could they turn a theater into a faraday cage

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

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First Officer 6PC
I was at the movies and noticed a hundred ads telling you to turn your phone off. And of course lots of young folks on phones nonetheless. I don't care too much but couldn't they make a theater where the phone can't work?
 
Jamming...no, not legal but It is possible through construction. Disney somehow does it...as soon as you enter the ride buildings at Disneyland your signal goes dead on almost every ride.
 
Sure, you could turn a theater into a Faraday Cage, but are you willing to pay the extra in ticket price they'd need to cover the cost? A shielded room isn't cheap. Not even close. And that's a "small" one. The size of a typical theater? I know some people in the business who would LOVE to quote one of those.
 
I wish this was already in place. My friend was replying to texts during the first part of Dory. I finally ask her to put the phone away to which she replied that she needed to respond to the texts.
 
Stanford University warns people that the design of their relatively new Bing Concert Hall results in "limited" cell phone service, especially in the auditorium, so they may have incorporated shielding into the structure of the building. They advise "medical professionals and others who may need to be reached during a concert" to "either check their cell phone or pager device or direct outside callers to call the Patron Services desk and provide their seat location..."

https://live.stanford.edu/plan-your-visit/electronic-devices
 
Palmpilot said:
Stanford University warns people that the design of their relatively new Bing Concert Hall results in "limited" cell phone service, especially in the auditorium, so they may have incorporated shielding into the structure of the building. They advise "medical professionals and others who may need to be reached during a concert" to "either check their cell phone or pager device or direct outside callers to call the Patron Services desk and provide their seat location..."

https://live.stanford.edu/plan-your-visit/electronic-devices
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Excellent!! Wish more places did that.

As for construction costs, the cage needn't be complete, it just needs to reduce signal strength to intermittent range, where many phones won't work.

Of course, if the stupid programmers didn't make the screens all white, they wouldn't be so bothersome. Why can't they realize that a white screen is NOT "just like a piece of paper"??? Never seen a piece of paper glow . . . It's more like reading the writing in a lit up light bulb.
 
Ghery said:
Sure, you could turn a theater into a Faraday Cage, but are you willing to pay the extra in ticket price they'd need to cover the cost? A shielded room isn't cheap. Not even close. And that's a "small" one. The size of a typical theater? I know some people in the business who would LOVE to quote one of those.
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What about using grounded metal screens over the windows and a coat or two of aluminized paint applied to everything else?

Rich
 
You can shield a building but remember it goes both ways... Staff, emergency responders, all sorts of other folks end up with problems from it when they need to communicate from inside.

Better to just ban the things outright and boot anyone seen with one and leave the spectrum management to nature.
 
Check phones here before entering the theater. Remember hat check girls? If you are expecting an emergency call, please exit here.

I would think paying a check person minimum wage would be cheaper than shielding a building.
 
Zeldman said:
Check phones here before entering the theater. Remember hat check girls? If you are expecting an emergency call, please exit here.

I would think paying a check person minimum wage would be cheaper than shielding a building.
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Why? Leave it at home or in your car.
 
Some public schools have systems that block the cell signal. Your phone shows a generic network symbol but can't get to your provider network.
 
Skip Miller said:
Enforceable how? You will soon discover that the rules are made for others... -Skip
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Throw them out. Theatres are already using low light IR cameras to see people on phones. Not that hard.

Or just post signs and hope, like those infamous "gun-free-zones"... Haha.
 
It can be done, but it's not cheap. We had a building built that required severe RF/EMI hardening. The final acceptance testing required the contractor to bring in a transmitter with an very highoutput capability and show that it was undetectable 10' outside the building footprint sweeping from VLF into the microwave bands. Isolated phone, data and power lines, along with water and gas lines being isolated for RF/EMI and acoustic coupling. I'd bet the additional cost for this requirement was well beyond a million bucks.

The FCC frowns severely on the use of micro jammers for cell phone, with only a few exceptions. A guy in Florida learned that via a huge fine last year.
 
Possible, but not cheap. requires extra work due to the frequencies that cell phones operate on. And as Nate notes, it does present a problem in an emergency. There are ways to address those issues, of course, but the first time another theater massacre occurs and cells were dead because of the shielding there will be lawsuits.

Might be easier to become friends with the local PD and ask them to install a Stingray.
 
