Hi Jeff,
Theatre Manager supports HTML in fields like the Performance Notes and External Marketing Notes that appear online.
In Elizabeth’s case she added text to the Performance Notes fields and then used some standard HTML to make the text stand out. She included some bolding and spacing.
We would encourage you to work with your marketing department on the wording to use and to be creative in how you want to use HTML in text to appear online.
Bonnie
Hello Bonnie,
Can you please provide the code she used and we can edit the verbiage.
Thank you,
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
The text Elizabeth used was:
<b>
STREAMING
</b>
<br>
You will be able to enter the live show on the designated date and time by signing into your online profile from our ticketing site.
<br>
<br>
Click <b>WATCH </b>button under Tickets for Upcoming Performances in Home Page.
Bonnie
Bonnie,
Thank you, I appreicate it.
HTML code is still a little greek to me.
I could have googled it but what you have works perfectly.
Best,
Jeff
A question that came up for a couple of us during the webinar that I don’t see here is regarding customers being able to pay and join a live stream after the start time. I believe the answer was no, that customers would not be able to join a performance even if they were 1 minute late. Unfortunately, this is a deal breaker for us. We have found it rather common place for customers to join a live stream late. Until you’re able to accommodate that use case, there’s no way we would utilize this feature. Thank you. - Joe Panzetta, Vashon Center for the Arts
Hello Joe,
At present a patron can join a streamed event up to 6 hours after the event start providing they have previously purchased a ticket.
The option of purchasing a ticket online after the start of the event is an enhancement the development team is reviewing. However, patrons could purchase tickets through the box office (telephone or in person) and view the streamed event online.
Bonnie
Ah, got it. Thanks for clarifying, Bonnie. And thanks for your work presenting the webinar.
Quick question - it’s probably right in front of me - but… is there another live session coming up? Thanks! Deborah
Hello Deb,
We have not yet announced our next session. We will post here in Community when we have more information.
One question about programming the map for distance seating - I’m going to delve into it in the next week or so. We were in the house measuring, and we need a three seat distance horizontally (sideways), but only a one seat distance vertically (row-to-row). Can we program it like that or does it have to be the same number of seats both directions?
Hi Eva, good question. You can create whatever size of bubble works for your organization. It’s just a matter of selecting the sqares (drag and hold) and then clicking on the one seat in that selection you want the bubble to be around. In the example below, I have a 3 seat buffer on each side of the seat and only a 1 row buffer in the next row. Is this helpful?
Has anyone looked closely into using Vimeo for this? I have had a question about the Premium Plan not being the right plan if we are to charge for a ticket. In my mind it is not an OTT type subscription based streaming that we are doing so we are fine with the Premium Plan
Does anyone have insight on this?
Thanks
Sioban
Somebody just said exact same thing to us. Can ArtsMan clarify this?
I contacted ArtsMan and they cannot speak to Vimeo policies/products. TM has provided us with an easy way to ticket any videos/live-streams we wish to promote. I have tested it and it works great!
I have done some further investigation and Vimeo has their own Video on Demand platform that is very much like this that you can “ticket” or “sell” and Vimeo takes a percentage of the ticket - Looks like about 4.8%
It says you can “sell” your videos outside of Vimeo and they gave an example of setting up your own website by embedding the video etc.
In my mind, this is what we are in effect doing with our TM video events so I am pretty confident that the Premium Plan is all we need.
Still looking at it so I will share anything else I learn.
Sioban
Key City Theatre
sioban@keycitytheatre.com
Hi Everyone,
Since I did most of the research for this feature I thought I’d chime in about what we know.
Most of the details about Live Streaming are listed in this help page, including some help on content production and more details about Vimeo domain privacy: https://help.theatremanager.com/theatre-manager-online-help/live-web-content
For Vimeo, Theatre Manager embeds the Vimeo pre-recorded video or live stream into a mobile-friendly HTML5 web page. That same HTML5 web page will be compatible with most computers and smart phones. Modern Smart TVs that have a web browser will also likely work. If the video content you’re playing is deemed “Commercial Content” then you require at least a Vimeo Business account.
However, Vimeo Premium also has a feature called “Domain Privacy” that allows you to restrict embedded video to specific domains. In the case of Theatre Manager that Vimeo feature will allow you to restrict embedded video playback to only your web sales domain – usually tickets (dot), like tickets.yourvenue.org.
Here is a list of Vimeo’s plans with comparison of features: https://vimeo.com/upgrade
So to use the Theatre Manager Live Streaming feature you’ll very likely want to be on the Premium plan w/ Domain Privacy – which allows you to sell your own tickets to “Commercial Video” while also ensuring the privacy of the streaming content by only allowing the content to play under your tickets (dot) web sales site.
The 4.8% cut is if you use the Vimeo On Demand platform to sell your pre-recorded videos – a separate product from Vimeo itself. The advantage of using the Vimeo On Demand platform is that you would get access to their Over The Top (OTT) apps (Roku, AppleTV, etc…). The disadvantage is that it costs 4.8% of your ticket, you aren’t able to brand the surrounding web page and customize the experience, and you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of Theatre Manager features like special promotions, coupons, membership redemptions, or custom branding. Plus, depending on the number of tickets you sell, 4.8% will very likely add up to be a lot more than $85/month ($95/month CAD) for using TM’s live streaming web page w/ Vimeo embedded video.
The Theatre Manager Live Streaming feature strikes a cost-effective balance between all of the benefits that you usually enjoy when selling tickets with Theatre Manager and the Vimeo features that are available for HTML5 embedded video. All you need is a Vimeo Premium plan to safely do it.
Thanks so much David,
This confirms that the Premium Vimeo plan is the way to go.
Not being super techy I am trying to understand how to “embed” a live stream.
I tested the TM set up with a video we have on our vimeo account and everything worked great.
Just unsure about that final step with a live-stream.
Any insight you could provide, link, etc would be greatly appreciated.
Sioban
Key City Theatre
Thank you very much David. This is much appreciated!
We are still looking into Vimeo and whether or not it will work for live streaming at the Port Theatre. I am looking for more information on monetizing live streaming and options we have to choose from.
Kathy Robinson
The Port Theatre
Yes, completely helpful!
Hi folks. the latest re: VIMEO is that it would be fine to use if not charging. If you’re thinking of charging, please note that the costs to go up $15,000 a year. Perhaps David can post the latest.