With the new app you can spy SF beams to see if they appear (2024)

One startup thought it found a simple way to help people get the most out of San Francisco's nightlife. But bargers care about being broadcast on other people's phones when they try to hook up.

Now the company is fighting to save his face.

The founders of 2night, which until Wednesday was called Nightye, thought they could do for drinkers and clubs what Surfline does for surfers. The company has a network of cameras above venues in San Francisco that allows app users to see how busy events are in real time, so partygoers can decide if the atmosphere suits them. The app also lists upcoming Live Bay Area events and links to Instagram accounts for featured artists.

"The nightlife in San Francisco and other cities is currently very difficult to navigate," said co-founder Lucas Harris in a telephone interview."It was clear to me that everyone wanted a solution like this - to get the atmosphere they were looking for."

The idea owes a lot to Surfline, which allows surfers to check the quality of waves on beaches around the world.

"The only thing I can give that is the most useful are live streams," said Harris, who grew up in Portola Valley and graduated from Pitzer College last year. "You can find the most information" based on what the camera reveals.

Since its debut this spring, 2Night has had a limited scope. It currently has relationships with five to eight locations, including Blue Light and Mayes Oyster House in San Francisco and Kip's Bar and Grill, as well as Club Cali in Berkeley, where it can. hosts live streams on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Harris says that venues work with 2Night Control when the cameras are on and that the live streams are mainly intended to give an impression of live shows in bars, clubs and other event locations. Harris said he hopes 2Night will later expand to offer streams on Thursdays and Sundays as well.

About 3,000 people have used the web -based service, and around 300 have become recurring users, Harris said.Everything is free for now.

Although Harris aimed for something similar to Surfline's usability, critics said it was reminiscent of other tech debacles, such as SceneTap, which aimed to provide livestreams and real-time information about relationships between men and women in bars in 2012.

“Lemme Guess, Some Techbro has this innovative idea to be the rent-seeking intermediary that charges venues and bands to run pay-per-view streams,” said Jamie Zawinski, the owner of DNA Lounge, a club and music venue in invoice SOMA.

While DNA Lounge offers livestreams of DJ sets, Zawinski said via email that what he does is nothing like 2Night: "'That guy' has had that idea about every six months for 20 years."

The not so original idea of ​​live streaming from a bar was immediately labeled in angry reactions to the Instagram account of 2Night as an infringement of privacy.

"You should be able to let go of a bar where Big Brother will not keep an eye on you," said Lauren S., a woman in the middle of the 30 years who refused to share her last name to her privacyto protect.

Lauren told the Standard that she also thought the app was unnecessary.

“Just go to a damn bar,” Lauren said. “And if it's not cool, you go to another bar.”

Other customers thought the app would be useful and waved it off due to privacy concerns.

"If you have a credit card, they already know everything about you," says Dan Berg, 53.

During a live performance Friday at the Bottom of the Hill venue Potrero Hill, concertgoers seemed more receptive to the camera.

“That would be sick!” said Seth Evans of Vacaville, 23, bumping his head to a Nina Durango performance. “It would be a huge lift for them.”

The date of Evans, Nova Ford, said that a live stream could help promote bands to people who cannot travel to see the performance. Under the Pandemic Artists and Living locations also used live streams.

Alex Sherman, a 33-year-old resident of Berkeley, stood at a distance from the Moshpit and said that he was only "casually worried" that he was in a live stream, because there was no sign or other indication that he was possible on camera.

"But I don't care," said Sherman."I assume I'm public."

Some artists were also supportive.

Ken "DJ Classic" Wilton, 52, believes that the ability of the app to stream live performances will show his music to a wider audience and help him attract more followers.

“I can see and hear what's going on, I think it's valuable,” Wilton said.

Initially, Harris was skeptical about privacy issues and pointed out that hotspots for drinks and going out are certainly not remote places.

"I still don't think you go to a bar or club for privacy," Harris said. "You're surrounded by strangers."

Yet Harris and co-founder Francesco Bini said they have listened to the criticism and made changes to remove the worries, such as adjusting cameras to hide the faces of unsuspecting customers.He added that live streams are not stored.

"All live streams you have access to the application are blurry, so you can't identify specific people," he said on Wednesday.He said on Friday in an SMS that 2Night is planning to keep the streams hidden until they find a "more visually attractive [sic]] solution that also protects privacy."

De Standaard saw four active live streams of locations in the Bay Area on the 2 -Night app Friday evening: The Blue Light and Mayes Oyster House in San Francisco and Kip's Bar and Grill, as well as Club Cali in Berkeley.

The image of each stream was so blurry that the faces of anyone standing more than a few feet from the camera were indistinguishable, and the sound, although muffled, was clear enough to distinguish what music was being played somewhere, such as Rockeller hip -hop.

The company is also considering only the faces of the public fade, while the artists remain sharp.

But for Trinity Patron Jessica Gomez, blurred faces aren't enough to quell her concerns about being recorded while sitting in a bar.

“I liked this place, but now I want to leave,” Gomez said. “I feel weird and included.”

In addition to customers, there were also site owners who were annoyed that their business was listed on 2Nat, even though they had never asked for the location.

Rico Avila, operator of White Rabbit, told De Standaard that he was trying to reach the company since last week when he heard from a worried patron that the cow hollow hello was recorded on a list of "bars in the neighborhood" on the app without thempermission.

"We contacted them - no answer," said Avila Wednesday.

He said the bar's social media team responded to a 2Night Instagram post saying White Rabbit was not connected to the livestream app and asked for the bar's name to be removed. The comment has been deleted. The Standard sent several messages to Avila asking for screenshots of the comment sent by his social media team, but did not receive a response before publication.

"We see they see our messages," said Avila."We hope that we don't have to go any further to remove any mention from us."

Avila said White Rabbit would "never" allow livestream cameras and called the idea "bad in so many ways."

“It's completely invasive for one,” he said. "It could encourage bad actors to use it. It's another big concern. ... Responsibility is a major cause, you know, it opens us up to a lot of very uncertain legal situations."

The fading of the faces of people in the video images "doesn't help" with these problems, he said.

Harris said in a voice message on Friday that he had not seen any messages from Avila. He said he left his contact details at the bar "weeks ago" but had not heard back and that he would remove White Rabbit from the app.

“I haven't seen them either,” Harris said in a text message Friday.

On Friday the bar was removed from the 2Night app.

He admitted that he hadn't really considered that people would have a problem with being streamed without their consent. He pointed out that they are in a public place and that these businesses already have security cameras.

"These questions are something like: turn this around so that it seems strange and creepy," said Corvi."It is a shame that people think so, you know. That is not the intention. The intention is to do more business."And take people out.Bars, restaurants and night clubs die out in San Francisco.We need help."

Stephanie K. Baer has contributed reporting.

Correction: This story has been updated to note that Boto Restaurant & Bar does not plan to offer livestreams, and Trinity Bar & Restaurant plans not to have the cameras installed yet.