'My Ticketmaster' Launches as First-Ever Personalized Online Ticketing Service
Ticketmaster Online's Premier Service Features 360-Degree Photographic Images and Virtual Reality Seating Charts, Personalized Desktop Event Ticker, and Easy Internet Access To Events Nationwide
LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Feb. 2, 1999-- Ticketmaster Online's customized online ticketing service, My Ticketmaster, launches Tues., Feb. 2 at my.ticketmaster.com.
The new state-of-the-art system, developed in conjunction with Intel Corp. [Nasdaq:INTC - news], provides entertainment fans with an opportunity to create personalized profiles alerting them to ticket on-sales of favorite events including concerts, sports, family entertainment, performing arts, etc.
Additionally, My Ticketmaster features IPIX 360-degree photographic images and 3-D virtual reality images of more than 75 venues including New York's Radio City Music Hall, the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, and Chicago's Comiskey Park. The service enables entertainment fans to see 360-degree views from the best available seats before completing their ticket purchase and to take virtual 'tours' of the venue. The site also provides event information such as showtimes, directions to the venue, parking, and more.
My Ticketmaster features an on-screen ''Ticketmaster Event Ticker'' -- a desktop event ticker program which is downloaded to users' individual computers allowing them to receive a continually updated display of on-sale information for events which meet the users' personal, customized preferences. In the future, My Ticketmaster plans to introduce ''collaborative filtering'' technology within its user database to deduce users' event interests and provide expanded event recommendations. The collaborative filtering will be powered by the Engage/Net Perceptions technology package.
''We're extremely excited about the launch of My Ticketmaster,'' said Terry Barnes, President and CEO, Ticketmaster Group, Inc. ''The Internet is a wonderful vehicle for expanding our core ticketing business and provides another easy, convenient way for consumers to acquire tickets to their favorite events. It also opens up a boundless opportunity for our clients to communicate to a universal audience. Entertainment fans can keep tabs on what's going on in their own city or in any city in the U.S. and can be among the first to get tickets in hand to top events.''
''My Ticketmaster is a powerful new online ticketing application,'' said Bob Perkins, EVP Ticketing, Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch. ''We're proud to be working with Intel and many of the industry's top technology, virtual reality and interactive design firms to offer consumers and clients an unbeatable, technologically superior service.''
The solution architecture of My Ticketmaster as well as the user interface and virtual venue views development were designed and managed by Intel based upon content from Ticketmaster. The service utilizes technology wholly created by Ticketmaster research and development and Intel, as well as visualization technologies from Viewpoint/3Name3D and Interactive Pictures Corporation, a virtual reality plug-in from blaxxun interactive, and interactive design from R/GA Interactive.
The My Ticketmaster site is optimized for Intel's Pentium® II processor based systems. Users will receive the best performance with a 400 MHz or higher system but can also use a processor with speeds above 200 MHz. My Ticketmaster utilizes several plug-in technologies to bring virtual reality files (VRML models) and 360-degree photographs (IPIX files) to the users' desktop.
''Intel is happy to have worked with Ticketmaster Online to create a new and interesting use of the Internet,'' said Timothy Yiu, Director of Intel Productions. ''Users are excited by the ability to interactively preview their seats during the ticket purchase process through our use of 3D and panoramic viewing technologies. My Ticketmaster reinforces Intel's belief that appropriate use of advanced technology in e-commerce sites helps business.''
''Through this work with Ticketmaster Online and its development partners, we are collectively demonstrating how 3D visualization can enhance the online experience for consumers as well as provide a competitive advantage to business,'' said Martin Plaehn, CEO of Viewpoint, a subsidiary of Computer Associates. ''The My Ticketmaster project is the first tangible example of Viewpoint/3Name3D's strategic initiative to transition technologies created for high-end animation into broad-based electronic commerce solutions.''
''With My Ticketmaster and IPIX images, people are literally teleported into concert halls and ballparks via the Internet,'' said Jim Phillips, Chairman and CEO of Interactive Pictures. ''Ticketmaster Online customers will be spellbound by being able to select their seats as if they were already there.''
''My Ticketmaster offers users unprecedented access to information about their entertainment choices,'' said Robert M. Greenberg, R/GA Interactive's Chairman and CEO. ''The challenge for the interaction design team at R/GA was to create an interface that allows customers to navigate and customize the broad range of options with confidence in their choices.''
