Karaoke monitoring system that calls the police automatically when vulgar song is played

[From Huanqui] Dahe December 24 reports, couple of days ago, 176 karaoke places in Chongqing has installed the karaoke content management system, once someone selects to sing vulgar songs or banned songs, culture law enforcement central monitoring system will automatically flash red lights to alarm the police. Yesterday, reporter learned that Zhengzhou already started to use this system and next year will be implemented in the entire province.

“The ‘black boxes’ used for monitoring banned songs were already installed in Zhengzhou since June of last year. Zhengzhou was one of the experimental cities for the country.” Yesterday the deputy inspector of Provincial Department of Culture, Wang Tianhong said, last year we decided to collect fees for the copyright of the songs, in order to accurately calculate the number of times each song was picked, at the time, Ministry of Culture launched “national karaoke content management system”. Wang Tianhong said, other than this function, this system also has the ability to monitor the content of the songs. This system was installed by the government, free of charge. Because of its power people call it the “black box”.

The head of the Cultural market Administration Office in Zhengzhou, Li Shuiming said, Zhengzhou is one of the experimental cities that have the karaoke monitoring system installed. After one year of operation, in the 110 entertainment centers which are suitable for the system, there are already 51 places having the “black box” installed. “Next year we will push it to the entire province; this is also our country’s policy.” Wang Tianhong said.

“Music library has so many songs, and who knows which song is healthy and which is not?””If the vulgar and banned songs exist, why not just delete them directly? So it is legal if it is not picked? Netizens had a lot of questions.

The karaoke content management system did not have vulgar or banned songs to begin with, but the system is not exclusive. Wang Tianhong said, currently the music in the karaoke music library some are from VOD (video on demand) software provider, some are downloaded from the internet.

What are the vulgar songs and ban listed songs? Wang Tianhong said, mainly they are obscene songs, and some songs involve Xinjiang independence, Taiwan independence, and other sensitive subjects. “The music library has over 30,000 songs, and there are new songs being made every day, which one is healthy and which is not? There is no standard” Wang Tianhong said, we are missing a “black list” or “keywords” for the banned songs.

Zhengzhou already installed karaoke content management service system, then, if there are “unhealthy” songs being played, is it going to call the police? The head of Cultural Market Administration Office Li Shuiming said, yes it will call the police, but the cultural market department will not know. Zhengzhou has not yet established a central monitoring system. “In Chongqing, the system is connected to the karaoke places and to the cultural market department therefore they are monitored at anytime. Currently Zhengzhou has not established a central monitoring system.” Li Shuiming said, one day Zhengzhou certainly will establish a central monitoring system.

Wang Tianhong said that in the future when this monitoring system is fully completed, the national, provincial and municipal cultural administration departments will be connected onto the same network. “When banned songs are detected in any karaoke places, the staff will notify the place to delete these songs.” “Consumers should not have any worries at all of being monitored.” Wang Tianhong said, this system is mainly aimed at karaoke places and other entertainment services, consumers will not be punished.”