Name

1–50 characters

A short name for the layout. Film Programmers will select this name in Showtime Manager's Screen Layout shortcut menu to schedule a session using this layout.

Screen

Any configured Cinema Screen

The screen to which this layout belongs.

Note: This field can no longer be edited after the seating layout has been saved for the first time.

Description

1–200 characters

(Optional) A description of the layout. Back Office administrators will see this description of the layout in the Cinema Screen maintenance form.

Total Seats

n/a

The total number of seats in the layout, including house and special seats. This value is calculated automatically after you have designed the layout.

House Seats

n/a

The number of house seats in the layout. This value is calculated automatically after you have designed the layout.

Wheelchair Seats

n/a

The number of wheelchair seats in the layout. This value is calculated automatically after you have designed the layout.

Remote Sales Cutoff

0–total seats

Choose a number of unsold seats, below which tickets cannot be purchased through a remote sales channel (for example, Internet Ticketing, or Mobile Phone). When the number of seats remaining reaches this number, or fewer, further seats can only be sold from POS.

There are two reasons that you may want to consider entering a remote sales cutoff:

As a session nears capacity, the available seating becomes of increasingly worse quality. Patrons buying tickets at POS can be warned by the POS operator that only low-quality (for example, front row) seats are left, and then make an informed decision about whether to continue with the purchase. Patrons buying over the internet do not receive this warning. To avoid disappointing these patrons with worse-than-expected seating, you may want to prevent them from buying tickets through these sales channels for sessions that are close to full.

Patrons who arrive early at the cinema intending to buy a ticket from POS may be disappointed if a session has been completely sold out from Internet Ticketing sales. You may want to limit the number of seats that can be sold remotely, thereby reserving some seats for patrons who arrive to buy their tickets in person.

Filling sign % Full

Any percentage value

The minimum percentage of sold seats that you want to trigger the Filling status on the filling sign of sessions using this layout.

Full Sign % Full

Any percentage value

The minimum percentage of sold seats that you want to trigger the Sold Out status on the filling sign of sessions using this layout.

Never Release Bookings

cleared

selected

When selected, bookings for sessions using this layout will never be automatically released.

When cleared, unpaid bookings for sessions using this layout may be automatically released for sale close to the session start time.

See also: Allow auto booking release when seats are at or below, and the system setting AutoBookReleaseMins.

Suggested Cleanup Time

Any number

The number of minutes that it takes to clean the screen after a session that uses this seating layout.

This option affects how much time is required between the end of a session using this seating layout and the start of the next session at the screen.

If you choose to leave this option blank, the system setting DefaultCleanupTime will be used instead.

Allow auto booking release when seats are at or below

0–total seats

To automatically release unpaid bookings close to the screening time when a show is in high demand, enter the number of seats that you want to remain available for sale despite bookings. All unpaid bookings for sessions using this layout will be released when the number of available seats drops below this number, freeing up more seats for sale. The bookings are not released immediately; they are released a specific number of minutes (given by the system setting AutoBookReleaseMins) before the start of the film.

For example: to release all unpaid bookings close to the start of the film when only 30 seats remain available, enter 30.

See also: Never Release Bookings.

Auto Release % Full

Any percentage

This value is set for each Seating Layout and applies to each Area Category in the layout. If more than one Area in a screen belongs to the same Area Category, seats are converted when the threshold for the Area Category as a whole is met.

Any unfilled Companion seats or unsold Wheelchair seats will be automatically released for regular purchase as each Area Category in the Seating Layout reach this level of occupancy.

The parameters set up in the scheduled task will determine whether it is companion seats or wheelchair seats that are released.

Name

1–50 characters

A short name for the area. The area will be identified by this name in the Area Tool.

Ticket Description

1–8 characters

The description of the area that will be printed on tickets.

Examples: "Standard", "AA Resrv".

Priority

1–256

The priority of the area.

Enter a number to represent the priority of the area, relative to other areas in the layout. Use lower numbers for areas with better seating.

Vista uses a combination of seat, area, and row priorities to determine the order in which seats will be auto-allocated for a session.

Vista always allocates seats in order of ascending seat priority.

Among seats of the same seat priority, Vista allocates seats in order of ascending area priority.

Among seats of the same seat and area priority, Vista allocates seats in order of ascending row priority.

Area Category

Any defined Area Category

The area category that will be used to determine pricing of seats within the selected area.

Description

1–50 characters

(Optional) A description of the area.

Advance Seating Rule

Any configured Advance Seating Rule

An Advance Seating Rule that applies to the seats contained within the specified area.

Note: if you select an Advance Seating Rule for this Area Category, you must also select a Fallback Category.

Fallback Category

Any configured Area Category

The area category that will be used to determine pricing of seats for the area, after they are made available to the general public.

Note: this field is only available if an Advance Seating Rule has been selected.

Rows

1–100

The number of seat rows that the area represents.

Columns

1–100

The number of seat columns that the area represents.