ITRM950260A1 - PROCEDURE FOR THE CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT AND ISSUE OF TICKETS FOR SHOWS AND / OR EVENTS ORGANIZED BY THIRD PARTIES AND MEANS FOR THE - Google Patents

Description

PROCEDURE FOR THE CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT AND ISSUE OF TICKETS FOR SHOWS AND / OR EVENTS ORGANIZED BY THIRD PARTIES AND MEANS FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION;

The present invention relates to the production and management of magnetic stripe paper tickets, to be used as access tickets to all those shows or events in general for which admission is subject to a fee.

With the development of duplication and photoreproduction techniques also in color, common paper tickets, substantially characterized by a progressive serial number and little other information necessary for the visual recognition of the event for which they were issued, no longer offer many guarantees. , as it has become possible to forge them without particular difficulty.

These forgery phenomena become significant especially on the occasion of spectacular mass events where it is not always possible for the control staff to visually find differences and alterations, generally barely perceptible, on thousands of tickets.

The aim of the present invention is to obviate these drawbacks by proposing to use, for entrance tickets, the technology of magnetic stripe cards on which to report a machine number that can be recognized electronically by means of a common magnetic stripe reader. The latter, placed at the entrance, will give access authorization only if the machine number being read is recognized as valid by a central access control computer to which the same reader is connected.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a ticket consisting of a card with a magnetic stripe, numbered in progression typographically and bearing in the magnetic strip a series of information relating to the coded identity of the security itself.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a card with a magnetic strip of the aforementioned type in which, in order to make forgery impossible, the machine number that identifies the access ticket consists of a series of information, printed at the time of the sale, which include the Point of Sale code, date, hour and minute of issue, the progressive number of the ticket issued by sector, and price category of this show.

Another purpose of the present invention is to provide a ticket of the aforementioned type in which the clear identification of the show, the date and any other indication is necessary or useful for its visual recognition and also, where required and useful, is printed. , there are indications on the numbered seat in a particular area such as: entrance, sector, row, number.

A further object of the invention described is to provide an apparatus that is able to manage by software and telematics a service for booking, issuing and assigning a progressive machine number which is unique since it is a function not only of the progressive number of the ticket. , but also the date and time as well as the point of sale code (hereinafter PV).

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a software and telematic management procedure for the sales of show tickets according to the prescriptions of the Ministry of Finance and of the SIAE on copyright, allowing to record and verify the transformations of pre-wrapped supports. and endorsed by the SIAE in issued tickets.

In this regard, it should be noted that the price and the presale rights are updated on the basis of tax regulations.

To avoid issuing more than one ticket with a specific machine number, upon receipt of the successful confirmation of the issue and printing operation, the central computer, to which all the PVs are connected, advantageously stores all the data relating to the 'operation.

A better understanding of the invention will be obtained from the following detailed description, with the aid of the drawings, which illustrate, for purely illustrative and not limiting purposes, a preferred embodiment.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 shows the various components of the machine number;

figure 2 shows the front side of the ticket;

figure 3 shows the magnetic strip placed on the back face of the ticket.

Figure 4 shows a diagram of the telematic connection network.

With reference to the aforementioned figures, the invention described makes use of information and telematic technologies, in order to allow the reservation of seats and the issuance of tickets for shows organized by third parties, through a sales network managed by an apparatus. centralized electronic.

According to the invention, the apparatus allows the Manager (or Service Center), the Organizer of the event, the Sales Points and the End User to interact with each other.

The Manager is the person who manages the entire system through its Data Processing Center, the Organizer is the one who has relations with the SIAE and who intends to make use of the Manager's services through a specific contract. The Points of Sale are the shops connected electronically to the Service Center, from which the End User can purchase tickets for the scheduled events in varying quantities and qualities. For example, these PVs can be located at travel agencies, bank branches, professional box offices, commercial establishments, or the same box offices as show venues.

The Operator delivers to each PV an adequate number of paper supports endorsed by SIAE, recording the operation on an loading and unloading register, identifying said supports by quantity and sequential number. Said PV takes over, through the management software, the paper supports on which it will be able to proceed with the issuance of tickets for all the events in progress adhering to the system. The described management apparatus allows you to check, at any time, the stock of each paper support.

