Case Study
Midway Music Hall
Custom Website and Seating System
Midway Music Hall needed a modern, owner-controlled system that could handle live event operations without renting a ticketing platform.
JAMARQ rebuilt the stack end to end: fast public site, secure admin workspace, interactive seating layouts, reservation workflow, media management, and automated notifications—all hardened on shared hosting.
Proof of adoption arrived immediately: the first reserved seating request hit the new system two days after launch.
Project Overview
Midway Music Hall needed more than a visual refresh. The venue required a dependable, long-term system that reflected how shows are actually scheduled, how reserved seating is handled in practice, and how staff communicate with customers day to day—without relying on third-party ticketing platforms or recurring SaaS fees.
JAMARQ delivered a fully custom platform combining a public-facing website with a secure admin workspace built specifically for venue operations. The system supports event scheduling, recurring series management, interactive seating layouts, reservation requests, media handling, and automated notifications, all deployed on shared hosting and validated under live use.
This was not a template site. It was an operational system designed to be trusted.
Client
Midway Music Hall, Midway NC
Project Type
Full website rebuild and custom venue operations system
Timeline
November to December 2025
Launch
December 1, 2025
Screenshots
Operational Coverage
Documentation of performance results, customer-facing work, administrative controls, and mobile parity using the shared component system.
Before-and-after Lighthouse results for desktop and mobile under shared hosting constraints.
Desktop PageSpeed results prior to optimization, reflecting uncompressed assets and legacy structure.
Technical note
Pre-optimization scores reflect legacy image handling, unused JavaScript, and missing cache headers on static assets.
Desktop PageSpeed results after optimization, achieving top-tier performance, accessibility, and best-practice scores.
Technical note
Post-optimization scores achieved through hashed static assets, long-lived cache headers, responsive image variants, and elimination of dead /uploads references.
Mobile PageSpeed results before the rebuild, impacted by render-blocking assets and layout inefficiencies.
Technical note
Mobile performance was previously impacted by render-blocking assets and lack of responsive image sizing.
Mobile PageSpeed results after optimization, showing substantial gains under real-world mobile constraints.
Technical note
Mobile improvements prioritize real-world constraints, balancing image fidelity with bandwidth while preserving accessibility and SEO signals.
The Challenge
The previous website was informational only. As event volume increased, several operational gaps became increasingly costly:
- •No centralized event management
- •No digital representation of reserved seating
- •Manual handling of seat requests via phone and email
- •No admin interface for staff
- •No audit trail or request history
- •High risk of seat conflicts and human error
- •Limited performance and accessibility safeguards
Staff had to mentally track availability, copy details between systems, and answer the same questions repeatedly. Customers had no clear visibility into seating before reaching out.
Objectives
- •Create a clear, modern public website
- •Centralize event scheduling and visibility
- •Support recurring events without duplication
- •Introduce an intuitive reserved seating request flow
- •Prevent seat conflicts through enforceable logic
- •Protect existing reservations from accidental admin actions
- •Automate staff notifications
- •Provide a secure admin interface for daily operations
- •Optimize performance for shared hosting
- •Establish a clean SEO and accessibility foundation
- •Maintain full ownership of code and data
Approach
The system was designed around real venue workflows, not generic ticketing assumptions.
Rather than forcing the venue into a third-party model, the platform mirrors how Midway Music Hall already operates: staff-approved reservations, flexible seating layouts, recurring shows, and human judgment where it matters.
Special care was taken to design guardrails, not just features. Admin tools were built to prevent accidental data loss, protect hours of manual seat entry, and make recovery possible if something ever goes wrong.
Reliability, clarity, and predictability were prioritized over clever automation.
The Solution
Public Website
- •React-based single-page application
- •Mobile-first layout with accessible navigation
- •Event listings with upcoming, recurring, and archived views
- •Event detail pages with optional interactive seating layouts
- •Category-aware displays including recurring series and Beach Bands events
- •Progressive enhancement with static fallbacks for bots and no-JavaScript clients
Custom Seating System
- •Reusable seating layout templates
- •Versioned seating layouts per event
- •Interactive seat selection with availability indicators
- •Time-limited seat holds to prevent conflicts
- •Automatic expiration and release of unconfirmed seats
- •Staff approval, denial, and manual reservation tools
Safety & Recovery Features
- •Seating visibility toggle that hides UI without deleting data
- •Guarded layout changes with explicit admin confirmation
- •Automatic snapshots of reserved, pending, and held seats before any destructive action
- •Admin-accessible snapshot preview and restore tools
- •Guaranteed preservation of customer reservations unless an admin explicitly confirms a change
Recurring Events & Scheduling
- •Series master entries for recurring events
- •Admin-editable recurring metadata including schedule summaries and notes
- •Series masters editable without requiring dates
- •Individual occurrences still enforce full date and time validation
- •Public event cards reflect recurring series metadata consistently
Category-Aware Admin Platform
- •Secure staff login with idle and hard session timeouts
- •Centralized event creation and management
- •Category-aware editor that adapts to event type
- •Recurring events expose recurring controls automatically
- •Seating controls appear only when seating is enabled
- •Category-specific panels appear without affecting unrelated data
- •Validation rules change intelligently based on context
Media & Email Automation
- •Media upload and management system with optimization metadata
- •Automated staff notifications for seat requests and submissions
- •Production-only safeguards to prevent test spam
- •Domain-authenticated delivery via SendGrid
- •Reply-to support for direct staff responses
Technical Stack
- •React 18 with Tailwind CSS
- •PHP 8.1 backend with JSON APIs
- •MySQL database with transactional reservation logic
- •Cloudflare and Apache deployment on shared hosting
Results
Live Validation
- •First live seat request processed on launch day
- •Automated notifications delivered successfully
- •Seat conflict prevention confirmed in production
- •Recurring event workflows validated by staff
- •Seating guardrails tested without data loss
Performance & Reliability
- •Fast load times on shared hosting
- •Stable layouts with no visual shifting
- •Strong desktop and mobile performance
- •Predictable behavior under concurrent seat requests
- •Graceful fallbacks for missing media or partial data
Key Takeaways
- •Custom systems outperform generic platforms when aligned to real workflows
- •Reserved seating requires guardrails, not just interfaces
- •Admin tooling prevents more errors than automation alone
- •Data recovery paths are as important as primary features
- •Ownership eliminates long-term platform risk
Want the full technical deep dive?
Detailed architecture decisions, database schema, reservation logic, and deployment checklists are available on request.