This is going to get nasty
Monday, February 15, 2010 at 11:18AM Many church production managers and staff thought that all they had to worry about was replacing their old 700mhz wireless systems. Then all we had to deal with was devices that might interfere with us in the "white spaces" or the frequency spectrum located between the space used by Over-the-Air (OTA) broadcasters.
Well the latest news is that this may have only been the first hurdle of many for users of wireless microphones and IEMs.
In December of last year the FCC opened up for public comments on a complete re-allocation about 800 megahertz of spectrum below 1Ghz. That is the space currently being used by digital TV broadcasters (the same folks who voluntarily gave up several Mhz of spectrum and spent billions on the DTV transition) and wireless entertainment devices (mics and IEMs). You can see the FCC notice here.
The FCC is wondering "what would happen if we ditched broadcast TV altogether (and the entertainment devices we use) and let all of that spectrum be used by high-speed wireless broadband data services.
Companies like AT&T, Microsoft and Dell and organizations like the Consumer Electronics Association are urging the FCC to promote more spectrum available to broadband data. The National Association of Broadcasters of course wants to protect the spectrum being used by OTA TV. Thankfully wireless microphone manufacturers like Shure and Sennheiser are pitching in to represent the users of their equipment.
The public comment period on this noticed closed on December 21st, and the FCC is working on preparing a National Broadband Plan recommendation.
One this is sure, there is simply not enough spectrum available to support all the possible uses for broadcasting, wireless mics, and high-speed data. Something is going to have to give in the coming years. My prediction - it will be pitched battle of this publicly owned asset. Stay tuned for more to come.
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