POS System

[Darin Steffl]

Who are you using for POS and online ticketing? Veezi is probably the biggest. They just bought Retriever.

What other good ones are there?

What hardware do you run? I know it's all windows based but do you buy a tablet, laptop, desktop with touchscreen? What about customer facing screen for seat selection and items list?

Credit card processor?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I highly recommend Sensible Cinema Software and Rusty Gordon the owner is on F-T now and then, or he may see this post. I had a lot of my customers install this system and everyone loved it. They have also been around a long time... going back to the DOS days. They can configure a system how ever you'd like it.

[Darin Steffl]

Sensible appears to be locally hosted? I'd prefer something in the cloud because if a server fails, we need to be local to fix it with new hardware, repair, or software issues. The cloud is someone else's problem if it acts up so "they" get to fix it.

[Gordon McLeod]

We use Omniterm and some Sensible systems and overall both are stable. The only issue with sensible is the lack of integrated Card payment in canada. I doubt we would use a cloud based for in many rural locations internet can be unstable and having each location hardware based ensures it can still sell tickets while the net is down

[Rusty Gordon]

Sensible appears to be locally hosted? I'd prefer something in the cloud because if a server fails, we need to be local to fix it with new hardware, repair, or software issues. The cloud is someone else's problem if it acts up so "they" get to fix it.

While you try to get "they" on the phone and to fix it, it's YOU who is down.

Regardless of software vendor, you'd always need someone local to service your hardware. I'm very good about getting someone back up in a hurry. Just ask the owners of the Stardust Drive-In Theatre in Watertown, TN. They had a server crash on Friday night a week ago at opening time and I had them running again in about 35 minutes because I answer the telephone without delay and our software saves critical files to other network connected machines for fast retrieval in just such a situation and we repurposed another computer in a flash. I have heard of users of cloud connected POS systems, one mentioned here at the beginning of this thread in particular, where support hasn't responded for DAYS and communication was difficult because of a language barrier. Things to consider. They also had an outage that affected all of their customers a couple of summers ago. In fact, they have a Twitter feed for their outage notifications. Ask anyone who has used a cloud POS about it's responsiveness--regardless of how fast their internet speeds are.

Rusty Gordon
Sensible Cinema Software

[Frank Cox]

This is my POS system.
20220419_144423.jpg
It hasn't gone down on me yet.

[Rusty Gordon]

This is my POS system.
20220419_144423.jpg
It hasn't gone down on me yet.

Unfortunately Frank, your POS system fails to meet several film company requirements which you have agreed to in your film licensing agreements including, but not limited to, the requirements to have tickets which show 1) Theater name, 2) Ticket Price/Series Name, 3) Movie Title, 4) Date/Showtime.

[Frank Cox]

In 27 years it's never been an issue. When and if it becomes one, I'll deal with it at that time.

Meanwhile, it works fine and as I said, it's never gone down yet. If I ever do need an electronic POS for whatever reason, I'll write one. But something like that seems like it would be vast overkill for a single screen theatre in a small town.

[James Wyrembelski]

I use tear tickets for an automaticket machine. It does include the theatre's name and price but nothing else. When the studio checkers came in when we were new, they were handed a ticket each time they showed up and never heard from anyone about it.

[Rusty Gordon]

It's less of a problem and most studios will look the other way when you have custom tickets bearing the theater name and current price because you can show an invoice showing the various series' you've purchased instead of just a generic receipt from an office supply store without ticket serialization.

That said, not having a POS system means you're not really able to sell multi-day advance tickets or have your entire ticket inventory available online in real time.

[Mike Blakesley]

We use RTS here and have since 2003. Every time I think about switching to something else, the amount of work it would take to switch is daunting to me and I've never been able to identify any super advantages to switching, so we've stayed put. It uses the same backup scheme as Sensible does, which is it backs up your information to at least one other computer on your network, so if you have a failure, it's a simple matter to retrieve your information. You can also back it up in other ways for an extra level of security.

Even though it has some warts, RTS is a robust system that works reliably well. The only time we've ever had to call the help line is when we're investigating some feature we don't know how to use, or installing a new piece of equipment. Their help people are kind of surly on the phone (why they have never dealt with this problem, I don't know) but they definitely know their stuff. I suspect their "code" is getting a bit long in the tooth and is overdue for a rewrite/refresh, but I suppose the idea of shifting everyone over to a new thing is kind of daunting on that end too.

