Blocking cell phone reception in a Movie theatre.

[Veliko]

because ya know, the phone answers itself

Do you actually have a point here or are just trying to be a clever dick?

 

[McLovin]

They should just ban them outright. If you go to an early screening they search bags and strictly monitor it.

By all means, have some 16 year old theater employee look for people using their phone during the movie and force them to either power off or go put it in their car.

My theater does not do this, but we also rarely having an early screening of something. I can tell you however, that we are getting a new security system installed that now means there will be a security camera in each auditorium. So I guess the search isn't really needed.

While not 16, we do go on what we call theater checks every hour to look for a number of different things, including people using their cellphones. While I will go say something every time I see it, most other employees don't or won't do it just for the simple fact they don't want the confrontation with the customer.

While the issue may be black and white, the solution is not. People will most likely ignore any rules we have in place and continue to do whatever it is they want to do.

 

[OutHouse]

Or how about the theatre just has a policy if you are caught using your cell phone and it's disruptive you get booted with no refund. It's free and maintenance proof technology.

I don't agree about the "if you go to a theatre then you shouldn't need a phone".

Ok. So what if I have a date night out with my wife and we leave our kid with a babysitter and the child has a major allergic reaction, accident, ect and they need to reach me ASAP? Should that be blocked too?

Common sense and common courtesy are all that are needed. Turn your ringer off and keep it closed unless something emergent happens and you need to leave the auditorum. If you can't follow those rules then you should be escorted to the door.

gee i dunno maybe do what was the past 100 years. like leave a note with the babysitter of where you will be and if there is an emergency to call that place and have them find you.

 

[OutHouse]

Cell phone blockers aren't very expensive; I think this is a good idea. It's not enough just to have a no cell phone policy; people still violate it and you have to get up in the middle of the movie to go get tell on them. That interrupts my movie, and is not what I'm paying for.

This is actually why I haven't gone to the movies in a long time. Last time my GF and I went there was a group of girls talking to themselves and on their phones the whole time. I'd much rather sit in front of my TV in comfort and watch it interruption free, or if I have to get interrupted, I have a pause button .

except when you get caught with one.

 

[vi edit]

gee i dunno maybe do what was the past 100 years. like leave a note with the babysitter of where you will be and if there is an emergency to call that place and have them find you.

Your argument is compelling. Please stop buying things from the internet, reading your news on the internet, stop driving a car and use a horse and buggy, toss out your central air conditioning, light your house with candles, start heating your home with firewood and instead of a fridge and freezer buy a block of ice to cool your food with...because that's how they did it 100 years ago too.

 

[slag]

If its the kind of work that can be resolved with a laptop in a car, then a 2 hour turnaround time for problems should not be an issue. I really dont see why you required to reply to problems every second. It sounds like bad management to me. It comprises the quality of support you can deliver.



I'm only on call for deployments, and then I make sure to stay at home with my work laptop plugged in and on. That way, should something happen, I can make a difference. Deployments are time sensitive so it REALLY matters if I can solve something quickly. If you are on call 24/7, then I would say something is wrong. There should be an employee at work for at least half that time in any case.



Cellphones are part of our culture, but so are other people. Its apparently too much to ask that people take responsibility, so we need to enforce such rules. Again, how would phoning daddy help? Whats he going to do? Hes miles away and knows not a fig about first aid.

I think with cellphones providing constant connectivity, a lot of us have turned into control and information freaks. We need to know, this instant, if Sally has uploaded those photos from her spring break. Or if Billy stubbed his toe. We cant live with waiting maybe a few hours to find out. I think its a weakness.

You really don't have any idea of the environment I work in or the situation my job entails so you're in no position to make statements that seemingly come out of your ass. A 2 hour turnaround time would get me fired. Also, i've taken CPR, infant CPR, and do know something about first aid, having been a boy scout and generally informed sheep.

 

[slag]

LOL ok. whatever. I will forward all complaints to you because you are soooo smart.

