NY Film Festival's site is always prepared for high demand. Here’s how.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center is an independent constituent of one of the world’s foremost performing arts centers and presents year-round programming that includes premieres of new films from an international roster of established and emerging directors and high profile events. As the Film Society announced their biggest online ticketing onsale as part of the New York Film Festival, their website attracted a significant number of members and film enthusiasts.
Challenge
While looking for a 24/7 coverage solution to protect their website from becoming unresponsive during the New York Film Festival, the Film Society had to manage the expected end-user overload and keep the website consistent, to provide members and film enthusiasts with a seamless ticket purchasing experience. Finding a virtual waiting room solution that is easy to implement, able to provide direct updates to end users, and a reliable technology supplier were other key challenges for the Film Society. But what happens when your largest onsale is so popular that your online platforms cannot handle the traffic? That phones and box office systems go down during attempts to support additional customers who could not purchase tickets online?
"We used a previous virtual waiting room solution that we couldn’t have year-round, it was only covering one-off events. We had very little control over it and very little support. We needed a solution that covered us year-round and that could handle the numbers we usually have."
Matt D’Silva, Database Manager, Film Society of Lincoln Center
Solution
Anticipating a high demand onsale of the 54thedition of the New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center decided to use Queue-it’s virtual waiting room after receiving a recommendation from a fellow Tessitura Network member. The web producers responsible for implementing and monitoring the solution emphasized the ability to provide a communication pane with ticket-seekers, as well as providing email notifications when it was their turn to exit the virtual waiting room and proceed to purchase their tickets.
"That email functionality, where ticket purchasers just put in their e-mail and get notified when it’s their turn is amazing."
Matt D’Silva, Database Manager, Film Society of Lincoln Center
Results
Not only did the solution smooth out the high-volume online ticket sale peaks, but the real-time communication features were appreciated by both film festival organizers and fans in the waiting room. The use of the waiting room for the New York Film Festival was an effective website overload management tool that allowed them to communicate clearly and efficiently, keep their website up and running, and provide customers with a smooth and undisrupted experience.
"We enjoyed that we could be a little bit more interactive with the customers so they could see that they were not just sitting in front of technology. We could communicate to them what was selling out and when."
Matt D’Silva, Database Manager, Film Society of Lincoln Center
About NY Film Festival
America’s preeminent film presentation organization, the Film Society of Lincoln Center was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, and to enhance awareness and understanding of the art among a broad and diverse film going audience. The Film Society is best known for two world-class international festivals—the New York Film Festival (the most famous and prestigious in the country), and New Directors/New Films (celebrating new cinematic artists).