At the time of each sale, the device records, both at the PV and at the Service Center, the transformation of a given medium into an entrance ticket with the relative specifications such as: organizer, event (date and place), order, type and price.

In the event that the venue and / or the organizer are not equipped with an automated system for issuing tickets, the Service Center can arrange for the printed issue and delivery to the organizer of the tickets not sold in advance. If, on the other hand, the automated ticketing system connected to the Operator's network is available, the sales phase takes place as the pre-sale described above.

As regards the characteristics of the ticket, according to the invention it is envisaged that each ticket is printed on a special paper, numbered typographically and stamped by SIAE, with a continuous or discreet pre-punched form, which is part of a single loading register belonging to the Manager and showing its graphic identifications.

A series of information is indelibly printed on each ticket including: 1. identification of the organizer;

2. title of the show or event;

3. place of performance;

4. start date and time;

5. place order (sector) and relative net price to the public, -6. any wording "REDUCED" or "FREE";

7. seat number (if numbered), entrance gate and other logistic information (optional);

8. progressive number of the machine.

It should be noted that said progressive machine number is a unique code, assigned directly by the central computer to each confirmation of sale and issue of a security.

More particularly, according to a preferred embodiment, said progressive number consists of two distinct parts: the first part is formed by eleven alphanumeric characters divided into three fields.

The first field A, of three characters, is a code that identifies the Point of Sale, the second field B and the third C, both of four characters, respectively identify the date of issue (day and year), and the time of issue. .

The second part consists of a single field D, composed of a plurality of characters (preferably six), containing the progressive number of the ticket, as shown in figure 1.

After receiving the confirmation that the issue and print operation has been successful, the apparatus described here stores all the data relating to the operation.

The form on which the tickets are printed is prefixed and of the type that has two tear-off sections: daughter F and matrix M. On both there is the typographic number and part of the SIAE stamp S.

The first section F (smaller), showing the information listed in the previous points 1 to 7, can be used as an entrance ticket, the second section M (larger) remains with the spectator and contains all the above information as well as any other organizational information.

If the printing of the ticket is not completed correctly for any reason, the apparatus according to the invention will proceed to record the relative machine number ABCD in a list of the canceled tickets.

According to the invention being described, the operating characteristics of the software allow a selection of seats to be made through a menu organized as follows:

selection of the Catalog belonging to the organizing body of one or more events;

Sub Catalog containing the sets of events (summer, winter, ballet, etc.); consultation of the event calendar (list in order by date or by type of performance) and selection of performance (performance);

choice of the sector;

Ticket fee (Ordinary, Reduced, Free, etc.);

numbered seat (s) (i.e. quantity of unnumbered seats).

If the places are numbered, the selection may concern one or more of them identifiable through a plan diagram of their arrangement.

Once the selection of one or more seats has been completed, there are two possibilities of assignment: by booking or by sale.

In the case of a reservation, the selection is linked to a customer card and filed pending confirmation or cancellation; in case of sale, this selection is linked or not (in the case of fast box office issue) to a customer card and, once the payment method (credit card, cash, foreign currency, etc.) has been chosen, the device returns the amount to be paid.

Once these operations have been completed and confirmed, the service center electronically assigns the ABCD machine number described above and the required tickets are printed.

For what has been said so far and with reference to Figure 4, the sales network is essentially made up of the following elements:

a Service Center, where all the procedures and a copy of the Data Base relating to each event reside. It comprises a main computer connected in a local network to a communications server and to a sufficient number of workstations for the sale, consultation and printing of reports;

a Data Processing Center of the Treasury Bank, in which the payment and reporting procedures reside;

a Processing System of the Organizing Body (optional) sized according to the needs and consisting of one or more computers connected in a local network, in which a copy of the Data Base of only the events of that organizer resides;

the Points of Sale, equipped with at least one personal computer, in which the procedure for querying, selling and printing tickets resides, a printer and a telematic connection of an adequate level for the traffic generated. These VPs can carry out the presale and, if present at the venue, the box office functions without distinction.

According to an important and advantageous characteristic of the apparatus described, the elements of the network are connected together in such a way as to ensure the constant alignment of the Databases and in such a way as to allow the querying of the single archive of availability by each terminal enabled to issuing of tickets.

This single archive manages the availability of seats and assigns the ABCD machine number described above to each ticket.

The Service Center is also able to control access to the Data Base by the Remote Terminals, indicated in broken lines in figure 4, by enabling or disabling their rights.

