Our wireless future is in question

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Hi all:

WIth all of the excitement over the elections today, I doubt if many noticed another monumental decision was made that will affect many of us. The FCC, over the protests and complaints of our industry, voted 5-0 today to license unused spectrum for future wireless devices.

"A coalition of powerful groups, including broadcasters, Broadway theater producers and sports franchises, hoped to derail or delay the decision. They have argued that their own transmissions — whether from television signals or from wireless microphones used in live music performances — could face interference from new devices that use the white spaces."

I just researched and wrote an article on this subject that will appear in the February 2009 issue of HDVideoPro.com magazine. What it boils down to is that as users of wireless microphone systems, all of us will be affected by this and the immediate future of how usable our wireless mic systems will be is in question. The beacon testing that was conducted to see if the "white space" wireless internet devices could recognize already used spectrum by wireless microphone users was an inconclusive failure.

I have spoken with representatives from Lectrosonics, Sennheiser and Shure and all I can tell you is that we will face challenges and most of us will experience interference and at times, our wireless systems will be useless in certain times and locations. All of the manufacturers have various game plans and technology they are developing to circumvent these issues ranging from new 944Mhz systems to 2.4Ghz technology and some other solutions but the bottom line is that we have officially just become unlicensed competitors for our own air space and we are in competition for the use of that air space with companies that have a little power and political clout including the best lawyers that money can buy. Who has been unceasingly petitioning the FCC for this airspace? Why our friends at Google and Microsoft amongst others. There are tens of billions of dollars worth potential business involved here and frankly, our industry groups like NAB and the Broadway theater owners cannot compete as far as having the ear of the FCC.

Today, nobody can state exactly how this will affect each of us, but we can say that this decision is very significant and may grow to the level of monumental in the next year or two.

Read about it. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/te...ectrum.html?hp

Nobody has the answers yet but we all have a lot of questions.

Dan
 
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That's terrible! Maybe we can develop devices that destroy the white space for these new intruders so they find it an unprofitable venture, afterall if we can't use it why should they? :evil:
 
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Thanks puredrifting, well said.

But your link is truncated and doesn't work, unfortunately.

I suggest that broadcasters in future only use wired microphones for politicians - it's the one thing that may work - they will get totally pi**ed off with the cable of a tie mic. continually being threaded down the trouser leg and not able to move around.
 
John Willett said:
Thanks puredrifting, well said.

But your link is truncated and doesn't work, unfortunately.

I suggest that broadcasters in future only use wired microphones for politicians - it's the one thing that may work - they will get totally pi**ed off with the cable of a tie mic. continually being threaded down the trouser leg and not able to move around.
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Yes! good idea, also, let's have the politicians use wireless mics during their large meetings and hope they distort & squeal with interference, eventually they might get a clue. For the corded mics they needs really nasty cords that twist and turn and don't behave. Pure hell is what they need, especially Microsoft, Google and the others behind this caper. I guess when I read these reports the devil in me comes out!....sorry ;)
 
More details as the story unfolds. The FCC says that they will make sure that the new devices will not interfere with wireless mics through their own testing? Oy. We know how efficient and accurate that will be. Governmental testing must be foolproof, right?

http://prosoundnews.com/article/18526

Dan
 
I thought this reallocation by the FCC only mattered to C Block frequency wireless users? Is it true that they're taking over A and B as well, or just that no one knows yet?
 
RandomHero said:
I thought this reallocation by the FCC only mattered to C Block frequency wireless users? Is it true that they're taking over A and B as well, or just that no one knows yet?
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Hi Random:

You are confusing two separate, yet related issues, that's what makes this entire issue so difficult to discuss. The first issue is that the 700mHz block (actually 698mHz to 806mHz) becomes illegal for wireless mics to use after February 17, 2009.

