Vouchers: Creating, Viewing, Managing
In order for viewers to access virtual events they will need to have either a voucher or a subscription. A voucher (aka a ticket) will allow a viewer access to a specific piece of content (ie. a video, live event, series or playlist), and only that content, on the watch portal. A viewer accessing the watch portal with a voucher arrives directly to that content's online landing page which includes title, description and related content like a trailer, a scheduled live stream, or pre-recorded bonus materials.
If using a ticketing solution to sell tickets to your event, their system will communicate with the CineSend platform through its open API to generate vouchers automatically as part of the transactional process. In addition to, or instead of, vouchers can also be manually generated from the administrative portal, and vouchers can also be imported with a csv file.
1. Manually Generating Vouchers
Vouchers can be generated directly from the administrative portal. Even when working with a ticketing solution that is generating vouchers automatically with transactions, there may be times when it is necessary to manually generate vouchers. For example to provide access to staff, board, artists, etc. There are two locations in the administrative portal where vouchers can be manually generated.
1) From the CONTENT area:
As long as vouchers are enabled in SETTINGS > ACCESS > Vouchers, each asset in the content area will have a sub-menu Vouchers. From this screen vouchers can be manually generated in any quantity from 1-500 (at a time), or imported using a csv file.
2) From the VIEWERS area:
An equally quick way to generate a voucher is from the VIEWERS > VOUCHERS screen. Click the "Create Vouchers" button and a modal will pop up, select the asset type, the specific asset, and the number of vouchers to be generated.
2. Importing Vouchers
In either of the two areas noted above, vouchers can also be imported rather than generating random vouchers. In the modal window, uncheck the "Generate Codes Automatically" field and the option to either type in specific codes or to import a csv file of codes will appear. We recommend codes to always be a 9 digit numeric code. Although technically the codes could be any length or types of characters, in order to work with the TVapps they must be a 9 digit numeric code.
3. Viewing and Modifying Existing Vouchers
Once vouchers exist they can be viewed in the administrative portal in order to review their session details, expire them or modify their settings.
Search for a voucher using the search field or select it from the list below. The search can be by voucher number (the full number is required), the order ID or other custom information (like name or email) if that information has been recorded (either manually or by a ticketing provider) in the three custom data fields. The vertical ellipsis at far right in the voucher list view can be used to delete or expire any voucher.
The "Created" column, in the voucher list view, displays when the voucher was created (not when the patron accessed the landing page). The "Expires" column will display No Expiry if the voucher hasn't been redeemed yet. Once it has been redeemed (meaning the user clicked the Play button), this column will display the voucher expiration date and time. The expiration is based on the number of hours set in the "Voucher Expiration Period" field found in SETTINGS > ACCESS > Vouchers screen.
Click on a voucher line to open up to that voucher's sub-menus "Details" and "Sessions". Under "Sessions" the analytics for this specific voucher, including when, where and how much was viewed, can be reviewed. Often it can be helpful to view the device information here when assisting patrons with playback difficulties, for example if they happen to be using an out-of-date OS or browser.
Under the "Details" sub-menu settings can be modified for this specific voucher. Options are:
- Set the voucher to be One-Time Use so that the video cannot be watched more than once within the expiry period. It is considered redeemed when the video player loads, so the patron must complete watching in one session.
- Ignore Geoblocking settings that the asset has set on its Security sub-menu. This may need to be done for a viewer known to be accessing from the authorized geographic area but their ISP is routing their connection to appear as if from another location. Or it may be needed to give access to the content owner who happens to be located outside the geoblocked area.
- Ignore Single-IP Protection if you would like it to be possible for this voucher to allow access from more than one IP address. An interesting use may be for a free event where you would like to give out or post one voucher link that everyone can use.
- Reset the Expiry Date if you want to provide more time (or less) for the viewing to be completed. A common usage for this feature might be to give a patron more time to utilize their voucher if they were having playback difficulty or misjudged their schedule.
- Unset the voucher from being Redeemed by toggling off the "Redeemed" button. This may be useful to be able to reset a patron's voucher from already being redeemed.
- Edit or View the Private Custom Data for this voucher