At this point it is useful to examine some prerogatives provided by the characteristics of the present invention described up to now.

The BM magnetic stripe, present on each paper support and containing the identification data of the support itself stored in the central database, is of the four-track type and contains additional control and identification information. Said four-track BM magnetic stripe follows the ATB and ATB2 standard.

According to the invention, the part M of the ticket that remains for the customer as a spectator coupon, called matrix, is advantageously also used as a tax receipt issued by the Manager for the presale rights, in fact, in addition to the gross price, it also shows the relative gross amount to the presale fees paid by the viewer.

With the method described, it is possible to make reservations for numbered seats also including the name of the customer. Furthermore, the magnetic stripe BM can be read and recognized by any electronic gates, and in this way it is clearly possible to control and / or allow access to the holder of a certain ticket only through certain entrances and / or sectors. This, of course, also happens for the date and time of the booked show as well as, in the case of multiplex cinemas, for example, to prevent the spectator from entering the wrong room.

From what has just been said, it can be immediately deduced that, when the reservation is used with the name of the customer and the place of the show or event is equipped with electronic gates that read the magnetic strips BM, it is advantageously possible to determine the exact list of people. present in a given sector at a certain time of a certain day. This could be very useful, for example, in stadiums or in any event with a large turnout of people, on the occasion of which disturbances often occur and for which it is always difficult to isolate those responsible.

With this type of ticket and device it is possible to manage and issue admission tickets eliminating the possibility of counterfeiting, because tickets are printed at the time of sale and on paper supports uniquely marked and stamped by the SIAE.

The Service Center Manager automatically provides a list of sold, unsold tickets and those that, for whatever reason, have been canceled during the presale. The latter, in accordance with current regulations, ends twenty-four hours before the start of the show or event. In fact, every single sale is recorded in real time not only at the Point of Sale, but also at the Manager, memorizing the transformation of a specific paper medium into an entrance ticket with the relative specifications: Organizer, event (date and place) , order type and price.

Even paper supports that, for whatever reason, have been canceled are registered with all their specific characteristics.

As already mentioned, it is also possible to carry out a normal sale of tickets not sold in advance, by requesting the Manager to issue a print of the tickets that he will deliver to the Organizer.

The loading and unloading register, on which all the sales operations and the supply of paper supports to the PV are recorded, allows the querying and reporting of the supports and their status through the production of printouts sorted by event, by Organization, for PV, and containing all data, including economic and accounting data, in order to allow cross-checks to be carried out at any time.

The procedure described also allows you to check the stock of each paper support at any time. These procedures can be made available to the Assessment Body, and have been set up in order to follow all the regulations and fiscal requirements.

The present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, but it is understood that variations may be made to it in practice by an expert in the art, without departing from the scope of protection of this industrial property.

Claims (17)

