WASHINGTON, DC – Ever since last year, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced plans to auction off the 608 to 698 MHz UHF spectrum — the UHF TV channels 36 through 51 — the pro audio community has been justifiably worried. After all, many pro users have far-too-vivid memories of the last reallocation of TV channels 52 to 69 (the so-called “700 MHz band” from 698 to 806 MHz) in 2008, which were made illegal for pro wireless applications after June 12, 2010.
This time around, nearly the entire 600 MHz band could possibly be up for grabs to the highest bidder at an auction slated for the summer of 2015. With major deep-pocket players in the telecom industry anxious and ready to bid as much as $20 billion, it is unlikely that pro audio users could possibly compete on a cash basis against these corporate giants, such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others.
However, leading manufacturers of pro wireless have been very active in working with the FCC to make the commission aware of the needs of our industry, and there may be a ray of hope on the horizon.
Some Good News
The first good news came from an announcement late last year by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler that the Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction — originally scheduled for 2014 — was rescheduled to next year, which would give the FCC more time to examine the issue.
Another breakthrough came in February of this year, when a contingent of audio wireless manufacturers (Audio-Technica, Lectrosonics, Sennheiser and Shure), along with production professionals and broadcast industry representatives, arranged a meeting with some FCC Commissioners and the Incentive Auction Task Force — essentially those working on FCC guidelines regarding the proposed 600 MHz band sale.
The results of that were a positive sign and the open dialog laid down by these meetings began to increase the FCC’s awareness of the needs of the pro wireless community to hopefully reach a resolution — or at least compromise — well before any frequency reallocations reach the auctioneer’s final hammer.
One proposal from the pro audio side was that two reserve channels in the UHF and/or high VHF bands dedicated to wireless microphones in each market could provide critical clean spectrum to professional users. The pro side also supported rules permitting the operation of professional wireless mics in the proposed guardbands and mid-band gap in the 600 MHz range with priority through geolocation databases.
On the broadcast side, there’s a lot riding on the outcome/format of the spectrum auction — part of which asks UHF television broadcasters to sell their licensed frequencies back to the FCC — the so-called “incentive” portion of the deal, which would consist of cash and, possibly, a new reallocated frequency, or a shared frequency.
A month later, FCC Chairman Wheeler made a public address at the 2014 NAB show. “Few FCC policies have generated more attention than the Incentive Auction. ‘Groundbreaking,’ ‘revolutionary’ and ‘first-in-the-world’ are just a few common descriptions of this innovative approach to making efficient, market-driven use of our spectrum resources. The Incentive Auction is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand the benefits of mobile wireless coverage and competition to consumers across the nation —particularly consumers in rural areas — offering more choices of wireless providers, lower prices, and higher quality mobile services.”
Wheeler went on to stress the importance of the incentive auction to the Wi-Fi community, but not surprisingly, there was there was little mentioned of the plight of pro wireless users in that 600 MHz band. A bigger surprise came later when Wheeler and senior commission staff requested a meeting with members of the pro audio community.
“What the auction is really about is the transition from over-the-air broadcast to mobile broadband and the big players in that. We in the whitespace device community are caught in the undertow, so to speak,” said Shure VP Mark Brunner.
“In the FCC’s public communications, there haven’t been a lot of words committed to wireless mics, yet the commission really has been talking about this quite a bit. And for us to get an audience with the chairman last week [April 22, 2014] was a pretty big deal. It showed a level of interest and concern and a growing understanding for what our community has been doing in this spectrum.”
The attendees on the production side included Mark Brunner; Joe Ciaudelli (Sennheiser); Jackie Green (Audio-Technica); and representatives from the NFL, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, CBS, Time Warner, Disney, The Broadway League, NAB, 21st Century Fox, CP Communications and others.
“What was unprecedented at this meeting was that the commission reached out to us,” Brunner notes. “Normally outside parties are banging on the door to advocate their position, but this case, we actually received the call. In and of itself, that shows an interest in making sure that our constituent group is in the dialog and the commission is considering our issues carefully. But the critical difference between earlier meetings with the Incentive Auction Task Force and this most recent one was that the Chairman and his staff and were present this time.”
