Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Yeetle Box - Pay Per View Funerals


It's about time! After all the pay-per-view porn, Britain has found a more meaningful and inspiring use of the crematoria. Welcome to the 21st century. To whit: Pay-per-view funerals go live online in Britain on Tuesday, allowing mourners who cannot attend services in person to pay their last respects via the Internet - augmenting current personalized services such as ecards, virtual flowers, and chat rooms.

Despite criticism of the scheme as macabre, Wesley Music, is planning to offer it to crematoria across the country, charging a one-off payment of around $150 for access to a funeral Web cast. Mourners use the password to access a live online broadcast of the funeral service captured by a small camera mounted in the chapel, broadcasting the deceased lying in a casket. For an additional fee, users can zoom in and out and pan across the moratorium.

"Families are dispersed across the world these days, and sometimes it's the case that someone cannot get home in time for a funeral," said Alan Jeffrey, director of Wesley Music. "For those who need it, this is a very important service. It means that rather than being excluded, they can at least witness and be a part of a funeral as it happens - in real time. In a time of stress this is something that can ease the pain, or generate greater pain, or, hopefully, generate a great deal of interest in other people's losses."

David Powell, of funeral directors Henry Powell and Son in Southampton, southern England said he had already tested the service during three funerals. He insisted they remained private, intimate affairs despite being broadcast on the Web. "Moreover, this provides a good forum for those people who really don't want to attend the funeral, but would like to say they did - anonymously."

Thanks to this innovative use of existing technology that has been heretofore dominated by the porn industry, Wesley Music will be offering additional features to this service, including voyeur cams, web chat, funeral recording, live funeral chat, and live conferencing for busy professionals who want to pay their last respects, but cannot get the time off.

Future plans include a cam buried with the deceased that can be accessed at any time, using a pay-per-minute fee structure.
Said David Powell, "We see the entire grief process dissolving fairly rapidly, replaced by morbid curiosity. This is healthy for all of us."

Sound Solutions for Crematoria

The Yeetle Box

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