Are you in the UK? - if so please write to your MP

[John Willett]

You are, no doubt, aware of the SAVE OUR SOUND UK campaign, of which BEIRG is a founding member and wholeheartedly supports. The objective is to secure a fair compensation package for all those whose radio mics will need to be replaced as a consequence of the spectrum sell-off. Whether you own existing equipment or not, this is a huge issue for all activities and events that depend on these technologies.

Pressure from Parliament AND YOUR MP is now critical to help persuade the Government to do what is required. Peter Luff MP, who has been leading the charge in Westminster last week tabled something called an ‘Early Day Motion’ in the House of Commons. The Motion supports the SAVE OUR SOUND campaign.

Clearly, we need as many MPs to sign the Motion as possible, and the industry needs to persuade them to do it. Therefore, I urge you to write to or e-mail your local MP. All you need to do is the following:

1. Identify your local MP. If you do not know who this is, then simply type your postcode into this page on the UK Parliament website HERE
2. Personalise and adapt one of the sample letters which can be downloaded from the Save Our Sound website HERE - Choose the letter that best suits your situation and explain your circumstances. The options are:
a. Equipment owner
b. Equipment owner and user
c. Equipment user but not owner
d. Freelance sound engineer non-owner
e. General concern
3. Once your letter is complete, either send it to your constituency MP by post or e-mail it across. E-mail addresses can also be found on the UK Parliament website HERE
4. Some MPs cannot sign EDMs but most can. Follow up your letter with a phone call to your MP’s office if you do not receive a positive response.

The constituent organisations of SOS UK can only do so much. It is now up to you to help save your business and your industry. Also, please circulate this e-mail to anyone you know (for example, anyone could send the ‘general concern’ letter). The more pressure the better. Direct anyone with questions to the SAVE OUR SOUND UK website www.saveoursounduk.com

If you use radio - this will affect YOU!

[Colin McDonald]

I'm heading off right now to direct and record a school Christmas Concert so I can't write to my MP until I get back tonight, but I will do that. I'm using 5 channels of radio mics for sound reinforcement this evening plus one for recording audio (one of my less challenging gigs!) so I feel very involved in this matter.

The school can't afford to replace all its equipment and neither can I afford to replace my wireless audio gear for video.

[Paul Kousoulides]

The government raised over twenty billion from the auction of publicly-owned spectrum to the mobile phone operators for a slice of the 3G cake and we've all been paying for that ever since through exorbitantly high phone tariffs.

When governments sell-off publicly-owned property to private enterprise it only provides a temporary windfall to governments to fund token tax-cuts, I suspect, in the run-up to an election (buying votes). It doesn't benefit the public. On the contrary - we all end-up paying more.

There's no moral justification I can see for this. No public interest is served. Everyone gets fleeced so everyone should complain - not just media-types.

There.

[Chris Hurd]

There's no problem with John's initial post, but I would like to remind everyone that we have a strict policy regarding politics on this forum -- that policy is simply "don't go there." If some posts disappear, this is the reason why. Please keep political commentary out of this site. Thanks in advance,

[Paul Kousoulides]

A thousand apologies Chris. I wanted to clarify why this petition is a matter of 'general concern'. Sorry.

[John Harrison]

As Im based in Ireland but occasionally operate in the UK,(and most of my kit is UK purchased) could someone specify which frequencies will be under threat and the new "legal" bandwidth

[Colin McDonald]

John,

JFMG Radio spectrum for programme making and entertainment is the place to go for all the latest information, but in a nutshell

On 30 June 2009 Ofcom confirmed that it has decided to clear the 800MHz band including Ch69. PMSE will need to move out but Ch69 will remain available until at least 1st January 2012.

Also now confirmed is that Ch38 will be awarded to the PMSE band manager on the same terms as for Ch69. The intention is that PMSE use in Ch69 will be moved into Ch38.

With this in mind we have developed our Moving out of Ch69 topic pages to discuss Ch38 access with users and manufacturers in anticipation of Ofcom’s consultation on the topic.