There are a lot of advantages to an electronic ticketing system. It allows you to do online sales, you can do reserved seating if you want to, you can pull up whatever information you want at any time, it satisfies film companies' requirements and desires without you having to do anything, and it makes you look like a 21st century operation to the customers. And it does the math for you, which in this day and age, is a good thing because some young people are brain dead without something to compute the numbers for them.

[Frank Cox]

When you get into fancier stuff like advance tickets and online sales, then it becomes a lot more necessary to have a system set up to handle those things.

In my case, I don't sell advance tickets, I just have one screen, and I (usually) play just one movie per week, so roll tickets do everything that I need them to do. I track the start and end numbers for each ticket category every day and even made up a little spreadsheet that calculates the totals and the taxes for me at the end of the night, and it will even create a printable weekly box office report for me when it's needed (not as much any more with the Swift thing of course).

The only time it's a bit of a challenge is when I am approaching a "full house" and I have to start doing some mental subtraction to avoid over-selling the seats. But that happens very seldom, and not at all in recent years.

Once in a while someone needs an itemized receipt (when they brought the Indian band or the group home kids, etc.) I just have some receipts with the theatre name and my GST number on it that I hand-write on when that kind of thing is required.

Really, it's the simplest possible system that allows me to track everything that I need to track and also provide the fastest possible customer service, since I'm not waiting for a receipt to print, rebooting a computer, or trying to unjam a printer. The low-tech method really is the most efficient way to get the job done. Everyone gets a ticket when the walk in the door and now that I think about it I could easily tell from my records what date it was sold on, if that ever became necessary.

But, again, it's never been an issue.

EDIT: Oh, and responding to Mike: I don't think I want my theatre to look like a 21st century operation. A lot of my customers tell me how much they enjoy the "traditional" vibe that I have going here, so why would I interfere with that?

[Darin Steffl]

We think our building still has the "traditional" vibe but we now have digital signage for our menu board and use Square for our POS today which is fine for a single screen. People love it actually. Credit processing is fast and I've received lots of compliments.

What I don't want to do is go backwards on technology so I'm looking for a somewhat modern interface for staff and the customer facing screen, and online ticket sales. I'll explore all the POS options to see what is a good fit. Some customers want us to offer a loyalty system for points and things.

You'll have some customers that don't like any change but the changes we've made the last 2 years to modernize certain things have reaped benefits. Tons of word of mouth about the upgraded we've been making. If you never change anything, people view your business as stale and excitement drops off. They go elsewhere to businesses that invest in new things. That's my feeling at least.

Future improvements include a new cinema POS that offers everything the big guys offer, outdoor digital signage to replace our marquee, heated recliners, laser projectors, VIP suite, etc. We want to grow, not simply exist.

[Mike Blakesley]

I don't think I want my theatre to look like a 21st century operation. A lot of my customers tell me how much they enjoy the "traditional" vibe that I have going here, so why would I interfere with that?

I totally get that. We strive the the same vibe. That's why so much of our place is still as unchanged as possible. Most of the hi-tech stuff is behind the scenes in the projection booth, except our ticket setup, but even there, we still have the traditional window with the half-circle cut out that the money passes through. We don't promote "digital cinema" at all, in fact. There are probably still a few people out there who think we still use film.

[Jason Sharp]

I'd stay clear of any POS that charges the theater a fee for every ticket sold online. We offer reserved seating so online bookings make up a significant portion of our ticket sales. I expect that number to continue to rise in the future.

We use RTS for our POS. It took some heavy javascript and css customization to get the online customer interface to look decent but we're pleased with it.

For hardware I like the Posiflex XT3815-G2 combined with the LM3015E customer facing display. The 15" customer touch screen is a must if you have reserved seating.
https://posiflexusa.com/products/xt3...eptional-value
https://posiflexusa.com/products/per...ith-6-ft-cable

We ditched card stock printers a few years back due to ours needing constant repair. Now we use our receipt printers for tickets. Never had a problem since.

Credit card processor. They all will screw you, it's a shady and deceptive industry. So go with whatever integrates best with the POS you choose.