1. Introduction & Event Details

First of all, welcome to TicketCo Media Services! With TicketCo Media Services, you can sell tickets to your digital content using our streaming and video on demand features. You will also broadcast your content via the TicketCo platform, and ticket buyers will be able to view on the TicketCo TV app, or by going to ticketco.events/stream.

We have put together this guide, broken down into 10 steps, in order to take you through the whole process; from event set up, to production to box office enquiries. We will be looking mostly at streaming, but we will also address some elements of video on demand. Note that you can always combine both features, and you can read more about the similarities and differences between the features here.

Simon Baker, Technical Director and Digital Producer at Wise Children, has been through this process himself, and he will be sharing his experience, as well as some top tips, throughout these help pages. You will see his comments marked in green like this, and he also wrote the "Production" sections (6, 7, and 8) in their entirety. 

Logging into TicketCo and setting up users

Once you have received your verification email and logged into our platform, you can start setting up other users on your account. You do not have to do this straight away, but it may be a good starting point. I set up an account for most of our office, primarily to manage box office issues and because many people need to track sales.

You can do this by going to Organizer settings and then Managers. Simply select the yellow Create new user button. For a more detailed explanation, please check outthis article.

Organizer settings

You will find your company’s details registered under Organizer settings. These details will be published on your customers’ tickets, and ticket buyers will likely contact you on the email address recorded here. Please make sure that these details are correct. If anything needs changing, please see this document for further information.

For video on demand events, you will need to upload your completed video file under the Files tab found in this section. For more information about how to do this, see here.

Event details

Go to Events in the main menu, and then Create new event. The fields on this page should be fairly self explanatory, but if you require a more detailed guide, head this way. You can also hover over the small blue question mark symbols for help with each of the fields. We will highlight some important fields and tips here:

Title - Add your event name here. If you are planning a run of shows and a combination of streams and VOD, then it is worth signalling this in your event title. Make sure you have decided on your naming format before starting. I went with a simple Show Name + Day. For now, tick Make event private - you can untick it later.

Image - Add a nice picture to customise your page. This image also becomes the square icon when used in iFrames etc., so it's worth considering keeping any text within the central square.

Event description - Here is where you can add information about the show itself, as well as information about how your ticket buyers can view the show. I tend to break the information down into two keys areas - The Event and The Show. I found that this breakdown aids messaging and avoids confusion. I always try and list a running time and age suitability at the bottom. It can be useful to apply the correct paragraph format when adding text, as this helps Google's SEO when scanning for the correct H1, H2 information.

Restrictions & Waiver - This appears on the event page and on the customers’ tickets. Here is where you can note your refund/ticket exchange policy and any other restrictions.

Post purchase message - This gets displayed after a customer has bought a ticket and I think it's a crucial stage of their journey. The user/customer/audience member wants to know "what happens next" and this box helps.

Wise Children used the following text: Thanks for buying a ticket! We've emailed you all the information on this page - it will arrive shortly (sometimes they end up in junk folders so worth checking there if yours hasn't come through). The main thing to look out for is your unique reference code. (We've also texted this to you if you gave us your mobile number). If you've not watched a show with us before, it's worth clicking the How Does It Work link below. It has lots of information that you might find helpful. If you've any questions, please get in touch with us at boxoffice@wisechildren.co.uk. Thanks again.

Start at / End at - For a streaming event, this is the where you enter the start and end time of the actual show. You will have access to the streaming key one hour before this, and your streaming channel will close one hour after the end time (so don’t worry if you overrun!). For a video on demand event, these dates refer to when your audience will be able to view the video.

Categories & Tag list - These are used to help ticket buyers filter events on our main page. You can think of tags as a “keyword search”, so consider what your audience might be searching in order to find your event. Tags can also be used to filter events when it comes to iFrames.

Location - This is the regular name for the venue, i.e. Bristol Old Vic

Street address - Note that for a digital event, this could simply be a general location e.g. London or Bristol. The street address will also define the time zone displayed on a ticket.

Now you can scroll to the top and hit Save. You can also use Preview to see how the event page is looking.

Copying events

If you have a run of similar shows, you can use the green Copy button under Events details in order to duplicate your current event. Note that this will copy across your event description, title and ticket types, but you will still need to activate streaming for each individual event.

It is worth making sure your first event is exactly how you want it before you start copying, or else you may find yourself manually adding new ticket types to every copied event! Taking time to set up the first event is vital. Get this right and making duplicate events is pain-free and quick. It's worth viewing this first event as a template for everything else.

Publishing events

Does what it says on the tin! Once you are ready, you can publish your event. Note that once tickets have been purchased, you cannot unpublish, but you can still edit your event details and ticket types.

Spektrix customers

If you are integrating your TicketCo event with Spektrix, please have a read through of this article.