I’ve just finished setting up a new box office computer for @JamesFarrant at the Old Court in Windsor.
That’s not really news. What’s more interesting is that the new computer isn’t a desktop machine or a laptop, but one of these:
For not very much money at all, you get a whole computer - running Windows 10 - that’s perfectly adequate to handle the Monad Client and send print jobs to a ticket printer. We plugged in a monitor for the initial setup, but once I’d configured unattended remote access with AnyDesk, the monitor and keyboard and mouse could be taken away.
As a bonus, the machine starts up as soon as it gets power. So it can be gaffer taped to the side of the ticket printer, and plugged into it, and when you turn them on, the printer appears in Monad as one you can use.
The plan is for the box office staff to use Monad on a tablet whilst the compute stick handles the printing, freeing them from desk and mouse and keyboard.
Interesting! This might be useful for us actually. We sometimes have shows where it would be better for us to check people in from a desk in the bar rather than being tied to a PC. Definitely something we’ll be looking into. Thanks!
We only run an in-person box office for 45 minutes before each event. The computer stick system works really well for quick set up anywhere in the venue and allows us to sell tickets from a tablet which is more friendly than from behind a computer. Would definitely recommend.
I bought a Huawei tablet on Amazon to operate the browser. However, returned it after about 10 minutes of use. It was so slow and with queues of people wanting for tickets before shows this wouldn’t work. I’ll probably buy a second hand iPad from CeX (uk.webuy.com).
