The Dublin Portal live stream link to New York City has been shut down permanently, just over five months after the high-tech art installation was erected in North Earl Street.
However, Ireland’s transatlantic link has not been severed, with a new portal having opened in Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon.
The portal, a large circular screen providing a real-time, unfiltered internet live-stream between destinations, was installed on North Earl Street, opposite the Spire on O’Connell Street on May 8th.
While it proved a popular tourist attraction on both sides of the Atlantic, it also drew an unsavoury element, with some people on the Dublin side using their phones to transmit pornographic images and video footage of the Twin Towers on fire during 9/11.
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Less than a week after it opened, the link to New York was temporarily shut down, while attempts were made to find a solution to the misuse of the facility. Transmissions restarted on May 19th but with reduced hours and an automatic shutdown of the live stream if anyone stood on the portal or attempted to hold a phone too close to its camera.
The closure of the New York portal was not in any way connected to the bad behaviour in Dublin, said Jamie Cudden, Smart Dublin programme manager with Dublin City Council.
“The New York Portal was intended as a short arts project, it was due to close after six months anyway, but has been shut down a little early to facilitate another arts installation on their site.”
In August, the Dublin portal was connected to two more cities, Vilnius in Lithuania and Lublin in Poland. More US cities and cities in Asia are expected to open portals in the near future, said Mr Cudden.
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