Problem
Performance venues have to deal with the following problem: they need to solve the logistical jigsaw puzzle of what equipment and what staff need to be in each of the stages in order for all the performances to work smoothly in time for the shows. Stages need to be rigged and unrigged for practice-runs. Equipment needs to be checked and installed, then returned to the warehouse ready for the next performance. Artists and staff need know when they are to arrive and where they need to be. All this needs to be planned ahead of time, often six months into the future with flawless presicion, because "the show must go on".

Solution
The typical solution is a miriad of speadsheets and paper-based overviews, continually updated by the administrative department. In the case of Dansens Hus the typical solution was begining to fall appart. They called our partners at Teknograd and Copyleft was later invited to help develop a web-based solution.

A day-long workshop was organized to create a paper-prototype of the system, including a general overview which would be displayed in the most central place of the offices on a big-screen monitor. The Copyleft Software team then sat down and started coding the system using our PHP-based framework called Contento. A custom graphical theme was implemented to suit the client's profile and after a few rounds of adjustments the system was launched.

As is typical with these systems the deployment had to be done slowly as to now interupt the ongoing scheduling of events, but after a few months of beta-testing and on-hand support the system is now an integral part of Dansens Hus' workflow.

Future plans
The showtimer system is currently being prepared to become a standard pay-as-you-go product. A demo version is available for interested parties, please contact heming@copyleft.no for further details.