Zones: why this is not just gates plus a spreadsheet
A venue is rarely one space. There is a main room, a balcony, a VIP area, a backstage corridor, a hospitality suite and a smoking terrace, and the question "is this person allowed in here" has a different answer in each of them.
Zones have their own capacity
Each zone carries its own limit, tracked live. A venue licensed for 800 with a balcony licensed for 150 is two constraints, not one, and the balcony is the one that gets breached — because everyone counts the front door and nobody counts the stairs.
Ticket types map to zones
A VIP ticket admits to the main room and the VIP area. A general ticket admits to the main room only. Staff and artist passes carry their own mappings. The scanner at each zone knows which types it accepts, so a general ticket presented at the VIP entrance is refused there without being invalidated.
Re-entry, decided per zone
The main entrance may allow re-entry while the backstage door does not. Each zone sets its own rule, which is the only way to model a venue where someone can step outside for air but cannot wander back through the artist corridor.
Live occupancy, per zone
During the event you see current occupancy against limit for each zone, updating as people scan through. Approaching a limit is a warning before it is a problem, which is the difference between managing a room and discovering a situation.
Common questions
- Can I restrict VIP areas to specific ticket types?
- Yes. Each zone has its own capacity, its own scanners, its own accepted ticket types and its own re-entry rule. A general ticket presented at a VIP entrance is refused at that zone without being invalidated.
Keep reading
- Hospitality: tables, packages and the guest who is not the buyerCorporate boxes, table service and dining packages break every assumption ticketing makes — starting with one buyer, one ticket, one attendee.Running the event
- The door: scanning, queues and who can see whatAny phone becomes a scanner, scoped to one event and nothing else — and a duplicate scan tells staff when and where, rather than just refusing.Running the event
- Running your first event: six things people get wrongPricing, timing, capacity and the door — written from what actually goes wrong rather than what sounds sensible.Running the event
- Selling a room and a stream at the same timeA stream ticket is a real ticket with a real access window — and the capacity constraint that limits your room does not apply to it.Running the event
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