I am 1 of 2 IT staff for a county wide 911 dispatching center.

you are telling me that because I can't guarentee there wont be freak hardware falures I shouldnt go to a movie?

go F yourself. I put my cell on vibrate and do the best I can. but I have to get the page or see the call. 90% of the stuff can wait, but that doesnt mean its OK to not see it




give me the money for the staff and I will hire a second shift guy.


also, pretty much 100% of what vi edit said.

some of you drones have no idea what the rest of us deal with

+ eleventy billion

 

[Veliko]

Your argument is compelling. Please stop buying things from the internet, reading your news on the internet, stop driving a car and use a horse and buggy, toss out your central air conditioning, light your house with candles, start heating your home with firewood and instead of a fridge and freezer buy a block of ice to cool your food with...because that's how they did it 100 years ago too.

Horrendous comparisons. A child with a babysitter is in no more danger in 2011 than they were in, say, 1998. Every single 'omg what about emergencies' argument against blocking mobile phone signals in a cinema is absurd.

 

[slag]

This is actually really easy to solve if the cell phone manufacturers and FCC would work together. All it would take is a modification of the phones firmware and a small hardware device. System would work like this:

Theater installs hardware device that has a low power transmitter .
Phone detects transmitter and upon receiving the special signal automatically switches phone to vibrate while in the vicinity.
That would solve the ringing part.

The way emergencies were handled before pagers and cells were one person would be required to be reachable by phone at all times and they would take turns among the staff. That could still work.

Personally I do not keep a cell phone with me at all times. I leave it home most of the time because I DON"T want to be reached all the time. I like the peace of not having to answer the phone every minute because someone wants to tell me something that could have waited.

There is an android app in the market called SettingProfiles or something like that that works in conjunction with your GPS. When it senses you within a specified distance (you can set the distance limitation), it automatically places your phone in vibrate. Works for church, work, school, theaters, whatever. Its pretty nifty. When you get outside the radius, it automatically turns your phone volume back up to where it was.

 

[vi edit]

Horrendous comparisons. A child with a babysitter is in no more danger in 2011 than they were in, say, 1998. Every single 'omg what about emergencies' argument against blocking mobile phone signals in a cinema is absurd.

The only thing absurb about this entire fucking argument is that the people who truely want or have a need for a cell phone are the last people to bother you with them. And instead of addressing the problem at it's root (enforce the existing policy)people are responding with knee jerk, blanket bannings.

It's not the same as driving and texting. It's not the same traffic lights. It's not the same as cigarettes. It's nothing more than noise and lights in a crowd of people. The only way you'll get rid of the lights is an outright banning of them in the auditorium in general which just isn't a viable business option in this day and age. And the noise could just as easily be caused by two people talking to each other, a kid crying, somebody coughing the entire time...whatever.

Sit down, shut up, and hope the person next to you does the same. If you can't deal with that, or find a theatre that caters that to that type of audience then stay home.

 

[Veliko]

The only thing absurb about this entire fucking argument is that the people who truely want or have a need for a cell phone are the last people to bother you with them. And instead of addressing the problem at it's root (enforce the existing policy)people are responding with knee jerk, blanket bannings.

There is nothing knee-jerk about this at all. Enforcing the existing policy would mean hiring more staff and dealing with the confrontation and extra hassles that would inevitably ensue.

Sit down, shut up, and hope the person next to you does the same. If you can't deal with that, or find a theatre that caters that to that type of audience then stay home.

If you can't deal with your mobile phone not working for a couple of hours you should stay at home. It's that simple.

 

[Possessed Freak]

If you can't deal with your mobile phone not working for a couple of hours you should stay at home. It's that simple.

This.

 

[Zargon]

If you can't deal with your mobile phone not working for a couple of hours you should stay at home. It's that simple.

I don't have a choice. My employment contract says 24/7 availability barring special exceptions. a movie is not one. I shouldnt have to quit my job so I can go see a movie to appease you. I do NOT talk on the phone in the movie theater. I leave.

you dont make cell phones not work, you get your ass up and go complain, you get a comp ticket and the offender gets tossed. thats what happened last time I asked someone to get off the phone, and she told me to "mind my own fucking business because shes tryin to watch a movie"

I left, got a free movie, and let into the next showing of that one, and she didnt get to see the rest of that one.

or you can sit on your ass, bitch on the internet, and try and get cell phones blocked in movie theaters.

