(Ready Theatre Systems) RTS Report
We have installed an all-new
RTS system with the
Partner terminals at the Rialto this week. We talked to Greg Borr at RTS last year at ShoWest. We liked his system and decided we would buy it at some point in the future. The decision was made a couple of months ago and we placed the order one month ago.
At our theatre we have an enthusiastic assistant manager named Josh who took charge of the entire set-up and ordering of the system. He has had the demo program on his personal laptop for a couple of months.
We made a list of all of our tickets and concession items and their prices. We sent to list to RTS and they set up our individual machines with the appropriate buttons. We purchased 2 Box Office and 3 Concession terminals. They are identical except for the programming. We also got the Finger Print Readers so that is how the staff clocks in and out and logs on and off a terminal.
In conjunction with the new RTS systems we purchased a new Dell computer with Windows 2000 to use in the back office. First Josh spent 3 days setting up the Dell. We needed to get it on-line, put in three software programs for Payroll, Web Design, and get it talking to our printer. Getting to hook to our GCC Network Printer was the hardest part. GCC works seamlessly with MAC but it takes a system administrator with a degree from MIT to hook it up to a PC.
Then Josh spent three or four days getting the terminals set up. He had to get our staff in the system and capture their fingerprints. He also had to network the terminals together and to the Dell. This was not as hard as the GCC printer.
Thursday night we replaced our old computer box station two with the new RTS Terminal. For one show we sold using the new terminal. It was seamless. The staff member doing the selling had no problems at all. Then after closing Thursday, Josh took out all the old computers and cash registers and put in the new system.
We had a manager training session Friday morning and away we went.
The staff had no problems with the new system. The managers had only a few, which is a miracle for a new system.
- Our first problem was that when you are setting up showtimes for two films in the same auditorium, the computer priorities them so they can flip. Josh put the wrong showtimes with the wrong movies because they had probably flipped on him.
- This morning we moved all the films around due to their business volume. Some of the ticket selling rules changed. I was able to change them back without coaching from Josh. (The system is intuitive.)
- We were showing the key to open the cash drawers to the staff and one of them pushed it again after the drawer was open. So the drawer wouldn’t latch closed. We had to re-boot the system to get the drawer to latch.
- It seems that with our 40’ counter height that the screen on the Partner terminals will not tilt down sufficiently for our shorter employees. So now all of the terminals are propped up in the back using BevanPoos.
- Ky thinks that the reports that are printed by RTS aren’t as attractive as our old ones. I looked at them and could read what they said, so I don’t care.
- I think that the power supplies on the Partner terminals are way too noisy. That was my first impression and I’m sticking to it. These are by far the noisiest computers I have ever heard. It’s not really a problem during operation. But it is all I hear when I open up in the morning.
- Our previous box office report was 6 pages long each day. With RTS it is only one page.
- With the exception of the tilt issue, the staff loves the new system. It is very easy to use.
- Everyone has gotten hip to the clocking in and out procedure.
- Ky would like to change the orientation of the tickets so that the printing goes the same way as the logo screened into the background on our ticket stock. (Translation, he want’s landscape orientation rather than portrait orientation and to flip the customer and theatre halves of the ticket because that’s the way our old system, Box Office Pro, worked and we are all used to tearing tickets based on the old orientation. Of course we are adaptable, so maybe we’ll get used to it.)
RTS is going to get 100 blank tickets from us to try to reorient the ticket for us. On Tuesday, Josh was able to input the next week schedule in to RTS so now that is one less thing to do Thursday night at 11:00 PM.
So all in all this was a very smooth easy transition for the staff. We would do it again and if we get a new theatre we will.