customers." George Off, CEO of the Board of Checkpoint Systems said Utilizing equipment from numerous RFID suppliers in Europe and North America, Checkpoint served as a hardware integrator for the trials. In this capacity, Checkpoint helped with the design work for the hardware solution and procurement, configuration and installation of the 36 RFID enabled dock door portals which were used to validate successful simultaneous operation of multiple dock doors using a 4-channel synchronized approach under the ETSI 302 208 standard. Pallets containing 62 individually tagged cases largely containing RFID unfriendly materials (such as cans, liquids and metal lined items) were simultaneously transported at warehouse speeds through 36 adjacent loading dock doors. Some 4.5 million individual reads were recorded over the course of the trials. Complying with the ETSI listen before talk (LBT) requirements, the tests achieved a 98.5%+ read rate simultaneously from multiple pallets as they were wheeled through the dock doors."