I'd rather you just man up personally instead of insisting we legislate everything to the lowest common denominator.

 

[IcePickFreak]

So then we can lift smoking bans and leave it up to owners of the establishment and wouldn't see either of you crying about it?

 

[Possessed Freak]

So then we can lift smoking bans and leave it up to owners of the establishment and wouldn't see either of you crying about it?

Hrmmm, interesting point. I believe it should be up to the proprietor to decide what their clients want. Yep, reverse my stance. I hope that theaters around me institute immediate ejection for cell phone use but not need government intervention for such.

 

[vi edit]

So then we can lift smoking bans and leave it up to owners of the establishment and wouldn't see either of you crying about it?

I'm in favor of a popular vote in general election to let the residents of a city/state decide if smoking should be allowed. Which is what happened in IL. And in that same vein I'd be fine with a popular vote on prohibiting the "use" of phones in theatres should we ever come to be that pathetic.

And by use I mean active talking/texting during a movie. Not the active function of jamming them.

Just like I'm fine with a 65MPH speed limit but would never vote for legislation approving the use of a speed governor to cut your engine off at the appropriate speed based upon GPS feeds of the current road limit.

And the same way that I support the ban on texting while driving but would never approve a jamming device that killed my phone while in motion.

And the same way I approve of DUI laws but would never vote for a law that
required every vehicle sold to be fitted with a breathalyzer that every driver had to blow into to use.

 

[HeXen]

I work at a theater part time and I feel like 90% of the time I'm the only regular employee who enforces our theater policies, i.e. no outside food or drink, no cellphones, no talking, etc.

The rules for our theater are pretty the same as every other theater in the country. It absolutely floors me when I am the only one who actually chooses to help enforce these rules

cause no one likes a "by the book bob". i'm floored you never got that yet.D:
ya know you can enforce rules within reason and still be cool, but sounds like you chose to be mr. rule officer hardass and that is why people get rude with you. The other employees 90% of the time are cool, your the mall cop they make fun of behind your back.

 

[HOOfan 1]

I still haven't seen anyone comment on only having certain auditoriums blocked....

Everyone is still arguing as if the thread was about blanket blocking of cell phones in movie theaters.

I think someone plainly stated, this would never be implemented. I am not so sure. Movie theaters are struggling. People are staying home and renting Netflix, blockbuster Movies are coming out sooner and sooner after their theater debut. I've posted this on several forums and many people say they just don't go to the movies anymore due to cost, convenience and distractions like cell phones.

I am sure theaters are doing studies and surveys about what keeps people away from theaters. If they find that it is likely more people are turned away by cell phone distractions then they might implement certain no cell phone auditoriums.

New York City banned cell phones at Performance venues. If you want to say, implement a rule, and enforce it. There is the rule....NO CELL PHONES.

Still I find it hard to argue with having auditoriums which allow cell phone signals and those which don't...other than people just seem to be completely ignoring that. Oddly enough people ignored that option on every single forum I posted this on....I think that harkens back to points #1 and #2 in my original post.

 

[vi edit]

New York City banned cell phones at Performance venues. If you want to say, implement a rule, and enforce it. There is the rule....NO CELL PHONES.

All I found was this from 2003:
http://www.allbusiness.com/services/amusement-recreation-services/4577106-1.html

And it sounds like the mayor vetoed it.

But I'm fine with the legislation. It's exactly as I said above. If the general public votes it out then so be it. But it's a simple statement of saying "it's not allowed" and that's that and gives the owner rights to enforce the rules more appropriately.

It's vastly different than voting to approve a device that kills the ability to transmit data to and from your phone.

 

[HOOfan 1]

If the general public votes it out then so be it.

Well, Madison and his Federalist Paper #10 would disagree...

I don't think cell phones should be banned at the theaters I don't think the government should get involved either (bigger problems to deal with). I just think it would be nice to have the choice of an auditorium that is more strictly regulated, passively by preventing possible distractions, and actively by removing distractions. as well as an auditorium which is less restrictive. This allows individual choice and not adhering to group will. Choice is always good.