The really funny one was the building the Colorado Office of Emergency Management is in has some other agency in the building who needed blast and emp and blah blah shielding ...

So they built the thing and then had to run Radiax through the whole building so the radios and cell phones would work in the Emergency Operations Center...

Brilliant.
 
Shawn said:
Jamming...no, not legal but It is possible through construction. Disney somehow does it...as soon as you enter the ride buildings at Disneyland your signal goes dead on almost every ride.
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Disney gets a lot of special considerations.
 
As far as I know, Disney does not use active cell phone jamming, at least in Florida, but they may play favorites to a "sponsoring" carrier (which I believe right now is AT&T) for coverage on property. Even if they did intentionally block signals, they provide WiFi in most places, which would still enable the use of phones. In my observation, Disney has a far more liberal cell phone policy (especially on rides) than most amusement parks.

The reality is that blocking cell phone signals in buildings isn't that hard. Most carriers use microwave bands which are severely attenuated by common building materials, especially the steel and concrete which are commonly used in commercial buildings.


JKG
 
The people of the United States used to use a thing called manners and decency, now days it is all about me, me, me! The cell phone users are a breed all their own. They cannot even sit down for a meal without stating at their phone thirty or fifty times. Most public places should be cell free areas but they use the same ******** excuse for all scenarios " well, what if something happens?" Somehow the ability to post on Twitter and clownbook during an emergency constitutes enough reason to annoy the rest of the world at every public space now. Every checkout counter in town has a sign now that says in essence " get off the damn phone before we do business" .
For an insight into our future, take a trip to a restaurant when the kids are having prom. All the couples are all dressed up nice, the gals are in their dresses but the boys don't hold a door for them, they don't hold their chair they don't even talk to their dates! All they do is sit their and play on their damn phones! I could just imagine the actual dance, no one dancing and everyone standing in little circles staring at their phones or taking selfies so the can post that they actually got off their butts and made it out of mommy and daddy's house for once.

My wife has a great picture that sums it up nicely, it is an invitation that says" I'm having people over tonight to stare at their phones, would you please join us"
 
denverpilot said:
You can shield a building but remember it goes both ways... Staff, emergency responders, all sorts of other folks end up with problems from it when they need to communicate from inside.
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Yes, James Holmes comes to mind as one reason NOT to do this.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
The people of the United States used to use a thing called manners and decency, now days it is all about me, me, me! The cell phone users are a breed all their own. They cannot even sit down for a meal without stating at their phone thirty or fifty times.

Is this anything like the smokers who can't get through a meal, movie, or show without a smoke break (sometimes multiple ones)? Or the sports fan who can't get through a game with a stockpile of beer?
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The absence of manners has always been a problem, especially among younger people. Phones are just the latest manifestation of it. I do think that there are more OLDER people who are inconsiderate than there used to be, but I'm not sure that phones play a big role in that behavior.

On the other hand, I live in an area inhabited by far more old than young, so perhaps my opinion is skewed by demographics.


JKG
 
I don't know if it's because I live in the midwest or just don't go to enough movies but I've just never seen this as a big problem. I know a lot of people, including myself, talk and have phones out during the trivia and advertising BS but I don't really notice any phones out during the movie. Maybe just a peek to see if an incoming text is important.... not really a big deal.

Then again I don't think I use my phone like other people do. I've disabled almost all the notification stuff- social media is something I do if I'm bored not something I want popping up and interrupting my day. I think the only app I have allowed to bug me for notifications is the credit card app that notifies me if any large purchases go through...
 
In a few years your kids will be old enough to be dropped-off at the theater with their friends. Is the very very minor inconvenience of having your sensibilities ruffled worth having your kids be isolated and out of touch? I was often sent out into the world with just a couple of quarters to call home. Ever go to call mom for a ride home and found that some ******* had ripped the handsets off all the payphones? Don't be that guy, it's not like anything we're seeing at the multiplex is important cinema.

ETA: Seriously? "*******" is censored? Fine. Don't be the anal orifice that rips all the handsets off the payphones.
 
SCCutler said:
My house is a cell-almost-free zone, AT&T and Verizon. Texts get through (but wifi can assist with that, can't it?), calls, occasionally on AT&T, neVerizon.
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Who's house isn't? Hahaha.

