Welcome to BigScreenBiz.com

The theater i am buying is still on hard tickets ..any web sites that have computer boxoffice systems i can look at ?

RTS We have been using them for years.
http://rts-solutions.com

Thanks! Did they come set it up or did you do it ?Do you have it in box and candy?

We set up all of our stations ourselves. With a little help from tech support on the phone.

We have them set up for both tickets and concessions at the concession counters. And for tickets only in the box offices.

There is also a manager station set up available. Employee clocking in and clocking out. Internet accessability, online ticketing, credit card processing. Lots and lots of features. I think they have a demo you can download and play around with.

sorry for all the questions ...did they come programed or did you have to do it...

We also use the RTS system, and I'm very pleased with it.

You can buy terminals from them, ready to go, but you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself. The software isn't resource-intensive, so you don't need supercomputers to run it. It's even compatible with Win98 SE.

When I first got into it, they would pre-program your tickets, concessions and any tax databases. That was a few years ago, so you'd need to check. In any case, it's not all that hard to do.

Yes they will set it up. You send them your needs and they will preprogram the system before the ship it to you. It is not difficult to do it your self with their help. If you do not want to buy the computers from them they are OK with that too but then you will have to install and setup the software yourself. I used my own computers and did the setup on the phone with them.

I would use it is both Box and concession. That way you get combined numbers on your reports and it will even talk to some accounting systems. Touch screen is the only way to go. Your manager(backoffice) stations do not require a fee. You can access it from home.

Also notice this post and several others here on other topics there is a theme that those of us who use RTS all say and really appreciate: "It is easy to use and support is great"

Remeber, look around and shop other systems to be sure for yourself because you have to like what you use.

Touch screens are the way to go. We purchased our own computers and installed the software ourselves. And with some phone tech support programmed our ticket prices, concession items etc. ourselves. We wanted to know how to do it ourselves from the start. That way when we needed to make changes to prices or ticket classes or concession items we didn't need to call anyone.

Incidentally.... a few "extras" this system is capable of:

Credit card processing: If you have a broadband (cable/dsl) connection, transactions run in the 3-5 second range. Thermal printers make ticket/receipt printing very fast... as fast as cash. However, you can also use dialup access, though I imagine that might be a little slower... maybe not a lot, though. I've seen it done.

Internet ticketing: Customer purchases are directly processed by your system. Your seats are actually sold when the transaction is completed. Works very well.

Pickup Window: This isn't for everyone. However, if you have a back kitchen, you can set the system up to transmit food orders directly to their own terminal (no extra charge for this). Being a drive-in, this was a huge plus for us.

Gift Cards: You can have plastic cards made up with your logo. They have the magnetic stripe on the back, which has the card's serial number on it. You can apply money, passes and concession "reward points" to the card. You can also sell & recharge them from your web site (easiest if you have credit card processing).

The system will work with as few as one terminal. We have 9 active ones here, as well as several "freebies" that we use for monitoring purposes around the place. Only stations that complete a sales transaction need be licensed.

Talked with them today ...Mary was so nice and fair not trying to sell me to much....

They're pretty good about that. If you talk with her again, tell Mary "hi" for me!

BTW... forgot about this. The system will also monitor employee schedules & time punches... no charge for that.

This subject was on the top of my list of reasons to attend ShoWest. I test drove 4 different POS systems and got on site quotes from them all. They all "appeared" similar from first glance, but in the end, RTS was the clear winner. Mary was there and was very knowledgeable and helpful. The others were more "corporate" and didn't offer as many niceties as RTS, they were more expensive, and they pushed extras I didn't need. For example, the others charged a monthly service fee for remote access from home while RTS does not.

And Slap, don't worry about the programming. "Programming" an item is about as difficult as posting a message to this forum.

anyone use the candy stand to sell tickets on the combo machine?

Weeknights during the slow months. We do not man the box office and sell tickets from the concession counter.

I use RTS and am so-so with it and am actually looking to replace it. I don't know if I will find anything better but have 30 days to figure it out. My issues are:

cARD PROCESSING FUNCTION IS SUPPOSED TO ALLOW FOR NO SIGNATURE BELOW A CERTAIN LIMIT. tHE FEATURE DOES NOT WORK AND AFTER CALLING 5 TIMES IN TWO MONTHS STILL WAITING FOR A FIX.

We do not use Mercurypay. We use a more competitive card processing company. Mostly because of our other locations that are not tied to RTS. We are charged an extra $1000 per year for not using their card partner.

The official response from Mary has been very cold/borderline rude because we do not use Mercurypay. They tell me they can match any fee structure offered by other card companies. This strikess me as quite unfair because of the varying deals people get. Why can't they just tell me what they will charge if I switch?

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?
Are all of you RTS supporters using Mercurypay?