''We're convinced My Ticketmaster is defining the next generation of e-commerce applications,'' said Franz Buchenberger, CEO of blaxxun interactive. ''It makes full use of the Internet as an interactive visual medium. We're pleased to integrate the blaxxun Contact 3D viewer into a product that makes ticketing a user friendly, informative experience.''
My Ticketmaster is a personalized complement to Ticketmaster Online (www.ticketmaster.com), the Internet's leading event ticketing and information source, with more than 30,000 event listings. Ticketmaster Online sales have risen from $100,000 to more than $10,000,000 monthly in the past twenty-one months. Entertainment fans can purchase tickets on a real time basis for most events.
Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, Inc. (www.citysearch.com, www.ticketmaster.com, www.CityAuction.com) is a leading provider of local city guides, local advertising and live event ticketing on the Internet. The CitySearch city guides provide up-to-date information regarding arts and entertainment events, community activities, recreation, business, shopping, professional services and news/sports/weather to consumers in metropolitan areas. Ticketmaster Online offers consumers up-to-date information on live entertainment events and a convenient means of purchasing tickets for live events and related merchandise on the World Wide Web in 42 states and in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Ticketmaster, a USA company (Nasdaq:USAI - news), is the world's leading computerized ticketing service; selling 70 million tickets valued at more than two billion dollars, through more than 2,900 retail Ticket Center outlets; 29 worldwide telephone call centers; and through its relationship with Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch. Ticketmaster serves more than 3,750 clients in the U.S., South America, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia. The company provides ticketing for 85 professional sports franchises and hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, and theaters. Clients receive comprehensive ticket inventory control and management, broad distribution, and dedicated marketing and support services. Consumers receive convenient access to tickets for more than 150,000 events a year, including a broad range of concerts, sports, family entertainment, performing arts, and movies.
Viewpoint DataLabs and 3Name3D, pioneers and market leaders in 3D digital model creation, joined forces in 1998 following their acquisition by Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA - news), the world leader in mission-critical business software. The combined company, operating as Viewpoint DataLabs International, Inc., serves thousands of customers in entertainment, visual simulation, corporate communications, computer-based training, advertising and electronic commerce -- helping create stunning digital effects for films, television programs, advertisements, games and Web sites. With customers and partners ranging from DreamWorks SKG and PDI to Microsoft and Ticketmaster, Viewpoint has built a strategic business at the core of its industry that is helping define the future of computer graphics. More information about Viewpoint can be found at viewpoint.com.
Interactive Pictures Corporation has reinvented photography for businesses and consumers through its patented IPIX technology. An IPIX immersive image ''teleports'' people to and immerses them in a three-dimensional, 360-degree by 360-degree image. IPIX is the only photography solution to deliver a completely immersive photographic experience providing interactive, spherical images. An IPIX takes the viewer from earth to sky, floor to ceiling and horizon to horizon, all from two simple opposing photographs captured by a fisheye lens and seamlessly blended together. Interactive Pictures maintains corporate headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and San Jose, Calif. The privately held company has received equity investments from Motorola, Discovery Communications, Advance Publications and Media One Group. Experience IPIX and learn more about Interactive Pictures at www.ipix.com.
R/GA Interactive is a strategic design agency that creates communications tools for companies that want a meaningful presence in the digital economy. Recently completed projects include the redesign of the Auction Universe site (www.auctionuniverse.com), interface design for the online multiplayer versions of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy on Sony Station (www.station.sony.com), the Ross School web site (www.ross.org), and the award-winning visuals and software for a series of kiosks installed at the Discovery Channel's flagship store in Washington, D.C. R/GA Interactive is currently in production on projects for clients including IBM, Kodak, Streamline, CTW, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. More information about R/GA Interactive can be found at www.rga.com.
blaxxun interactive, an international company with offices in San Francisco, CA and Munich, Germany was founded in 1995. It offers products and solutions for multimedia communication on the Internet and intranets. Applications include online promotion, online shopping, online service, and online teamwork. The award-winning blaxxun Community Server and Clients are an open platform for interactive 2D and 3D (VRML) solutions. More information about blaxxun interactive can be found at www.blaxxun.com
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