JGoodish said:
The absence of manners has always been a problem, especially among younger people. Phones are just the latest manifestation of it. I do think that there are more OLDER people who are inconsiderate than there used to be, but I'm not sure that phones play a big role in that behavior.

On the other hand, I live in an area inhabited by far more old than young, so perhaps my opinion is skewed by demographics.


JKG
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I can give one example of elderly and cell phones that drives me absolutely batty.

They bury it in a purse or bag and have the loudest possible ringer cheap flip phone (so they can even hear it) and can't find the damned thing through not just one ring cycle of someone trying to call them, but usually through most of the second series on the second call attempt, too.

"Oh where is that thing?" as grandma digs through her six gallon purse with 10 year old Certs and at least fifteen pounds of crap on top of the flip phone, while we can all hear the thing ringing over in the next county.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
The people of the United States used to use a thing called manners and decency, now days it is all about me, me, me! The cell phone users are a breed all their own. They cannot even sit down for a meal without stating at their phone thirty or fifty times. Most public places should be cell free areas but they use the same ******** excuse for all scenarios " well, what if something happens?" Somehow the ability to post on Twitter and clownbook during an emergency constitutes enough reason to annoy the rest of the world at every public space now. Every checkout counter in town has a sign now that says in essence " get off the damn phone before we do business" .
For an insight into our future, take a trip to a restaurant when the kids are having prom. All the couples are all dressed up nice, the gals are in their dresses but the boys don't hold a door for them, they don't hold their chair they don't even talk to their dates! All they do is sit their and play on their damn phones! I could just imagine the actual dance, no one dancing and everyone standing in little circles staring at their phones or taking selfies so the can post that they actually got off their butts and made it out of mommy and daddy's house for once.

My wife has a great picture that sums it up nicely, it is an invitation that says" I'm having people over tonight to stare at their phones, would you please join us"
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Yeah, when I was growing up in the 1970's, no one would stare at their cell phones while watching a movie in the theater. ;)

OTOH, Mrs. Thequick was checking on the kids (got a text from the babysitter) and was checking it during the previews, and the kids that were talking throughout the movie (later in the sequence of events) thought it was rude. We sit in the back of the theater now, when we go out.
 
Jeffythequick said:
We sit in the back of the theater now, when we go out.
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I haven't been to a movie theatre in about...7 years. But, when my wife and I went we did that once and only once. The rest of the time we sit in the middle.

In the back of the house you're gonna get the morons who bring in pot and smoke it, alcohol and yeah even those that seem to think it's a great time/place to get frisky.

That's part of the reason I don't even go anymore. Too many losers. I'll just wait for the movie to come out on NetFlix or something..why bother?
 
The last time we went to a movie, their was a couple next to us that I would assume had some mental disorders, every minute or two the gal would let out a goofy laughing type sound but he was the worst I have ever seen. They have some deal on popcorn where you buy this giant plastic bucket and then all your refills are X amount of dollars. Well instead of holding the bucket in his lap or under his arm, he held it up next to his face(and next to my face) and would shove his face into the bucket to fill his mouth with popcorn! I have never in my life seen this type of an approach to filling your mouth with food. He went through three buckets of popcorn during the movie and never once did his hands ever touch the stuff.

Reason number 448 to stay home.
 
We hit the movies once or twice a year. Almost always go to the earliest show. Even a couple of the movie tavern type theaters around here are starting to have breakfast shows. Going to have to try one if they get something worth going to see.
 
That's why we got spoiled and only go to Alamo Drafthouse which does it the right way: no brats and no cellphones allowed. Period. Most people go to the cinema to enjoy the moving pictures, not to hear somebody yammer on a phone or listen to infants screaming the whole time. Does this make me old? :)

I've heard of many people with cell phone jammers. Yes, they are illegal and yes they do work.
HOWEVER (it's just a fancy "but"), they don't work the way you want them to. If you want to make people stop using their phones, you'd have to kill their battery. Killing the signal tends to be counter productive. All these FB-dependent idiots will keep staring at the white-screen (with their dumb faces lighting up the theater during the movie), waiting for the signal to come back. Don't believe me? Try to jam the signal sometime. :)
 
The decision last year to buy a 70" TV keeps getting better and better. Haha. Who even cares about theaters anymore? Got one in the basement.
 
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