PRESS RELEASE - Nov. 18, 2004

TixOS breaks the OS platform barrier

Up to now, if you were planning to install or upgrade to a new box office ticketing system, chances are you would need to use a number of PC's running a Microsoft operating system and maybe even other proprietary software specific to the Windows environment. So where's the problem? Windows is after all used by everyone, user friendly, easy to connect to the Internet and included “free” with most PC's on the market. Why should you even need to consider any other platform for your ticketing system?

Today's alternative operating systems, such as Linux, offer higher security and considerable cost savings when compared with Microsoft systems. Linux even allows the user to select an interface that is very similar to the Microsoft Windows environment and the open source OpenOffice project is a very powerful, multi-platform office suite (word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools) that is both free and offer a very good compatibility with the Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint formats. Linux PC's offer a safer Internet experience as the majority of viruses and worms today exploit known Microsoft vulnerabilities. Finally, the cost of the Windows environment is far from being “free” when purchasing a new PC as it does in fact impact its final selling price. So maybe you should, after all, consider the alternatives that are available today!

Today TixOS is the first and only cinema box office ticketing system that is designed with a truly multi-platform architecture. It achieves this by using the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to operate and portable file formats such as HTML, PDF and XML for reporting and interfacing. The JVM is free and available for almost all common platforms such as Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac (OSX) and any OS that supports the latest version of the JVM.

When TixOS was in it's conceptual phase, one of it's first design criteria was to make it independent of any single operating system or proprietary 3rd party applications. This was decided in order to ensure the long-term independence of the platform and avoid any obligatory upgrade costs from 3rd parties. The on-line architecture of TixOS also means that it is paramount to offer the highest possible security to PCs on site using the Internet to connect to the central server, it also allows site managers to be able to implement tight user accounts on all machines to avoid employees “surfing the net” during working hours or collecting potentially dangerous e-mail.

“One of other reasons we decided to make TixOS multi-platform was as a major selling point for the CIO's of cinema circuits who are constantly trying to reduce both the downtime and total cost of ownership of their IT infrastructure”, explains Eric Razny, “we had no idea it was going to thrill so many smaller, independent exhibitors!”. TixOS was recently installed at “Le Champo”, a historic cinema in the Paris Latin Quarter, where it replaced an aging box office system that was running off a Novell server. «We wanted to upgrade our installation», states Thierry Renavand, director of the Champo, «but between having to scrap our existing hardware and the prohibitive costs of the XP Server license that we were offered, I preferred to look for an alternative solution. On the other hand I also wanted to adopt an architecture that was more open and compatible with other platforms such as Linux and Mac OSX». By choosing TixOS instead, Thierry avoided having to buy a server, managed to use his personal Mac OSX for scheduling, installed a new Linux box office and even installed the TixOS reporting module on another existing PC at his home, all for a fraction of the cost of the “upgrade” that he had been quoted.

The TixOS Linux box office package consists of a Linux mini-PC with integrated router, thermal ticket printer, flat touchscreen and customer display unit. The PC has three basic user accounts: (1) basic: box office application only, (2) advanced: box office, reporting scheduling applications as well as OpenOffice and (3) manager: everything including Internet access and email client.

The Java platform is also progressively finding its way into many other devices such as PDA's, mobile phones and smart cards which will provide exciting new opportunities on the point of sale front and in the back office. “We can easily allow site managers to use their wireless PDA's to tap into their sales data and even modify their performance schedules”, comments Emanuele de Plano, “and this of course at any time and from any place.” Photo: The TixOS point of sale pack consists of a mini-PC running Linux with integrated router, thermal ticket printer, flat pannel touch screen and a customer display for under 2.600 € ex VAT.

Windows, Word, Excel and Powerpoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. Java and Java Virtual Machine are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems. Novell is a registered trademark of Novell Systems.

For a PDF version of this press release please click here.