CLAIMS 1. Procedure for the centralized management and issuance of magnetic stripe tickets for shows and / or events organized by third parties, characterized by the fact of providing for the issuance of magnetic stripe tickets of scheduled events, in variable quantities and qualities, starting from magnetic stripe supports differentiated from each other only in that they are numbered typographically and on magnetic stripe (BM) with cryptographic coding, at a plurality of remote points of sale, which are electronically connected to a Service Center that manages the availability of seats in real time and assigns each ticket a unique machine number; said machine number being printed, at the time of issue, on each of the two sections (F) and (M) in which said ticket is divisible, so that the user can use a section as an access coupon, act to be read by magnetic gates, and the other as a spectator ticket, to be kept. 2) Procedure as per the previous claim characterized by the fact that, at the time of issuing the electronic ticket, the clear print of the gross amount relating to the presale rights paid by the spectator, on the section that remains with the customer. 3) Procedure as per the previous claims characterized by the fact that the network connection between the Service Center and the local and / or remote points of sale takes place through a telematic device using a software for the issuance and printing of magnetic stripe tickets, starting from magnetic stripe supports differentiated from each other only in that they are numbered typographically, available at each point of sale, all being arranged in such a way that the data relating to sales and / or reservations for each show are recorded in real time by the Service Center , so as to ensure that each ticket issued has a unique machine number. 4. Process as per the preceding claims, characterized in that said software, for the issuance and printing of magnetic stripe tickets, allows the numbered seats to be booked electronically, also assigning them to the customer's name. 5. Process as per the preceding claims, characterized in that the magnetic stripe tickets are printed, at the time of issue, by printing on both sections (M) and (F) of the ticket, in addition to the progressive number of the machine , also a series of information relating to the show for which the ticket is valid. 6. Process referred to in the preceding claims characterized by the fact that, at the time of sale, it provides for printing and magnetizing the magnetic ticket on a single and undifferentiated paper support for all (PV) and all events, which is prepared and stamped by SIAE with its own stamp (S) placed over the tear line present between daughter (F) and matrix (M), and complies with the ATB and ATB2 standard. 7. Procedure as per the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the data relating to each sale and cancellation are stored on a real-time loading and unloading register, said register allowing the interrogation and reporting of the paper supports and the their status through the production of printouts ordered by event, by Organizer, by Point of Sale (PV) and containing all the data, including economic and fiscal ones, in order to allow cross-checks to be carried out at any time, also by the Authorities Investigators. 8. Procedure as per the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that all the procedures and copies of the Data Bases relating to each event reside in said Service Center, a main computer connected in a local network to a communications server and to a sufficient number of workstations for sale, consultation, printing of reports; said Points of Sale (PV) being also equipped with at least one personal computer, in which resides the procedure for querying, selling and printing tickets, a printer and a telematic connection of an adequate level for the traffic generated, said PV being able to carry out the presale functions without distinction and, if present in the place of the event, at the box office. 9. Procedure as per the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that it is envisaged to further insert in said connection network a Data Processing Center of the Treasury Bank, in whose processor the payment and reporting procedures reside, and a Processing System (optional) of the Organizing Body. sized according to needs and consisting of one or more computers connected to a local network, in which a copy of the Data Base of only the events of that organizer resides. 10. Procedure as per the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that, in order to guarantee the uniqueness of the progressive number of the machine, of the reservation and of the assignment of tickets without the possibility of counterfeiting, it provides for the following phases at the time of the sale of each ticket: the (PV) communicates the data relating to the sale and / or booking operation to the Service Center; the Service Center assigns the machine number according to the (PV), the date and time and the paper support number that is about to be printed and magnetized by the (PV), and records it, the Service Center communicates this machine number to the (PV), who issues the ticket and records the operation. 11. Magnetic stripe ticket to be used in the process as per the preceding claim, characterized in that the format of said ticket and its magnetic stripe (BM), of the four-lane type, follow the ATB and ATB2 standard. 12. Magnetic stripe ticket as per claim 11, characterized in that it is divided into two daughter (F) and matrix (M) sections, which can be separated by tear, the first (F) usable as an entrance ticket and the second ( M) as a receipt, issued by the manager to the customer, for pre-sale rights. 13. Magnetic stripe ticket as per claims 11 onwards, characterized by the fact that it is printed, at the time of sale, on a paper support suitably prepared and endorsed by SIAE with its own stamp (S) placed over the line of tear present between daughter (F) and matrix (M). 14. Magnetic stripe ticket as per claims 11 onwards, characterized by the fact that the magnetic stripe (BM), being able to be read by the electronic gates, allows to control and / or allow access to certain entrances and / or sectors based on the type of ticket owned by the customer, or according to the date, time and place of the show for which the ticket is valid. 15. Equipment for managing and issuing tickets for shows and / or events organized by third parties, according to the procedure of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that it includes: a Service Center equipped with a main computer where all the procedures and a copy of the Databases relating to each event under management reside; a Data Processing Center of the Treasury Bank, in which the payment and financial reporting procedures reside; a Processing System of the Organizing Body, consisting of one or more computers connected to a local network, in which a copy of the Data Base of the events under management resides, a plurality of Points of Sale, equipped with at least one personal computer in which the procedure for querying, selling and printing tickets, a printer and a low-level telematic connection. 16. Apparatus as per claim 15 characterized by the fact that the network elements are connected together in such a way as to ■ ensure the constant alignment of the Databases and in such a way as to allow the querying of the single archive of availability by each terminal of the Sales points authorized to issue tickets. 17. Procedure, magnetic stripe ticket and apparatus referred to in the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that they allow, in the case of using reservations with the name of the customer, to determine exactly the people present, at a given time, within a certain sector , which is very useful in stadiums and / or events with a large turnout of people.