Entertainment venues to be put under surveillance

Entertainment venues to be put under surveillance

• Source: Global Times
• [09:04 March 10 2011]
• Comments

Singer Desmond McGarry of Irish music band Black Water performs at Mako Live House on September 25, 2010. Photo: CFP

By Fang Yunyu

The culture industry is the latest to fall under the authorities' watchful eyes, quite literally, with the debut of yet another surveillance project Wednesday.

The capital is planning to inject 5.57 million yuan ($847,754) to establish a massive remote surveillance system covering all the capital's entertainment venues, according to the Municipal Bureau of Culture Wednesday.

The bureau is seeking bids this month for a system combining audio and video monitoring and emergency services coordination.

When complete, the bureau will be able to use the system to "directly and effectively monitor" all performances in cinemas, theaters, music clubs and even arcades, store and manage all video materials and share the information they obtain with other government departments as needed, according to the bidding document.

The request for bids has been posted to the China Government Procurement Net website, ccgp.gov.cn.

Wang Weibo, spokesman of the bureau, confirmed the project to the Global Times but refused to disclose any details or a timetable for the plan.

The city had a total of 2,109 cultural entertainment venues, including opera houses, theaters and karaoke bars, by the end of 2009, generating nearly 1 billion yuan in revenue that year, according to the culture bureau.

All entertainment venues are required by the Municipal Public Security Bureau to install surveillance cameras in public areas, and according to the bidding document, the new installations will be based on the existing surveillance network.

"I hope the authorities will think deeply about this plan," the director of a theater in Dongcheng district, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

"Monitoring us is not appropriate," she said. "Would you be comfortable if you knew that someone was watching you all the time?"