Among the points discussed at the meeting was the impact (both technical and financial) in the production industry as a result of the loss of the 700 MHz spectrum, and the loss of White Space bands at the same time that the demand for wireless mic operations has soared. Another point was the ongoing development within the industry of new technologies that are more efficient in putting more wireless channels in smaller frequency bands. However, such gains can only be realized with the use of “clean” spectrum that’s free from interference from other operations in nearby channels.
The Want List
Clearly, the wireless audio industry has been doing its part. Now unless some well-heeled audio sugar daddy shows up with a bundle of cash to outbid the telecoms at the 2015 auction, the reality is that a large swath of that prized 600 MHz band will disappear from our channel counts. With that in mind, the audio contingent met with the FCC, offering proposals that would help wireless microphone users weather the change.
These included:
- Identifying some amount of 600 MHz spectrum for exclusive use by priority pro wireless microphone operations.
- Enabling wireless mics to operate in the 600 MHz guardbands, including the mid-band gap, on a registered priority basis.
- Amending the White Spaces rules to improve speed of operations of the database.
- Allowing wireless mics to continue operating in auctioned 600 MHz spectrum as long as possible until new services come online.
- Expediting efforts to identify additional sources of spectrum to be made available for additional wireless mic use in the long term, and
- Expanding and updating FCC licensing rules to cover pro users who require interference protection via registration in the geolocation database.
The Other Side
As wireless users, we know what we want, but realistically, there are two sides to the situation. “The FCC is actually in a tough position,” Brunner admits. “They’re trying to make this auction successful as possible to satisfy the desires of the congressional act, to raise as much revenue as they possibly can. At the same time, there’s an obligation to build a nationwide public safety network, which will need a lot of funding. So the amount of spectrum reclaimed — which is a direct result of the number of broadcasters who are willing to sign off the air or move to another channel or a shared channel — has a direct impact on the revenue. And that is the FCC’s highest objective.”
And there are other issues as well. “Second to that is making sure the new licensed services are able to alleviate a lot of the demand on spectrum for mobile broadband services,” Brunner continues, “making sure that the telecoms and interested parties — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint — are all able to participate at a maximum level.” Another goal, Brunner adds, “is to ensure the broadcasters that remain on the air are reassigned in a cohesive and logical way that’s structured and not chaotic, with a smooth transition much like the DTV transition. Of course, wireless microphones and TV-band white space devices must have a hold in there somewhere, but for right now, the FCC is trying to put out a broad stroke of what the auctions are going to look like how the band with be restructured.”
Hopefully, spectrum for wireless mics will remain part of that mix, yet there will be some other changes, such the increasing importance of geolocation database technology, as pro users will inevitably be sharing more slices in that spectrum pie.
Back to the Future
Maybe, just maybe, there’s some progress here. At the end of April, Chairman Wheeler announced an open FCC meeting slated for May 15. In this, the commission will consider policies and rules regarding the incentive auction, among other items including a possible expansion to the class of wireless microphone users eligible for a license. For those interested, it begins at 10:30 am (EDT) and will be shown live at FCC.gov/live.
The licensing point has been a long-standing issue within the audio community, where under the long-outdated 1979 statute, only broadcasters and motion picture users were eligible parties for wireless mic licenses. “We see a future where those licenses are going to be more important — to utilize the geolocation database, or to reserve spectrum for events and things like that and the licensing issue becomes pivotal,” says Brunner. “We’re pleased to the FCC moving forward on this, along with the incentive auction.”
Given the current situation, Brunner is cautiously optimistic. “Another ray of sunshine here — not that it’s ready to take to the bank — is a furthering of dialog about other portions of the spectrum, that are outside of the UHF band and would be useful for wireless microphone applications. There are a few opportunities between 1 GHz and 2 GHz and some new things opening up in the 3 GHz band that could be very useful, as well as some very high frequency applications in the 6 GHz range.”
And while significant progress has been made, Brunner is clear that it’s far from being any done deal. “We’re trying to make sure that all the options continue to stay on the table, as long as they’re technically feasible, and we plan to stay engaged with the FCC on the issue. The FCC is obviously focused on this auction, which is their biggest item right now, but they know that wireless mics are part of this, with an incredible legacy and installed base out there that must be reconciled. I think we’re getting a pretty good amount of attention, given all the things that are commanding their look right now.”
For more information, visit www.fcc.gov.