The second issue is the usage of white spaces, which is unlicensed spectrum located in between television transmissions (all of the non-700mHz blocks that we can still use after February 17, 2009). Wireless mics presently operate in all of these white spaces. The FCC has just allocated these spaces to the wireless internet consortium with some supposed provisions that the FCC will make sure that they require the new wireless device providers to make sure that their devices don't interfere with local users of the same bandwidth (us wireless mic users in most cases). The first round of tests that were performed to check how the wireless devices interact with wireless mics failed miserably, the devices did encroach and trample all over wireless mics. So we are supposed to trust that the FCC will ensure that the new device providers make sure that their devices don't cause intereference with your wireless mic systems? Good luck.

Very complex and confusing issue, I wrote an article on the issue but it unfortunately will not be released until the Feb 2009 issue of HD Video Pro Magazine which is why I started this thread, the issue is moving forward as of yesterday and things are changing fast.

Best,

Dan
 
The thing that I don't understand about making the wireless internet devices not interfere with wireless mics is: the wireless internet devices are going to be on 24/7. My wireless systems might sit on the shelf for a week and then be used for an hour. So that means that, somehow, the internet devices are going to have magically detect my (comparatively) low-power transmission and reconfigure themselves (and whatever receiver unit is picking them up) to another frequency? Yeah, that's gonna happen... :undecided If those wireless internet devices go in, they're going to be full-power 24/7, and the wireless mic users are gonna get the old screw job...
 
puredrifting said:
Hi Random:

You are confusing two separate, yet related issues, that's what makes this entire issue so difficult to discuss. The first issue is that the 700mHz block (actually 698mHz to 806mHz) becomes illegal for wireless mics to use after February 17, 2009.

The second issue is the usage of white spaces, which is unlicensed spectrum located in between television transmissions (all of the non-700mHz blocks that we can still use after February 17, 2009). Wireless mics presently operate in all of these white spaces. The FCC has just allocated these spaces to the wireless internet consortium with some supposed provisions that the FCC will make sure that they require the new wireless device providers to make sure that their devices don't interfere with local users of the same bandwidth (us wireless mic users in most cases). The first round of tests that were performed to check how the wireless devices interact with wireless mics failed miserably, the devices did encroach and trample all over wireless mics. So we are supposed to trust that the FCC will ensure that the new device providers make sure that their devices don't cause intereference with your wireless mic systems? Good luck.

Very complex and confusing issue, I wrote an article on the issue but it unfortunately will not be released until the Feb 2009 issue of HD Video Pro Magazine which is why I started this thread, the issue is moving forward as of yesterday and things are changing fast.

Best,

Dan
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Thanks Dan!
This was very informative. If you can release your article before the magazine drops, that'd be awesome. If not, at least come back here and let everyone know where to find it when it's released, as I'd really like to learn more about this issue.
 
Captain Pierce said:
The thing that I don't understand about making the wireless internet devices not interfere with wireless mics is: the wireless internet devices are going to be on 24/7. My wireless systems might sit on the shelf for a week and then be used for an hour. So that means that, somehow, the internet devices are going to have magically detect my (comparatively) low-power transmission and reconfigure themselves (and whatever receiver unit is picking them up) to another frequency? Yeah, that's gonna happen... :undecided If those wireless internet devices go in, they're going to be full-power 24/7, and the wireless mic users are gonna get the old screw job...
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You have a good grasp of what we may be in for. Thank you FCC, I hope that Google and Microsoft's check makes you feel better. The sad thing is that by the FCC's non-enforcement of section 74, requiring us to all register our wireless mics, we are technically unlicensed users and therefore have no rights really as far as owning the rights to this airspace. Somebody very smart at the consortium companies saw this years ago and filled in their lawyers. Kind of makes us users and the wireless industry but especially the FCC look like a day late and a dollar short.

Dan
 
RandomHero said:
Thanks Dan!
This was very informative. If you can release your article before the magazine drops, that'd be awesome. If not, at least come back here and let everyone know where to find it when it's released, as I'd really like to learn more about this issue.
Click to expand...

I can't think that my editor would be very happy if I did that. You can subscribe to or buy the magazine at any bigger newsstand or Borders, etc. Also, a lot of pro video retailers sell it.

Dan
 
OK, so let me explore the other side of the situation...

