Scanning with a mobile phone
For most event organisers, we recommend our Mobile Ticket Check-in to scan tickets with any modern smartphone, or tablet with a camera. No download or password is required and you can easily share with your team. See the link at the bottom of your admin dashboard for details.
If you need to sell or print tickets; or operate a more traditional Box Office setup, continue reading.
Computer
Any computer with an internet connection and also running a modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) will do.
We recommend Chromebooks for temporary and pop-up environments as they are low cost, easily replaceable and you can be up and running from unpacking the box to scanning tickets in 10 minutes; but any manufacturer and model will do.
For permanent installations, we recommend a touch-screen terminal. We partner with Aures and recommend their Yuno range.
You can also use tablets with the appropriate adapters to connect a barcode scanner, however do test that this works as expected before your event as some will not provide enough power for a barcode scanner.
Note that our Box Office does not access webcams to scan barcodes (use our Mobile Ticket Check-in instead).
Barcode scanner
You can get a barcode scanner for £20-40 that plugs in via USB. Ensure you choose a model which can read QR codes.
We’ve had great results with even the cheapest of models and we recommend that you go for a wired model or have a wired one as a backup as you don’t want to be dealing with wireless connection issues with a queue forming.
Most models will work out of the box with no setup and you will not need to install any drivers. If you do need to configure your barcode scanner, this usually just involves scanning a barcode from the manual that changes the settings. You should set your barcode scanner to present itself to the computer as a keyboard and to press return after every scan.
Printer
If you need to print receipts or tickets, our Box Office supports printing directly to a USB receipt printer.
We recommend and officially support the Epson TM-T20II which is around £150 and prints very quickly onto standard 80mm thermal receipt rolls. You can use other 80mm printers which support the ESC/POS standard, however we cannot gurantee compatibility.
You must use the Chrome or Edge browser as we use a specific fetature (WebUSB) to speak directly to the printer over USB. If you are using Windows, you will also need to install a driver – we can guide you through this.
Printing in the box office is currently available on request only, so please contact us if you are interested in using this functionality.
Epson TM-T20II printer setup
You may need to enable the USB interface on your TM-T20II printer the first time you use it. It's a little fiddly to do but you will only need to do this once:
- Turn off the printer.
- Press and hold the paper feed button while turning the printer back on.
- After a few seconds you will get a self-test page. Release the button.
- Press and hold the paper feed button again and a menu will print.
- You'll want option 3: Customize Value Settings so press the paper feed button briefly three times then hold it down for a fourth press.
- You'll then want option 17: Interface Selection, so press the button 17 times then hold on the 18th press.
- And option 2: Built-in USB, so press twice then hold on the third press.
- Exit the menu by pressing and holding the paper feed button then turn the printer off and on again.
General advice and top tips
If you are dealing with a large number of people we recommend that you purchase backup equipment and have it tested and ready to go in case you have any problems. You don’t want to be dealing with a crashing laptop when you have two thousand people lined up in front of you!
Printed tickets are increasingly rare and most attendees present tickets on their phone screen. The QR codes we use usually scan very reliably even with cracked and dirty screens, however do ensure there are no reflections on the screen and ask customers to set their brightness to maximum as a dim screen can be almost impossible for many scanners to see.
If you are having problems scanning a QR code, use the search function to look up the customer’s booking reference.
Ensure that your scanning area is out of direct sunlight. Bright sunlight may make tickets unreadable and can overheat your hardware.