Jam cell phones in cinemas
p2p news / p2pnet: Rip-off food and drink concession prices, high ticket prices, sticky floors, loud-mouthed patrons and the growing popularity of home entertainment systems are among the reasons people are staying away from cinemas in droves.
Another is mobiles and now, movie theater owners are debating whether or not to ask federal authorities for permission to, “jam cell phone reception in an attempt to stop annoying conversations during films, the head of the industry’s trade group said on Tuesday,” according to Reuters.
Attendees at the Las Vegas ShoWest conference for theater owners, “want to find ways to win back crowds” and, “I don’t know what’s going on with consumers that they have to talk on phones in the middle of theaters,” NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) president John Fithian is quoted as saying.
If stop-gab measures such as sweeps by ushers to “funny fake movie trailers urging viewers to shut off phones” don’t work, “We will actually petition the Federal Communications (Commission) to remove the block” on jamming cell phones, said Fithian.
But that may not be easy because federal law and FCC rules prohibit the use of cell phone jammers, observes Reuters, adding that MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) boss China Dan Glickman says his bosses are, “researching why and when people go to the movies and might consider an advertising campaign to encourage people to go out to the movies, just as the milk industry has succeeded with its Got Milk? campaign.”
Also See:
Reuters – Movie theaters may ask to jam cell phones, March 15, 2006
March 15th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Funny (related) story:
A couple of years ago a friend of mine was working late at night in the office, when they heard someone smash a window in a break-in downstairs. They tried to dial 911, only to find that the call wouldn’t go through. By the time the police got there, the thieves and thousands of dollars worth of equipment were gone. It turned out that the office manager had programmed the PBX to block all calls to numbers beginning with 9 because of a few calls to 900 pay numbers.
March 15th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
How far beyond the theater’s walls would this reach? If you’re just outside the theater would your call be blocked?
March 15th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
how did people call 911 in cinema’s before mobile phones? honestly how often does the need rise and how hard would it be to install a phone in the back of the theatre if it was a necesity?
March 15th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
It would be too expensive to retro-fit existing cinemas with blocking materials, but in new buildings cell frequencies could be blocked instead of jammed.
Because there’s no transmission involved, it does not require any sort of regulatory approval. It requires special materials in the walls to prevent certain radio frequencies getting thru. This could be a big selling point. I would certainly prefer to go to a movie in a cinema where cell phones wouldn’t work.
Of course, there are still all the ads, excess trailers, gooey floors, etc.
March 15th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
I heard some talk about this awhile ago. The movie industry’s reasoning was apparently different at that point. They did not want people exiting movies to call their friends and warn them to not go to the sucky movie they just saw on opening weekend. Apparently the movie mofos were not concerned about also blocking calls made by patrons urging friends to go see the great movie they just saw. Little danger of that happening?
March 15th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
What theatre owner wants to spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars arguing in court that the 60 second delay in emergency response caused by cell phone blocking didn’t contribute in some small part to someone’s death from a heart attack (or whatever)? Lawyers will take advantage of any opening at all.
March 15th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Yeep the technology is there.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060301-015410-7150r
Grab the whole URL
If that doesn’t work A Glock will usually stop it.
You can go home and call all your friends:
“Man you won’t believe what happened while I was watching this chick flick with my girlfriend at the theater and this dude’s cell phone rings. He actually answered it and some chick tells him to cut it off and hang up. He flipped her off and the chick pulls out a Glock 19 ( I think, could have been a 23) and wastes him. 15 shots, 1 in his package, 1 in his head and the rest in center mass. She then sat back down and continued to watch the movie, meanwhile everyone else applauded.”
March 16th, 2006 at 5:43 am
They will also be knocking out public safety comms that operate on 800MHZ like police, fire, medical etc all the more reason to avoid the filthy experience at theaters.