More or our radio mics to become illegal

[Rick Reineke]

More or our radio mics to become illegal?

FCC Sends National Broadband Plan to Congress

"Driving the consumer end of the plan is the need for more spectrum. The plan calls for making 500 MHz of mostly TV spectrum available for licensed and unlicensed mobile use."

[Greg Bellotte]

Isn't our country GRAND!?! The way I see it, now that we have all purchased new TV's to accommodate the digital/HD transition, we may now have nothing left to watch on them if they keep selling off TV channels for internet access. Oh, and the RF mic squatters can eat cake...the crystal ball isn't looking to good right now...

[Michael Liebergot]

Well we all knew that this was coming.
Just goes to sow you that we should be looking into off camera dedicated audio recording when possible now. Luckily there are plenty of small and larger based recording formats out there to choose from.

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Greg Bellotte

we may now have nothing left to watch on them if they keep selling off TV channels for internet access.

This is partially the fault of all you folks that insist on watching your TV programming over the Internet... ESPECIALLY live on your PDA's...

[Bill Mecca]

great my 700 Mhz senn system is illegal and now the 516-558 mHz system we just bought is going to be illegal as well. yeah the bosses will love this one.

[Greg Bellotte]

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

This is partially the fault of all you folks that insist on watching your TV programming over the Internet... ESPECIALLY live on your PDA's...

How do you know I constantly use my Slingbox on my BlackBerry?

Agreed, the 700 change we did see coming, and planned accordingly by buying lower frequencies. But now they look to be in jeopardy as well. Given the multitudes of wireless mic users, there has to be a better solution than forcing us all to move AGAIN...and I can't believe that the broadcasting industry is OK with giving up more of their already cramped space. NAB should be interesting...

[Bill Koehler]

Originally Posted by Bill Mecca

great my 700 Mhz senn system is illegal and now the 516-558 mHz system we just bought is going to be illegal as well. yeah the bosses will love this one.

Not so fast. He said 500 MHz of spectrum, not where it is located, or did I miss something?
Reading Feds planning docs can indeed be mind numbing.

Quoting from the feds plan:

"In order to meet growing demand for wireless broadband services, and to ensure that America keeps pace with the global wireless revolution, 500 megahertz should be made newly available for mobile, fixed and unlicensed broadband use over the next 10 years. This spectrum would be made available for a variety of licensed and unlicensed flexible commercial uses, as well as to meet the broadband needs of specialized users such as public safety, energy, educational and other important users. Of this amount, 300 megahertz between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz should be made available for mobile flexible use within five years. The timeline in Exhibit 5-E illustrates a schedule of actions that would fulfill this latter goal."

These links might be useful.

This link is where the above quote came from.
National Broadband Plan - Chapter 5: Spectrum

I thought this tool might be of interest:
Spectrum Dashboard - Reboot.FCC.gov

And this webpage:
Spectrum Dashboard - Reboot.FCC.gov

[Greg Bellotte]

There is a chart in your first link that says exactly where they are looking to find 300 of the 500 MHz. Note in Exhibit 5-E that they show chopping (eh er auctioning) 120 MHz out of the existing broadcast TV spectrum, to be completed by 2015. Wherever this cut happens will still require further channel crowding of whats left making wireless mic usage in TV channel space even more challenging. Yes, the other's "illegal" statement is a bit premature, but I feel like the unusable "result" will still be the case.

Like I've said before, it would be nice to either agree on a TV channel or two to remain open in any given market, or give wireless audio a dedicated piece of spectrum we can migrate to and stay put. PLEASE!

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Greg Bellotte

Given the multitudes of wireless mic users, there has to be a better solution than forcing us all to move AGAIN...and I can't believe that the broadcasting industry is OK with giving up more of their already cramped space.

I think the issue at hand (as much as I hate to admit it...) is that there aren't really MULTITUDES of wireless users, there are just a whole bunch, especially when compared to the 100 million or so (and growing...) cellular/wireless PDA users in the US alone. And with the hunger for more bandwidth for faster wireless Internet coupled with an interest in more high bandwidth feeds (like live TV), we are DOOMED, at least in terms of the technologies we have until this point in time survived on (analog VHF & UHF radio mics), ESPECIALLY since we generate ZERO revenue for the parties in charge of that space.

[Michael Liebergot]

Shaun good point.
It's funny that we think of ourselves as the majority when it comes to cameras and audio. When we are realistically a very small fish in a large pond.