France to allow cell phone jamming in cinemas

scribs

Blocking reception is the wrong way to go about tackling this problem.
Warnings letting patrons know that if they are caught using their
phone they will be ejected from the cinema should be used before the
screening of the film. (As many cinemas do) This should be enforced. (Most cinemas dont do this)
In my experience the majority of people turn off their phone or at least mute it when the warning signs pop up before a film.

If that fails just smack the twats across the back of their heads - they'll
soon associate the sharp pain with leaving their phones on and will eventually learn to knock em off

Prozium

The type of people that use phones in the cinema are usually guilty of other offences like chatting, seat kicking as Fitz just pointed out.

I think blocking phones in the cinemas would only address a very small part if the whole issue.

When I was a young nipper (I'm 25) I remember Ushers in the cinema's and they used to stay for the duration of the show and keep everyone in order. Nowadays the staff just don't give a sh!t. They are paid peanuts and all they think about is "when is my shift over".

I was in the UGC on saturday and while I was stocking up on their over priced sweets I noticed 3 scumbags litterally filling their paper bags full of Pick & Mix, then they proceeded to get large coke's and icecream. I estimated that they must have had at least €60 - €70 of stuff between them. Then they just walked right past the security guard as he chatted up some 17 year old piece of skirt.
I was fu*cking fuming when I found the same 3 scumbags sitting 2 rows behind me. All they did during the film is mouth off and talk on their phones.

I'm a big guy and I don't usually stand for this type of sh!t in the cinema but I thought in this situation it might be better to not say anything and I noticed nobody else did either.

The thing is most people don't want to confront these type of people including the hopeless security because of retribution.

In the end really it's down to the cinema management and to be honest what I have seen of them they're a lost cause.

Retr0gamer

All this talk of people on call going to the cinema. Wouldn't it be more convenient to go to the cinema when you aren't on call.

Saying that the real problem is all the knackers and kids constantly texting and having full conversations on their phone while in the cinema. This would be easily sorted with ushers who should turf them out the minute they start. People who leave to answer a phone that is on silent is only mildly annoying if you need to be contactable but most people who do leave are probably just inconsiderate twats.

fitz

You can't generalise like that.
And if you've ever been in a work situation where you're required to do on-call work, sometimes you get called when you aren't supposed to, and some people need to be contactable all the time as they're a permanent escalation point. Are they to never go to the cinema?
That's ridiculous.
Get ushers in and the problems are solved.

echomadman

and some people need to be contactable all the time as they're a permanent escalation point. Are they to never go to the cinema?

get a pager and put it on silent, viola, contactability. I had one when i used to be on call in a job back in 1998 before every tom dick and harry had a mobile.

mobile phones aren't a right, they're a luxury. People who insist that they're being oppressed by not being able to use it for the duration of a film/play are selfish pricks with no regard for the impact of their actions on the people around them.

Ushers wont stop a bunch of scobes from answering their phones, if they tried to eject the offenders the ensueing altercation would guarantee that at least 5 mins of the film would be ruined, by jamming the signal, all this becomes moot, as their phones will not work, problem solved.

steveland?

There was a plan ages ago to just have an IR camera at the back and front of the cinema and when the back one spots a phone light the front camera catches their face. That way instead of blocking the calls they can identify the person.

Heard about that a long time ago though so i imagine that plans out the window.

Got to admit ive read texts before in the cinema but never taken a call, but every time ive read a text ive covered my head and phone with my big jacket so i didnt interrupt people.

Someone might think im doin something else under that jacket though

scribs

We can sort this problem easily ban people under the age of
18 from going to the cinema full stop.

These are usually the prats that use their phones in the cinema.
Ringing each other and texting each other even though the bleedin person
they are ringing and texting is sitting two seats away from them.

This ban should also include people called Anto, Micka, Whacker, Dagger, Damo, Jacinta, Britney, Charlotte, Stacey and Mya. - (Scum the lota yis)

After banning all these people if the phone problem persits which I some how have the feeling it wont. Anyone who does use their phone should be reefed out of their seat by the newly hired security of the cinemas.

Im not talking some spotty greasy haired little twat of an Usher like....Oh No.

The new security will include all them vicous *****rs of bouncers who guard the doors to our beloved pubs and who the majority are awaiting trial for beating the living daylights out of happy go lucky Irish drinkers. Now that they are no longer aloud to work on the doors of the bars these Ape like
men can be the new overlords of the cinema ensuring Micka and his 16 year old bird Jacinta dont get in and that any one elses phone who does ring gets a well deserved hoof up the you know where.

I think you will find that once these changes are implemented that the days of when people used to use their phones in cinema will be come a much cherished subject of conversation in bars much like the smoking ban.

Rafters

Scribs AKA Scribblingchimps

CathyMoran

Have gone to the cinema a few times since I read this thread. I still think that jamming the signal is a bad idea but there are ways of minimizing the disruption to other cinema goers. For one thing, I have my phone on silent vibrate and place it on my lap face downwards (so that even if it does ring no light would show). I would leave if I get a call and always get the isle seat. I do find the cinema a great sense of relief with my mother in hospital and have no objection to declaring my phone and the reason for it being on before hand. I think that there should be fines for those using phones in the cinema instead. A thing that I find is far more ojectionable is those eating noisy food or those talking or kicking the seats, the worst thing that I have seen is people smoking in cinemas - surely these should be tackled before we deal with phones?

User45701

3 pages was too much i only got to the end of the first page but i think that it should bebanned in cinimas but u cant what if ur wife mothwer brother sitster husband ect was hit by a car wouldent u want to know that so u can go to the hospital. what if that person lived for 2 hours in the hospital but u where in the cinima for those 2 hours and didnt know they where hit by a car?

