Overview
A heatmap of your venue allows you to visualize data. For example, you might want to illustrate which sections typically have the most seats sold versus those which frequently have many unsold seats. KORE can produce these heatmaps in Tableau which utilize data from DWA. To do so, we require a base image which represents all the seats within the venue and a list of coordinates for each individual seat.
Once completed, send the base image and spreadsheet to your KORE Success Manager.
Note: Producing the spreadsheet is very labor-intensive. Most clients therefore delegate this work to a vendor or hire temporary workers.
Base image
First, you will need a map image representing all the seats in your venue that you wish to visualize.
If your arena is multi-level, use a drawn image that separates different seating levels so they can be distinguished on the two-dimensional heatmap. (Many venues already have images like this for selecting tickets to purchase.) Use the PNG image format to avoid compression artifacts.
If your arena is single-level, you can optionally use an aerial top-down photo instead if its resolution is sufficient to distinguish individual seats and none are obstructed from view. Use the JPEG image format if using a photo.
Most venues choose not to include SRO (standing room only) tickets in their heatmaps. If you wish to include them, create a fictional area in your base image that shows a seat for each available SRO ticket. Since ticketing software maps SRO tickets to virtual seats for capacity and reporting purposes, you can use the same section-row-seat identifiers to map an SRO ticket to a seat on the heatmap.
Spreadsheet format
Next, create a spreadsheet with these column labels in the first row:
section_labelrow_labelseat_numberseat_center_xseat_center_y
Save this as a CSV (comma-separated values) file.
Next, enter the section_label, row_label, and seat_number on a new row for every seat in your venue. If your venue has 50,000 seats, your spreadsheet will contain 50,001 rows (since the first row is a header).
X, Y coordinates
Important: To display the heatmap properly, the seat coordinates must represent the center of a seat—not a corner.
Next, you will need to map each physical seat to a position on the base image. The easiest way to do this is to open the base image in an image editor, hover your mouse cursor over the center of each seat, and note the pixel coordinates. Record the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) coordinates in the CSV spreadsheet.
When completed, provide the base image and CSV file to your KORE Success Manager.
Important: Always keep a copy of your CSV file! You will need it to make any future updates. Because we transform the data you provide into a different format for our systems, we may not be able to provide a copy of your original CSV file in the future.
Aside: Although the pixel-based approach is simplest, you can create a list of X, Y coordinates in other ways if you choose. For example, if you have a single-level venue and are using an aerial photo, you could provide decimal-degree GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) for the center of each seat. These coordinates must be precise enough to differentiate individual seats next to each other. Keep in mind that latitude, the distance north or south of the equator, would be the Y value—it’s not the X value even though it’s written first!
Finally, note the coordinates of the upper-left and lower-right corners of your image regardless of whether a seat exists there or not. Provide these coordinates to your KORE Success Manager.
Future updates
Sometimes a venue may add, remove, or reconfigure seats. You can update your heatmap to account for these changes.
Remove seats
Open the existing base image in an editor and erase the now-removed seats. Provide the updated base image and a list of the removed seats to your KORE Success Manager. If an entire row or section is removed, you don’t need to list each seat individually.
Reconfigure seats
If a seating area has been reconfigured, you’ll need to edit the base image and provide a new CSV for the affected area. For example, if standard seating was replaced with larger luxury seats in Section 101, you would first open the base image and erase the original Section 101. You’d then replace that area with a new representation where the seat’s centers are further from each other. Finally, you’d create a CSV listing each seat’s coordinates using the same method you originally used.
Important: Do not change anything else in the base image, or the existing coordinates for other seating areas may become invalid. In particular, do not change the image’s padding (such as by cropping out whitespace) or move the position of any other seats in the base image.
Provide the new base image and CSV file to your KORE Success Manager. Also provide a list of any seats (section-row-number) which no longer exist. If an entire row or section is removed, you don’t need to list each seat individually.
Add seats
If the existing base image has space to draw in the new seats without changing anything else, you can do so and provide a CSV with a list of the new seats and their coordinates. For example, you might have constructed a new seating section in a previously-unused area. If that area was present in the original base image, you can draw in the new seats without changing any other part of the base image.
If the existing base image does not have sufficient space, you can carefully add whitespace and recalculate the coordinates of existing seats instead of starting over. If you add whitespace to the left of the image, then the existing X values would increase. Or if you add to top of the image, then the existing Y values would increase. If you add space to the right or the bottom, then the existing coordinates wouldn’t change.
For example, suppose you constructed a new row of seats behind an existing row. If you originally assigned coordinates using the pixel locations and if there isn’t sufficient whitespace in the base image to draw in this new area, then you could add 200 pixels of whitespace to the top of the image and draw the new section there. Open the original CSV file and add 200 to each seat’s Y value, since each one was moved downward by that many pixels. Then add the new seats to the CSV.
When finished, provide the new base image and CSV file to your KORE Success Manager.
Aside: If you used a different technique to assign coordinates (such as the GPS method), the existing seats’ coordinates wouldn’t change—you’d instead only need to provide the new coordinates for the upper-left and lower-right corners of the expanded base image. This is because we calculate seat coordinates relative to the corners.