Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: New Zealand considers using cell phone "Jammers"

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Posted by Christian Volpi (Member # 2370) on 05-02-2005, 09:33 AM:

MSNBC News Story

Cinema owners seek to curb phone rage

Operators consider jamming technology to stop mid-movie calls

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:00 p.m. ET April 29, 2005WELLINGTON, New Zealand -

New Zealand cinema owners may use mobile phone jamming technology to stop mid-movie calls, text messaging — and cell phone rage among patrons, they said Friday.

The national Motion Pictures Exhibitors Association said it's studying the legality of using mobile phone jammers because of the disruption from the phones during movie screenings.

Association spokesman Duncan Mackenzie said the jammers could be used in the 200-member group's cinemas round the country.

Mobile phones in cinemas were a "huge disruption" to moviegoers, Mackenzie said.

"Even texting creates so much light and it's unfair to expect that people should have to put up with it," he said.

The worst offenders he saw were middle aged women who answered their phones in cinemas and continued conversations, getting aggravated if asked to turn their cell phones off or leave, he said.

Mackenzie said "cell phone rage" between patrons sometimes turned nasty.

He had to defuse one incident when a man threatened to hit two foreign students sitting on opposite sides of the cinema who were texting each other.

While many felt teenagers were the worst offenders, Mackenzie said they were the most cooperative about turning phones off.

If jammers were introduced, people on call for emergencies could leave their mobile phones or pagers at the reception desk, he said.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-02-2005, 10:57 AM:

You know, I see no reason whatsoever why these things should be illegal if the theatre puts up a sign at the door saying "Your cellphone will not work on these premises."

Go for it, NZ! I hope the US follows suit tomorrow if not sooner.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 05-02-2005, 02:10 PM:

Mike,

The issue is that it is illegal to transmit on frequencies which require a license to use. I would hope the FCC will come up with a method to license these jammers which will ensure that they only jam the signal where they are intended to.

There are passive ways (non-transmitting) to jam cell phones but I guess it would be pretty expensive to surround the auditorium with a metal cage inside the walls (or coat the walls in lead like an x-ray room).

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 05-02-2005, 02:25 PM:

are the cellphone users winning out? More and more, I see people of all races, genders and age groups having their cellphone on in theaters. Of course, the worst are young people. Still, it is getting to be pretty bad. It has come to a state in certain showings where I fear that if I admonish someone using a cell, I won't get much support from the crowd because a lot of them seemed to be open to doing the same as evidenced by their turned on cellphones.

It's not going to stop me from asking people to get the hell out of the auditorium if they want to use their phone.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-02-2005, 03:37 PM:

If it can be done legally, without interfering with other radio communication, and without interfering with cell phone users outside of the theatre auditorium, I'm completely in favor of this.

I'm completely sick of idiots who not only bring their phones into movie theatres, but fail to turn them off, and actually answer them during the show when they ring (loudly, often with obnoxious ring tones). It truly ruins the moviegoing experience and is becoming a more frequent occurrence in my experience.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 05-02-2005, 06:50 PM:

Scott,

I think the issue is that right now it can't be done legally with a jammer that transmits. The only legal ways that I know of would be to block the signal so it can't penetrate the auditorium. This could be done by constructing a faraday cage using metal mesh behind the wall treatments, ceiling tiles and in the floor. Something like this (or using lead in the walls and ceiling like an x-ray room) may be somewhat feasible in a new construction but I would imagine a retrofit would be prohibitively expensive.

I'm not sure how easy it is to jam CDMA (Verizon and Sprint) signals. It's very easy to do for GSM, TDMA and iDEN technology.

Probably the best thing to do would be if the industry would get together with the cell phone providers to install micro-cells in each auditorium that can be set so that during a show, all calls are disabled. This way, the phone will "think" it's on the system and will not try to get a signal from another cell. Micro-cell's are licensed by the FCC so you don't get involved in violating "can't cause interference" regulations.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-02-2005, 07:21 PM:

Yeah, like the cell providers would go along with that. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 05-03-2005, 09:22 AM:

With all the free nights and weekends plans (which is when most people are at the theatres), the cell providers might not mind (if the theatre owner pays for it of course).

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 05-03-2005, 12:34 PM:

Using an active cell phone jammer is against FCC rules and is illegal here. But it is legal to spend tens of thousands of dollars to accomplish the same goal by building into your auditorium walls and ceilings panels that won't allow cell phone signals to enter or depart. And who sez we don't live in a great country.....

Posted by Tracy Bellar (Member # 3049) on 05-03-2005, 01:29 PM:

does anyone have a link to a place to buy or build your own cell jammer? I think they should be jammed inside a theater. I'm all for it.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 05-03-2005, 01:48 PM:

Cell phone jamming has been discussed at Film-Tech a number of times. Do a search for "French cinemas act to jam mobiles" and "NYC bans cell phones at movies" for more info.

These guys have had their site up for over two years now and claim to have equipment that will solve all our cell phone problems, but I don't have info on how effective their systems are: http://www.globalgadgetuk.com/