Venom

CathyMoran wrote:

Some people actually do need to be contactable at all times - for instance, those with a critically ill relative. They have a right to get away from the hospital at some time.

Thats complete bull and you know it. If someone has a critically ill relative, i cant see them going to the movies!

Block the damm phones and be done with it. We survived for a good 2000 years before our NEED to be in constant contact via phone took the place of food,drink and sleep as a requirement for life.

monkeyfudge

Venom wrote:

Thats complete bull and you know it. If someone has a critically ill relative, i cant see them going to the movies!

Yes. And the rules in cinemas and theatres are quite simple.

MOBILE PHONES MUST BE SWITCHED OFF!

Not on silent and not on vibrate. Cinemas and theatres are one of those wonderful places where we should be able to go and not be bothered by a phone. If you need to be contacted, then don't go there.

CathyMoran

In reply to Venom and Monkeyfudge - yes, it is possible to go to the cinema when you have a critically ill relative. While not wanting to go into too many personal details, my mother has been critically ill for the past 6 weeks, having been in intensive care for 4 of those weeks. My main source of relief has been the cinema, with my phone on descretly. You have to be in a situation to fully understand it, and while my mothers case is unusual, it is not unique. Banning phones imposes unecessary additional strain on people like myself - without them we would not go to the cinema.

There are far worse sources of noise/distraction such as people smoking in the cinema, people talking, people eating noisy food...and while we are at it tall people for us people below 5ft 2inches - the angle in some cinemas means that if someone tall sits in front of me I miss half the screen unless I sit at the front...

Wacker

This ban should also include people called Anto, Micka, Whacker, Dagger, Damo, Jacinta, Britney, Charlotte, Stacey and Mya. - (Scum the lota yis)

Oi!!! A bit close to the bone there!

My two cents: blocking phone signals would't bother me at all. But I haven't been disturbed by a phone in the cinema in ages. A price hike would bother me. If phones can be blocked without increasing prices, go for it.

scribs

Wacker wrote:

Oi!!! A bit close to the bone there! QUOTE]

Cactus Col

CathyMoran wrote:

There are far worse sources of noise/distraction such as people smoking in the cinema, people talking, people eating noisy food...

totally agree that there are worse distractions.

There are plenty of people who do have to be contactable, and as far as I can see it is much rarer for a phone to go off then to have a bunch of scangers sitting two rows behind you messing about

Fysh

CathyMoran wrote:

In reply to Venom and Monkeyfudge - yes, it is possible to go to the cinema when you have a critically ill relative. While not wanting to go into too many personal details, my mother has been critically ill for the past 6 weeks, having been in intensive care for 4 of those weeks. My main source of relief has been the cinema, with my phone on descretly. You have to be in a situation to fully understand it, and while my mothers case is unusual, it is not unique. Banning phones imposes unecessary additional strain on people like myself - without them we would not go to the cinema.

I sympathise with your situation, but I have to say - there's not *that* high a percentage of the population in a position where they need to be contactable to the point that the enjoyment of the film by everyone else should be ignored, and it is policy in most cinemas that phones should be turned off. They haven't tacked on "unless you really really need to have it one" because it's open to exploitation, and because, well, a rule is a rule. It's a shame that your mother is ill and you don't want to miss important calls when you go to the cinema, but that doesn't give you the right to ignore the rule designed specifically to prevent the kind of annoyance that you receiving a call/message will cause to other patrons, particularly if you sit in the middle of the row. I can understand how in your circumstances your priorities are geared towards being contactable regarding your mother's illness, but I also appreciate that a lot of other cinema patrons can't be expected to care about everyone's hospitalised relatives.

CathyMoran wrote:

There are far worse sources of noise/distraction such as people smoking in the cinema, people talking, people eating noisy food...and while we are at it tall people for us people below 5ft 2inches - the angle in some cinemas means that if someone tall sits in front of me I miss half the screen unless I sit at the front...

speaking as someone of average height, I often share this problem. BUT:

smoking - banned in most if not all cinemas
Talking - not outright banned but you can get people kicked out for it
Being noisy with food - as "talking"
Phones - see "talking".

The other examples you use are also things that cinemas try and stop people doing. But, in the case of phones, it's within their power to restrict people's ability to break this rule, whereas unless they remove people's vocal cords and stop selling food (one the main sources of income for cinemas and therefore not likely to happen) they can't prevent people from talking or being noisy. Similarly they can't strip search people to take their fags off of them before they enter the cinema.

fitz

Yes, but they can monitor the audience with an usher.
Also, if someone has their phone on silent, what's the difference between them getting up to go outside to return a call or message and someone getting up to go for a piss.

Sure you can hold it...but should you have to?

Personally, I always go for a pre-show piss, whether it's required or not.

pickarooney

Having an usher doesn't stop people talking. Even if they do manage to eject the talker with a minimum of fuss (unlikely), the film is still disrupted for a few minutes.

Fysh

fitz wrote:

Yes, but they can monitor the audience with an usher.
Also, if someone has their phone on silent, what's the difference between them getting up to go outside to return a call or message and someone getting up to go for a piss.

Sure you can hold it...but should you have to?

Are you saying that it's unreasonable to expect people who have paid money to attend a show to either go to the toilet before the show or maintain control of their sphincter and bladder for about 2 hours? When they *know* in advance that they'll be in the show for that amount of time?

And as pickarooney said, having an usher there doesn't prevent the problem, it's an imperfect solution to the problem of muppets and inconsiderate people who ignore the rules and other people in the cinema. I'd much rather have blocked signals in a cinema than someone answering the phone and then getting kicked out by the usher, because the former will not disrupt my film viewing (which I have paid for).