Drive in cinema in DL harbour

zagmund

Has anyone had any experience of the drive in cinema in DL so far? I meant to go to it during the Summer or the last time it was on, but didn't get around to it. I went tonight to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but there was a bit of an issue with the audio and we had to leave.

I know the audio was working because we could hear it from other cars, but our car and several others couldn't tune it in at all. The guys running it seemed genuine when they said it had been working perfectly in recent nights, but there wasn't a whole lot to be done so we left.

They said it was down to solar flares. People working in IT may be familiar with the BOFH and his big book of excuses when stuff doesn't work. One of his best ones is to blame it on solar flares, but it seems (at least from a quick check of the news sites) there may actually be something to it in this case.

Anyhoo, has anyone else had any good/bad experience with the drive in? I would like to go back, but it would be of limited value if my radio still couldn't tune in.

z

coylemj

What frequency was the sound being broadcast on? Temporary services such as the FM signal carrying the ref's mic in the Aviva during rugby internationals are licensed by the BAI but there's no sign of any temporary radio licence for a drive-in cinema in DL.....

http://www.bai.ie/index.php/temporary-radio-services-test-page/

This crowd running drive-in films in Co. Meath: www.driveinfilms.ie are licensed by the BAI so you'd expect the crowd in DL to do the same, might suggest that it's an amateur operation if they didn't.

JDxtra

Solar flares! That's funny.

They are transmitting from the same site as the location of the screen - very hard to get this wrong or suffer from interference! Either they know what they are doing, or they don't.

zagmund

It was 107.8.

The radio would pick up Newstalk and a couple of other channels around there, then (on scan) run through to 108.0 and roll over to 87ish.

They were definitely broadcasting because I could hear other cars, but there were several of us that just couldn't tune it no matter what we did. I imagine this couldn't be a regular problem as it would be a bit of a disaster to have to extricate unhappy customers (well, their cars) from the middle of a block of cars in the middle of every movie. Those of us who left were 'lucky' in that we are at the sides/back and could move easy enough, but there were people in the middle that couldn't have moved without a couple of other cars having to move too. If you think a mobile phone screen is bright in a cinema, try a couple of sets of headlights for distraction.

It might be worth their time investing in a couple of cheap radios (do they still call them transistors?) to hand out in this sort of situation.

z

zagmund

It looks like they are the "Dun Laoghaire CFE" entry just below the Ratoath listing on that BAI page.. The frequency & location match, but the dates don't.

z