Heck I also believe there should be a choice of theaters which allow guns inside....

 

[SlitheryDee]

I still haven't seen anyone comment on only having certain auditoriums blocked....

Still I find it hard to argue with having auditoriums which allow cell phone signals and those which don't...other than people just seem to be completely ignoring that. Oddly enough people ignored that option on every single forum I posted this on....I think that harkens back to points #1 and #2 in my original post.

I don't think it's practical for every movie theater or even a majority of movie theaters to suddenly double the number of auditoriums they have to show movies on. They'd have to double their capacity or cut the number of movies they show in half in order to have enough auditoriums available to offer a cell-phone and non cell-phone option for every showing of every movie (assuming they normally carry enough movies to utilize all their auditoriums). I also think that one of the choices would see very few viewers while the other would be overcrowded. That would clearly be a waste of capacity for theaters. If anything, they'd want to distribute people as evenly as possible to maximize the viewing experience for everyone rather than having the cell-phone auditoriums packed and the non cell-phone auditoriums 1/4 filled (or vice versa). So ultimately very few theaters would be able to do this for financial or space reasons while the ones that did would not be using the extra space in an optimal manner.

I was thinking all these things while I conspicuously did not address that particular point. I'd wager that the people on the other forums and here who did not mention it simply wrote it off as impossible and moved on to what they saw as a real point of contention.

Or perhaps it's just that the solution that makes everyone happy leaves nothing to argue over. After all, if we don't have something to argue over we often don't have a thread. :hmm:

 

[Veliko]

I don't have a choice. My employment contract says 24/7 availability barring special exceptions. a movie is not one. I shouldnt have to quit my job so I can go see a movie to appease you. I do NOT talk on the phone in the movie theater. I leave.

you dont make cell phones not work, you get your ass up and go complain, you get a comp ticket and the offender gets tossed. thats what happened last time I asked someone to get off the phone, and she told me to "mind my own fucking business because shes tryin to watch a movie"

I left, got a free movie, and let into the next showing of that one, and she didnt get to see the rest of that one.

or you can sit on your ass, bitch on the internet, and try and get cell phones blocked in movie theaters.

I'd rather you just man up personally instead of insisting we legislate everything to the lowest common denominator.

Hmmm, let me see. Having my film interrupted to leave the place and report the issue and then have to spend time and money coming back to watch the film another day versus blocking phone to nip the problem in the bud.

It doesn't have to be legislated either.

 

[McLovin]

cause no one likes a "by the book bob". i'm floored you never got that yet.D:
ya know you can enforce rules within reason and still be cool, but sounds like you chose to be mr. rule officer hardass and that is why people get rude with you. The other employees 90% of the time are cool, your the mall cop they make fun of behind your back.

LOL

Yeah by the book bob that's a good one. Never said I was a hard ass, nor did I really try to give the impression I was. People can vent about people being lazy and/or stupid you know.

If you truly take the opinion that "ya know you can enforce rules within reason and still be cool" then what you are saying is that the entire premise of this thread is moot. Not a single soul can complain about any interruptions while at the movies because you can't get 16 years old to care to enforce the rules and "by the book bob" as you put it, can't because he's an asshole.

BTW, I have not had one person complain to me or my boss about my actions. Quite a few come back and treat me as a friend. All my co-workers, also enjoy my company and we all hang out outside of work. Nice try though.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Ok. So what if I have a date night out with my wife and we leave our kid with a babysitter and the child has a major allergic reaction, accident, ect and they need to reach me ASAP? Should that be blocked too?

Once again, parents of young children prove they're the most selfish, inconsiderate pricks on this planet.

 

[Ancalagon44]

You really don't have any idea of the environment I work in or the situation my job entails so you're in no position to make statements that seemingly come out of your ass. A 2 hour turnaround time would get me fired. Also, i've taken CPR, infant CPR, and do know something about first aid, having been a boy scout and generally informed sheep.

Exactly, you would get fired, so why go to a movie? What help are you in a movie theatre?