Dive In Movie Surveillance

[Chris Griffith]

I am thinking about hosting a Dive-In Movie at my facility. The Facility needs to be dark to have the best possible image quality, but I'm afraid it will be difficult for my staff to be able to scan the area effectively. Any insight on this topic would be greatly appreciated. I've included a panorama of my facility to give you an idea of what I'm working with. The movie will be displayed above the diving board. 

[Jesse Benavidez]

This idea has always been on the top of my list for other types of aquatic events. But the fact is that they are hard to have because of the lighting and sound issues.

At a smaller facility that I used to be a manager at, we first did "the test run". All of our staff was there for it. We basically set up the entire movie screen, and started trying out the different light skeems. One big factor was the power of the projector. The illumination was great. But we also paid a little more for a better projector,FYI totally worth it. Then we tested the staff using a timmy doll and identified the proper zones of protection for it. The zones were changed dramatically because of the lighting skeam.

We ended up closing a section of the pool off to swimmers near the end of the pool with the screen. We closed it off with two lane lines and explained to patrons entering that it was off limits. Red floats were also used to show off limit areas. However, we did not stop rotation to this area. A lifeguard was still posted there with a flash light. We would scan the bottom of the pool constantly.

Sound was a real issue also, so we gave the lifeguards airhorns. The airhorn was to be used only to activate the EAP. Also, an alternative lighting set up was close by. Those dual lamp shop lights work great. If there had been an icident, we would still have enough lighting to see what we were doing.

Hope this leads you in the right direction.

[Robin Harden]

The previous management at our facility tried this a couple of times. They kept only half of the lights on- so the bottom was always visible. The movies were never very well attended simply because swimmers got too cold being in the water that long at one time.
One other problem they ran into was the use of movies. They were just renting them and showing them without proper licensing. Our local movie theatre made a big deal out of it, and almost got them in a lot of trouble.
This year we are showing a movie in the park and have just purchased our licensing of the movie and it was $250 for the rights to show the movie. It we had followed the proper channels years ago, the 12 kids we had would not pay for the cost associated with the movie showing, let alone staff expense.

[Andrea Salzman]

How warm is your pool? Will people tolerate 2 hours floating around in it?

[Chris Griffith]

My pool is kept at 86.5 degrees.

[Brian Powers]

We have monthly movies in the dark months (October through February), and have not had a problem. Our bright underwater lights allow for better swimmer visibility than the overhead lights, and the clarity of guests on the bottom of the pool improves surveillance safety. We spent a long time on our safety plan, reviewing roles and variations needed. This includes spot lights on exits and flashlights with the guards. It has worked very well. Sound was not a safety issue, but we kept the volume low with speakers near the projector.

Regarding the temperature, we keep our lap pool at 85 F, so they are fairly warm, most kids watch for a while, swim around for a while, watch some more. It has worked best with the short films that are popular with the holidays.

Pay attention to licensing. There is a company that will assist with a one time performance or go through the MPLC requirements.

[Kevin Kenney]

We have done "Movie in a Tube" at our outdoor facility. We allowed the guests to float in our 6' lap pool and we played the movie on a screen at one end. We worked closely with our health dept on what they thought. We kept a few lights on because we needed to maintain a foot candle reading of 25. I will include a picture also if i can get it to upload.

[Kevin R. Donnelly]

Just curious. With that many tubes conjested in one area how do your lifeguards see the bottom of the pool?

[Kevin Kenney]

People had to be in tubes and the guards said it made it very easy to scan and see empty tubes.

[Emma Schneider]

i agree with the others. It is a very cool idea! I would definately recommend having all guards equipped with flashlights and airhors, as the movies are pretty loud and by the looks of your facility it would have to be loud... test it out... let your local fire dept know what is happening in case something were to come up (they also may want to come, which would provide extra help in the event something does happen)...

I would also make sure you have some extra guards on duty that night, so you can have some walking around the deck and others on surveillance from the stands...

Hope for the best, plan for the worst!

~Emma Schneider

[Brian Powers]

Here is a link to a pictures from a pool across town from me. They do a nice job. Both with safety and presentation of films.

http://www.facebook.com/50meter#!/photo.php?pid=2952544&id=171128859906&fbid=216478409906

[Michael C. Scheetz]

I ran Dive-in-Movies at my old facility. It was a 50m pool much like yours. I confined everyone to the deep end only and turned off half of the overhead lights and kept all of the underwater lights on. To combat my fear of not being able to botom scan very well, I am a NAUI SCUBA diver and patroled the bottom of the pool during the event.

[Chris Griffith]

That is a spectacular idea. I would have never thought of using a scuba diver.