New Streaming Service Puts Arts Organisations in Control

Designed and built by Spork Digital Ltd, 4forty.io is an idea born out of a desire to do something to help the arts sector in the UK find balance and a way forward in the age of COVID-19.

Signs of that struggle were everywhere in the news – with stories of performance venues and industry workers taking part in a day of action to highlight the crisis facing live events, coverage of venues struggling to get schedules set in light of changing guidelines and interviews with artists who had seen revenue stream after revenue stream dry up.

This was all of growing concern to Spork founder Giles Cambray, himself a musician and someone who attributes much of his confidence and work ethic to a musical education.

“Many of us at Spork are musicians and pull on this experience in all aspects of their work. So, when we saw the devastating impact of Covid has had on the arts industry – we wanted to find a way to help. That’s why we’re building 4forty.io – a streaming platform for arts institutions, a way for them to find new income streams during a time when normal ticket sales are so curtailed.”

The service, currently being previewed with trial organisations, is made up of four platforms that allow for :

• ticketed events, with ticket price set by the client;
• subscriptions where the client sets the subscription fees themselves;
• access to video archives on either a one off or subscription basis;
• an integrated solution for seminar style events.

4forty.io debuts with the English Chamber Orchestra, the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world, on one of the first ticketed live orchestral events in the UK – the ECO’s upcoming Afternoon Tea series. The series begins on 13th September 2020 at 4pm with ‘Fairies, Fauns and Fantasy,’ a concert featuring the works of Debussy and Ravel. Tickets can be booked at https://live.englishchamberorchestra.co.uk for the 4-concert series as a whole or individually for specific concerts.

Bringing a musical background together with extensive technical experience means that Spork is able to provide a service that works however different organisations need it to work – whether as a standalone custom app in the AppStore or as an integration with their current website. 4forty.io is designed to put clients in control. It is also designed to work with a variety of other systems already in place.

Spork is still looking for organisations to preview 4Forty.io. Interested parties should visit the 4forty.io website ( https://4forty.io/ ) and sign up.