As Vancouver continues to build its reputation as a host city for major international events, the technology protecting attendees is becoming just as important as the events themselves.
Toronto-based Xtract One Technologies recently announced that its AI-powered SmartGateway screening system was selected to help secure the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), enabling attendees to move through security without the long lines and intrusive screening traditionally associated with large venues.
While the deployment marks another milestone for the publicly traded security technology company, it also highlights Vancouver’s growing influence in Canada’s AI ecosystem. Xtract One’s artificial intelligence team is based in Vancouver and Fredericton, developing the technology that enables its screening systems to distinguish genuine threats from everyday personal items while maintaining the fast, frictionless entry that modern venues increasingly demand.
With large-scale sporting events, concerts and festivals placing new demands on venue operators, security is no longer measured solely by what it stops, but by how seamlessly it integrates into the overall guest experience. Techcouver spoke with Xtract One CEO Peter Evans about the PNE deployment, Vancouver’s role in advancing AI-powered physical security, and why he believes Canadian technology is well positioned to help shape the future of public venues.
Xtract One announced its “SmartGateway” was selected to protect the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) to support a large-scale soccer fan festival event this summer. As a Toronto-based company, what does a deployment at one of Canada’s most iconic venues mean to Xtract One?
PE: The PNE has been part of Vancouver’s fabric for over a century. It draws massive crowds across a compressed summer schedule, and the expectation from attendees is that the experience starts the moment they arrive… not after they’ve emptied their pockets and waited in a line that wraps around the block. The expectations of fans visiting the global soccer festival at the venue this summer are no different. Winning that deployment matters to us because it reflects security technology that works in Canadian environments, for Canadian institutions, without the operational friction that has traditionally come with taking safety seriously. We are a Canadian company, and there is something meaningful about protecting the kind of venue that generations of Canadians have grown up going to, as well as this iconic event.
What does the PNE deployment look like in practice, and why was SmartGateway the right fit for that environment?
PE: The deployment at PNE’s large-scale fan festival presents a certain kind of operational challenge. It runs a high volume of attendees across multiple entry configurations, and the population moving through on any given day can be very different, with attendees from different parts of the world, speaking different languages, and having different entry experiences from their home team stadiums. SmartGateway is purpose-built for exactly that kind of environment. It is operationally very clean, very simple to manage, and easy for guests to comprehend. Individuals simply walk through at a natural pace without removing personal items, even with all their fantastic outfits showing their support for their team, and the system identifies specific threat objects rather than alerting on everything metallic in someone’s pocket. Staff receive accurate, actionable alerts and can focus on what genuinely requires their attention. The specific design of the SmartGateway is such that the overall mean-time-to-ingress is optimized, so it is not simply a question of how many people can walk through a system, but how fast is the entire journey for the fan, taking into account the information available to the security staff. The footprint is portable and configurable, which matters when a venue needs to adapt its security setup. The fit here was operational before it was anything else.
Global sporting events are drawing more international visitors to North America this summer. How does that shift the security expectations for venues hosting fan festivals and watch parties, and how does the technology need to respond?
PE: The scale changes everything. A venue that manages security for a regional crowd on a typical weekend is now absorbing international visitors who arrive with different expectations, different cultural contexts around security screening, and a higher level of scrutiny on the overall experience. The tolerance for long lines and invasive searches is lower when those visitors are representing their experience of Canada back home. What that means for technology is that accuracy and throughput can’t be treated as competing priorities. The system has to identify genuine threats at volume, without generating the kind of secondary screening noise that turns an entry point into a friction point. SmartGateway was designed to do exactly that, and the deployments we’ve run at major international venues have validated that it holds up under that kind of pressure.
Vancouver is considered one of the leading tech markets in North America. How does Xtract One’s approach to intelligent, high-throughput screening solutions align with Canada’s approach to securing its facilities, citizens, and visitors?
PE: Canada’s approach to public safety has generally been thoughtful rather than reactive, and I think that’s reflected in how Canadian institutions evaluate security technology. There is a real appetite here for solutions that are rigorous without being institutional, that protect people without treating them like suspects. That’s the problem we set out to solve.
What people may not know is that Vancouver has played a direct role in how we solve it. Our AI team was built out of Vancouver, as well as Fredericton, which means the intelligence behind how our systems learn to distinguish a concealed weapon from an everyday item is built from one of the world’s leading technology markets. The talent we’ve been able to access in Vancouver is a meaningful part of why our detection accuracy is where it is, and why we’re able to keep pushing it forward. When we talk about Canadian technology protecting Canadian institutions, it reflects where the work is actually happening.
Vancouver continues to be selected as a hosting location for large and global events. Can you speak more about the opportunity for Canadian institutions to lead by example here?
PE: It’s a genuine opportunity and a real responsibility at the same time. When Vancouver hosts a global event, the security program at every venue connected to that event becomes visible to an international audience. The decisions Canadian institutions make about how to screen people, how to balance safety with experience, and what technology they trust to do that job are being watched by venue operators and government officials from around the world. Canada has the talent, the technology, and frankly, the disposition to lead here. The PNE deployment is one example of what that looks like in practice.
What does this summer tell you about where AI-powered physical security is headed at major events?
PE: The shift that’s happening right now is that security has stopped being evaluated purely as a risk management function and started being evaluated as part of the overall experience. Venue operators and event organizers are all arriving at the same conclusion: what happens at the entrance shapes what happens for the rest of the event. That conversation was already underway before this summer, but the volume and visibility of the events happening across North America right now are accelerating it. The question venue operators are asking has changed from “how do we meet the minimum security standard” to “how do we build a security program that performs at this scale without undermining the reason people showed up?” That’s the question we built Xtract One to answer, and the fact that it’s now being asked broadly tells me the industry is at a genuine turning point.
For Canadian venues and decision makers evaluating their security infrastructure ahead of a new wave of large-scale events, what’s the most important thing to get right?
PE: Start earlier than feels necessary. The space between when a venue decides to take security seriously and when a well-designed program is actually running is longer than most people anticipate, and it gets even further compressed by event timelines in ways that produce rushed procurement decisions and programs that aren’t ready for the operational reality they’re about to face. Event organizers should assess their entry points specifically, match the technology to the actual population and belongings profile of the people moving through each gate, build staffing and secondary screening procedures before the system arrives, and give themselves enough runway to course correct before the first large crowd shows up. That process takes time.
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Peter Evans on Xtract One’s PNE Deployment and the Future of AI-Powered Physical Security was first posted on July 16, 2026 at 5:00 am.
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