MEMBER PROFILE
An Inconvenient Truth: the future of wireless
By
Aug 9, 2006 - 2:31:00 PM

By Louis Libin

Those who rely on wireless audio production and communication devices face a daunting challenge if the U.S. government passes proposed legislation to allow unlicensed devices into licensed spectrum. While many see the passage as a foregone conclusion, hope remains that the industry can slow or stsop the legislation if it makes its point clearly enough.

A world where unlicensed devices can reside in licensed spectrum will result in five fundamental questions that everyone will need to find an answer for:

1. At a normal event, whether news or sports, how do we broadcast wireless audio and on what channels?
2. How do we procure the spectrum and coordinate?
3. What happens at large events where spectrum is even more scarce?
4. Where does the spectrum come from?
5. How do we get our legislators to listen to our problems?

The reality facing us all is that major broadcast event will always require large numbers of channels to accommodate broadcast operations, event operations, production, planning, marketing, safety and security and other users. The broadcast users utilize tremendous amounts of spectrum, but in most cases that spectrum is apart from event operations channels.

Even today the event users themselves do not always have “special” locations to situate their devices so, in many cases, the spectrum is “top-heavy” in certain bands, while empty in others.

And while historically broadcasters have used every new technology at their disposal to get better efficiencies for their broadcast auxiliary spectrum (BAS) capabilities interference from unlicensed users cannot be mitigated. Past technologies like directional antennas, low power, and special sensing equipment and special modulation for new microwave systems just won't cut it.

In fact, event without the possible legislation already terribly over-crowded broadcast support spectrum in all metropolitan areas needs to be addressed by the FCC. The diminished capacity in all three of these bands is devastating to broadcasters in major markets like New York and Los Angeles where the old 2 GHz channel band is shared by 20 or more TV stations, networks and cable operators.

The FCC has said that broadcasters should "take advantage of digital compression techniques."  This, they anticipate, will allow broadcasters to utilize smaller band space for comparable quality and performance. But, again, advances in digital technology cannot resolve all the issues.

Wired World?

Will the industry return to a world of wired mics? Maybe. There is no microwave in most locations across the United States for broadcasting outdoor sports events in the manner that the U.S. public has grown accustomed to. Coverage of these events will dramatically change because lack of action by the FCC has caused a huge microwave channel spectrum shortage at normal events as well as large events.

As for wireless microphones, there is less and less spectrum for these important coverage devices. As an example, the UHF band, which has always shared its spectrum with wireless microphones, has been curtailed dramatically by the huge number of DTV channels, the loss of UHF 60-to 69, and the imminent loss of UHF channels 52-60. The small amounts of guard bands would not be enough, even for regular NFL Football coverage.

More importantly, the wireless microphone is one technology that may not necessarily benefit from a move to digital. Simple put a permanent location and procedure needs to be found for the wireless microphones so that they can be used in the future.

All the spare UHF channels are disappearing, and most of the spare VHF channels are already lost. In Europe, governments are finding the wireless microphones a permanent home in the microwave region, around 1.8 GHz (1785- 1800 MHz). However, even across Europe, the uses are different. Because all this equipment needs to be frequency agile, from the small wireless microphones, all the way to the microwave transmitters carrying video, performance is usually sacrificed in the equipment specifications. Current DC legislation will only further serve to devastate broadcasts in these bands.

And that, again, takes us back to the beginning:
1. At a normal event, whether news or sports, how do we broadcast wireless audio and on what channels?
2. How do we procure the spectrum and coordinate?
3. What happens at large events where spectrum is even more scarce?
4. Where does the spectrum come from?
5. How do we get our legislators to listen to our problems?





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