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In-seat complaint button being tested
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
August 7, 2006 at 1:10 pm
ANTIOCH, CA — In one Bay Area theater, Regal is testing out a an in-seat device to alert theater employees of a disturbance within the theater:
Loud talking, chair kicking and other movie-theater annoyances may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a new device similar to the flight attendant call button on airplanes.
Moviegoers at the Regal Deer Valley Cinema complex are testing devices that will alert a theater employee when a fellow patron is behaving badly.
For more, visit the full story on the CBS5 website.
(Thanks to _e.t. for the image)
Comments (7)
AMC’s doing the same thing with their “Silent Partner” program – for MovieWatcher members only, of course!
Moviegoers' prayers have been answered!
The chains should have done this a long time ago. But on the other hand sometimes the theatre employees are the disturbance in the theatre whether it’s bad projection or being noisy during the end credits.
We should be able to alert them to anything going wrong in the audutorium whether it’s people or projection or air-conditioning related, without have to get up and search for an elusive employee (and risk losing your seat if you’re alone.) Such a system would be wonderful, but of course some people will abuse it to the point of rendering it useless.
We should be able to alert them to anything going wrong in the audutorium whether it’s people or projection or air-conditioning related, without have to get up and search for an elusive employee (and risk losing your seat if you’re alone.) Such a system would be wonderful, but of course some people will abuse it to the point of rendering it useless.
no stadium seating in pic,…..
I doubt how effective this program will be especially if implemented in one of the more urban plexes. It’s hard to imagine one of the ushers (who is usually a teen ager or very young employee) asking a patron, who is loud and boisterous and who could very well be an individual with, criminal tendencies, to be quiet or leave!
At the grand opening of downtown DC’s Regal plex in Chinatown, there was a ruckus between an older mid30s white professionally dressed female and a 20something black man, over his talking during the movie. She went to get a manager or usher, at least twice, but it seemed no one ever came back to do anything. She eventually sat at the far end of the row, next to my friend and I.
As stated above, the system is destined to be abused as you’re going to have hyperactive kids constantly push that button as if it were a toy. And when you push the button, does the employee come right to your seat, wherever it is in the theater, to deal with your issue? Or, do they stop the movie and make an announcement? Now, if they had computer screens where you could text message someone…or multiple buttons for say, “sound,” “picture,” “disruptive patron” then that would make more sense.