Supporting Event Organisers through the Pandemic and preparing them for the New Normal
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major and unprecedented disruptions to Singapore’s live entertainment industry, resulting in mass event cancellations and customer refunds.
SISTIC has stepped up to overcome these challenges by innovating and quickly pivoting to support virtual events, such as live streaming and online virtual tours.
SISTIC Live
In May 2020, SISTIC launched our new live streaming platform – SISTIC Live. Developed in-house, SISTIC Live is a secure and gated platform dedicated to live broadcasts and video-on-demand of art, cultural and entertainment productions, along with classes, workshops and webinars. The platform was designed to support event organisers as well as individual artistes impacted by the pandemic so that they can continue to earn an income despite the lockdown measures.
Through a seamless booking experience, customers can easily purchase tickets on SISTIC’s website or on a white-label event page and make payment as usual with their debit/credit cards or digital wallets. With ticket payment complete, patrons will receive instructions on how to access and view the programmes.
As many live performances and projects were put on hold due to the pandemic, audiences can help support the arts and entertainment industry to recover some of their lost revenue by paying for online performances and events on a pay-as-you-wish basis or opting to make online donations to selected local arts groups.
With SISTIC Live, our team has built a next generation live-streaming technology which brings audiences close to a real-life concert or theatre experience. This platform also allows our partners to deepen the engagement with viewers through features such as multi-view functions, live chat and in-stream tipping. SISTIC Live also carries additional security features such as geo-fencing, download restrictions, and digital rights management.
To reduce the barrier to entry and encourage event organisers to come onboard SISTIC Live, we offered discounted rates and additional marketing support. SISTIC Live is also integrated with analytics to provide insights on the number of live viewers and their viewing behaviour including time spent, attrition rate and peak views of the broadcast. Such insights are valuable to our clients and content owners to create future programming and marketing strategies.
To date, we have supported more than 600 online events on SISTIC Live since our launch last year and transacted over 92,000 tickets. Some of the products hosted on SISTIC Live included theatre and orchestra performances, film festivals, comedies, virtual tours, masterclasses, sports classes, meet & greet sessions, and esports tournaments. Clients we have supported include Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Razer, tourHQ and ActiveSG.
Safe Distancing Technology & Features
In addition, to support our clients for safe opening and to get them ready for when restrictions are relaxed, SISTIC introduced new features and enhancements on our booking system and digital tickets to facilitate safe distancing and contactless measures at the venue.
We introduced a “bubble wrapping” technology which has been utilised by several event organisers and dynamically allows patrons to be seated alone or in a group up to the maximum allowed group size, while leaving adjacent seats empty to maintain a safe distance from other audience members.
For contract tracing purposes, we embedded SafeEntry check-in within our digital tickets for convenience and we have included staggered arrival timings to help facilitate crowd control. Additionally, for promoters using our access control scanners, we introduced a real time dashboard to show number of pax in the venue for crowd and traffic control purposes.
Prior to any event or shows, we also disseminate important pre-event reminders to our attendees on Safe Management Measures, including mandatory masks to gain entry and to stay home if they are unwell.
SISTIC’s booking system also supports pre-event COVID-19 testing time slot bookings and collection of payments as well as patron details for contact tracing purposes, which is seamless and convenient for both event organisers and patrons.
When the government permitted religious organisations to conduct congregational and other worship services last year, our team collaborated with 新加坡佛光山 Fo Guang Shan (Singapore) to design and configure the following key features to ensure safe management measures were strictly adhered to at Fo Guang Shan:
- Created a booking system to manage attendance for worship services which allowed attendees to select their preferred religious venue and book their preferred time slot.
- Control and regulate the capacity of the congregation onsite.
- Provided admission scanners to control and regulate the capacity of the congregation onsite the various venues.
- Support donations-in-kind payments to assist those affected by the COVID- 19 outbreak.
As we slowly resume more events and other activities, SISTIC is equipped to support bookings with our new features and enhancements to facilitate safe distancing and contactless measures at venues. We are also aligned with any developments to ensure our promoters and venue partners adhere to the guidelines stipulated by the government to make Singapore COVID-safe.
From a business perspective, SISTIC aims to create and innovate a platform that engages and delights our consumers, clients, and ecosystem partners, empowered by data and meaningful relationships. We strongly believe that this will position us better for growth and innovation into existing and new categories.