Seatem books a seat at Macquarie Hosting centre

Stephen Withers
Monday, 18 January 2010 04:03

Business IT - Technology

International ticketing service Seatem has picked Macquarie Hosting as the home for its Australian operations.

UK-based entertainment ticketing group Seatem has been selected to provide the ticketing platform for the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, and Seatem has in turn signed a $A1.5 million deal under which Macquarie Telecom will host the company's ENTA white-label ticketing application in Australia.

ENTA is used by more London organisations than any other ticketing system. Users include the Prince of Wales Theatre, the Drury Lane Theatre, the London Palladium, Sadler's Wells, Tate Modern, and Tate Britain.

Seatem's US clients include the NBA, NFL, and New York theatre companies.

In Australia, the system is also used by the Sydney Theatre Company.

The system supports ticket sales through other participants either via Seatem servers or through TicketSwitch (a Seatem group company) to resellers including HNV, Waterstone's, and British Airways.

The deal with Macquarie Hosting will enable Seatem to further expand its customer base locally to include other leading Australian entertainment organisations.
 
"Our ticketing software can handle up to 6.5 million simultaneous transactions. We needed a server hosting solution that was equally scalable and equipped to provide a reliable 24/7 service for our customers," said John Godwin, Seatem's managing director for Australasia.

"We chose Macquarie Hosting for its proven experience working with online transaction based businesses as well as its specialisation in the design and implementation of complex managed hosting environments. This partnership gives us the confidence we need to guarantee our customers low latency, fully redundant services, regardless of how quickly we, or they, grow," he added.

The hosting arrangement allows small to medium sized venues with an opportunity to use a world class ticketing service, while maintaining their own brands, Godwin observed. Furthermore, Macquarie Hosting complies with the PCI (Payment Card Industry) requirements.