With increasing demand for the best seats at popular shows, the owners will be pioneering “dynamic seat numbering” as they refurbish the Ambassadors Theatre later this year.
The new seats will have the traditional row-end letters and seat number discs replaced by multi-colour generating L.E.D displays.
This means that multiple rows and seats can now share the same numbers, displayed in various colours. Customers can be directed to sit in, for example “A12 – green” or “B14 – red” and the e-tickets sent to their phones will be given the same backgrounds to aid finding their seat location easily.
Calculations by box office consultants “Richard Bakers” suggest that besides benefiting customers by making sure that the best rows in the house are always bookable, it also means that the theatre can make the best seats available at a variety of prices while eliminating unpopular seat numbers and difficult to sell row letters further along the alphabet.
A wealthier customer can now purchase premium central seat “yellow G14” while a senior citizen can buy “orange G14” at their special reduced rate, both buying the same seat number at prices suiting them. Likewise, as many people who wish to buy row A seats will be able to do so.
In a further development, major theatre chains like Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) hope they can go one step further with the system by introducing “dynamic performances”. Helping with rising energy costs, it is envisaged that all theatregoers booking a show at a venue will select the date they wish to go.
If enough ticket buyers want to see the same show on the same date, the performance will go ahead. For quieter times, the matinee and evening may be merged to begin at an intermediate time – say 5pm, allowing one performance to be dropped. “Dynamic seat numbering” will thus allow all customers to retain their original seat numbers while attending the newly scheduled performance and minimising inconvenience to box office teams.
The new system will be live from 1st April 2023 when the Ambassadors Theatre re-opens, and will be rolled out across the country soon after.