As wireless mic users, we have always had to skirt around the existing TV stations in our particular neighborhoods. Which was a little tough back in the VHF days, but once we got our UHF systems, we were all set. :) Now, the last year or so, with every TV station having both an analog and a digital channel, the airwaves have gotten a little more crowded*--but, once all those TV stations have to commit to one channel, is it possible that the FCC could restrict the Wireless Internet Devices (WID's?) to the equivalent bandwidth of just one TV stations, and thus we could just dial around them like we have been already?

*You want to see an RF nightmare? Go to Sennheiser's Frequency Finder and search on zip code 68127 (Omaha, NE). We needed to buy new wireless for our Omaha and Lincoln branches recently, and this is what we had to deal with. In the absolute worst case, this may be what it looks like for all of us come next February...
 
Okay, not to be the voice of gloom and doom here, but...

We had an Audio-Technica rep stop by the shop today, and his opinion was that within three to five years, wireless mics as we know them now will be gone. I asked him the question about restricting the WID's to certain frequencies that we could dial around, and he didn't see that happening.

Of course, he was there to sell us on their new Spectrapulse(TM) UWB technology that sells for a couple thousand bucks a channel... ;)
 
Captain Pierce said:
Okay, not to be the voice of gloom and doom here, but...

We had an Audio-Technica rep stop by the shop today, and his opinion was that within three to five years, wireless mics as we know them now will be gone. I asked him the question about restricting the WID's to certain frequencies that we could dial around, and he didn't see that happening.

Of course, he was there to sell us on their new Spectrapulse(TM) UWB technology that sells for a couple thousand bucks a channel... ;)
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You call it doom and gloom or you can call it like you see it. I personally agree with him. The most intelligent approach so far that I have seen is the Zaxcom TRX that is a wireless system that is recording to an SD card at the same time.

The FCC kind of hosed us as far as I am concerned.

Dan
 
Or perhaps by then the wireless microphone technology will catch up a bit and go digital like TV stations. I'm not sure what the digital transmission blocks look like, but maybe that's a good arena for them to look into...
 
It really has nothing to do with digital/analog... digital TV, for example, is using the same frequency bands that analog did (although slightly more efficiently, which is where the "digital dividend" 700MHz band auction came from, they can fit the same amount of TV channels into less bandwidth). Digital or analog, it won't matter if the WID's are flooding the airwaves... :(

What will have to happen, assuming this worst-case scenario (that I think most people are assuming; certainly puredrifting is, and I don't think he's wrong), is that wireless manufacturers will have to find new sets of frequencies to work in. AT's Spectrapulse(TM) works up in the 6GHz band, and a company called Sabine has sold a lot of systems that work in the 2.4GHz band... granted 2.4-gig is crowded with cordless phones and Wi-Fi, but Sabine claims that their systems can work around those, and my experience does back that up, I've used there systems in rooms that had Wi-Fi active, and neither of us interfered with the other.

Now, the current drawbacks of both of these are A) cost and B) unsuitability for what most of y'all do. The Spectrapulse system doesn't even have body pack or hand-held transmitter yet, or less than a 7-channel receiver; and while Sabine does have both of those (with the body packs, ironically enough, using AT lavs :) ) they have yet to produce a portable receiver. AT does seem committed to making Spectrapulse their standard technology, and bring the price down as they make more and more, so I'm sure that all of these are coming from them; and it seems that Shure, Sennheiser, and the others will have no choice but to develop their own new technologies, but the question will be how long it takes to bring them to market. AT's been working on Spectrapulse for the better part of a decade, and it's still only just hitting the market...
 
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One other factor that I have divined in conversations about the white spaces dilemma with Lectrosonics, Sennheiser and a few others is, the higher the operating frequency, the less distance the signal travels. The 6Ghz systems are really only good for fixed installations with clear line of site between tranmitter and receiver and for short distances.

For what location sound people need to accomplish, higher operating frequencies dont seem to be a very viable option. FWIW, everytime someone in my house uses the cordless phone, it kills all of the Airport wireless until they hang up. I can't imagine a location sound package operating reliably at 2.4Ghz for location shoots. Everyone uses cordless and cell phones that can intrude on this frequency.

Dan
 
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