Ticketmaster shows you the view from any seat in the house

When you buy a ticket to a concert or sports event, you want to make sure your view is a good one. The days of peering at a line drawing of a venue's seating plan to figure that out could soon be a thing of the past. Ticketmaster confirmed to Engadget today that its new Virtual Venue technology is ready to roll out. Created by Io-Media, Virtual Venue uses gyroscopic and panoramic views to show you the view from any seat in the stadium or concert hall. The technology is now integrated into Ticketmaster's desktop and mobile sites. There are currently 110 venues across North America with the capability.

According to Ticketmaster, an exact replica of each venue is created with a 3D wireframe model made from CAD documents, onsite surveys and photos. These are then given textures, lighting and "branding elements" to accurately represent what it looks like from every seat in the house. Just like with Facebook's 360 videos, you can pan your phone around to see the entire view from your planned seats. You can use your mouse to navigate around with your mouse, too.

Ticketmaster has been working on interactive seat maps for a while. Back in 2011, it rolled out a way to see if any of your Facebook friends had bought tickets to the same event as you. The virtual view tech has been brewing since 2015, too, though this is the first time it's been available to consumers like you and me.