We were at TLCC2016 to discuss the considerations, processes, challenges, and benefits involved in our approach to delivering websites for cultural organizations. Our recently launched sites for Birmingham Hippodrome, Wales Millennium Centre’s Festival of Voice, and Nottingham Theatre Royal & Concert Hall were all created using a sophisticated integration between WordPress and Tessitura Network Express Web.

1. TLCC 2016
Ash Mann
Scott Whitehouse
Seamless integration with
WordPress and TNEW

2. Substrakt
#TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Based in the UK with offices in Birmingham & London
‣ Focus on core sectors; arts & culture, health, education.
‣ Tessitura clients including:
‣ Birmingham Hippodrome
‣ Nottingham Theatre Royal & Concert Hall
‣ Wales Millennium Centre’s Festival of Voice
‣ More at substrakt.com

3. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
Substrakt Ethos & Approach
‣ We work with people we like, on projects we love
‣ Foster long-term relationships
‣ Sector-specific knowledge
‣ Focus on what’s important
‣ Reduce duplication wherever possible (integration)
‣ Effective, user-centred design
‣ Insights-driven (measure all the things)

4. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
Why WordPress?
‣ Open source
‣ Powerful
‣ Extensible (plays nicely with others)
‣ Extremely usable
‣ The community

5. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Heroku
‣ Platform as a Service.
‣ We deploy code using GitLab to application.
‣ Application sits on dynos - instant scalability.
‣ We focus on what we are good at.
‣ Amazon Web Services
‣ S3 and CloudFront CDN (Assets)
‣ RDS - Database
Hosting Environment

6. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Dedicated team looking after TNEW - constant development.
‣ Will always work with new Tessitura upgrades.
‣ Use your resources wisely
TNEW rather than ‘Full’ Integration

7. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ TNEW Hosted Template.
‣ Substrakt will implement your own styling.
‣ We host your TNEW template in AWS S3 Bucket.
‣ Substrakt will skin your TNEW site so it will:
‣ (a) become a seamless part of your front-end site.
Or
‣ (b) look beautiful as a standalone site.
How we integrate with Tessitura & TNEW

8. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Attendable
‣ WordPress plugin.
‣ Tessitura Web API integration.
‣ Focus based on using content that you have already setup
for TNEW.
‣ Use of keywords to identify additional items such as genre,
access performances and education events.
How we integrate with Tessitura & TNEW

9. Title
Production Synopsis
Keywords

10. Keywords

11. Production Image
Keywords

12. Credits and Roles

13. Production Season Text

14. Performance Level Information

15. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Project started in early 2015.
‣ Frustration with old CMS - no flexibility.
‣ Duplication of content entry - Tessitura and marketing
website.
‣ Good starting point to clean up existing Tessitura structure
and utilise more functionality.
‣ TNEW was skinned, but was not focused and not very
functional.
Birmingham Hippodrome

16. Keywords
#TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ No consistency with keywords
‣ Productions with none, others with too many
‣ Ballet production, trying to be an Opera imposter!
‣ Benefits of accurate keywords

17. Content
#TLCC2016 / @substrakt
AWS and website CMS
‣ TNEW, 3 different images
‣ TNMP, 2images, using same links from TNEW
‣ Website… lots of different images

22. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Ambitious, unique brand
‣ Fully bilingual site
‣ Working with external partners
‣ Trialling TNEW for the first time as an organisation
‣ Trialling WordPress for the first as an organisation
Wales Millennium Centre - Festival of Voice

23. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt

24. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Further Tessitura integration - using keywords and custom web
content types.
‣ Nottingham Classics (programming strand)
‣ Education Events
‣ Access Performances
Nottingham Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall

27. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ and 48pt if you really want to
‣ SHOUT
Page title

28. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
‣ Wordpress combined with TNEW is an elegant and powerful
mix.
‣ The Tessitura API presents numerous opportunities for
sophisticated enhancement on top of this.
‣ Your website shouldn’t force you to jump through weird
hoops.
‣ Your systems can, and should, talk to each other.
Summary

29. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
Questions?

30. #TLCC2016 / @substrakt
Ash Mann - Strategic Director
ash@substrakt.com
@biglittlethings
Scott Whitehouse - Head of Technical Delivery
scott@substrakt.com
@s_whitehouse
Thank you for time this morning.