The transition to Consumer Wireless Devices Begins
The story goes back to 1996 when Congress began to look at the need to update the U.S. system of TV broadcasting. This process is finally coming to the point where analog TV stations will be gone soon, replaced by Digital TV. DTV is already online and stations are required to maintain both analog and digital signals until February 17, 2009, the official changeover to DTV....which has been pushed off a few months by our new President.
What is DTV?
OK....The FCC says it best: “Digital Television (DTV) is an advanced broadcasting technology that will transform your television viewing experience. DTV enables broadcasters to offer television with better picture and sound quality. It can also offer multiple programming choices, called multicasting, and interactive capabilities. “Converting to DTV also will free up parts of the scarce and valuable broadcast spectrum. Those portions of the spectrum can then be used for other important services, such as public and safety services (police and fire departments, emergency rescue), and advanced wireless services.”
This means better broadband penetration in your home and your city, and a whole host of new wireless devices.
How will DTV and these new devices fit in the available RF spectrum?
In order to free up space for these new broadband services Congress and the FCC have reduced the UHF spectrum space that will be used for DTV. Before this transition analog UHF TV stations used channels 14 through 69, for a total of 55 possible channels across the USA. Those have been given to DTV, but with a reduced number of channels. Beginning in February 2009 stations will only have channels 14 through 51, or 37 possible channels nationwide. This is more than a one third reduction of available space for TV broadcasting!
The remaining channels (52-69) are now reserved for new consumer wireless services and for public safety. The band spans 698 to 806 MHz, and has been described by the FCC as “beachfront property.” They are pushing the broadband capabilities of this part of the spectrum. This is good news for all of us who like our wireless devices to work everywhere, but bad news for all the UHF wireless mics out there.
Why is this squeeze a problem for UHF wireless microphones?
Wireless mics have traditionally coexisted with the much more powerful TV broadcast signals by using the “white spaces” between the TV channels. These “white spaces” vary in each area of the country and that is why you have to be careful to choose the right UHF frequencies according to where you will use the mic.
Now that one third of the space available for TV is gone, that means a huge chunk of the white spaces are gone, too. UHF mics are getting squeezed into a shrinking area of the spectrum, and that means it will be harder and harder to collocate multiple channels of mics. Many users are already experiencing this – getting 16 UHF mics to work together in a metropolitan area can be quite a challenge.
What is so appealing about these White Spaces?
Broadband network providers seek this for regional wireless networks – the kind that can cover an entire city and deliver high-speed Internet to an increasingly mobile population. This gives content providers a chance to compete with cable and satellite delivery – imagine getting rid of your cable and getting programming on demand via broadband. But broadcasters object to these potentially unlicensed uses – they claim that these will interfere with their new DTV broadcast signals.
What can we do about this squeeze?
It appears the new FCC allocations don’t leave enough room for conventional UHF mics, and this has users and manufacturers scrambling for solutions, both technical and political. There are industry groups lobbying Congress to allocate a section of the spectrum for wireless mics, but the persuasive power of the performance audio industry is tiny compared to the muscle of companies like Google, AT&T, or Verizon.
Beware of any wireless manufacturer that continues to sell microphones in the 700 MHz band. These will be illegal starting February 17, 2009. Don’t waste your money on a product that will be useless in less than a year.
The Solution:
Choose a wireless mic that is not UHF – Sabine 2.4 GHz Wireless, Sabine is way out in front of the industry on this issue. We offer the first complete wireless solution entirely outside the shrinking UHF band. Operating in the license-free and globally accepted 2.4 GHz band, Sabine Wireless is immune to all of the escalating problems with finding clear UHF frequencies.
Sabine gives you up to 70 simultaneous wireless systems usable anywhere in the world, and that means you don’t have to worry about choosing the right frequencies for your area. The solution is simple and robust. You don’t have to worry about DTV, white spaces, or whether you are operating legally. The 2.4 GHz band provides these key advantages:
• Globally-accepted and license-free
• Low-power devices only, by international agreement
• Does not share band with TV, so no issues with UHF or FCC
• All users at around the same power level
• 70 simultaneous channels
• Co-locate with UHF & VHF mics without frequency coordination
• Simple and easy - one frequency band for the whole world
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