Courtesy of the National Football League, the Federal Communications Commission was invited to continue the testing of prototype wireless devices at FedEx Stadium in Landover, MD before the pre-season Redskins-Buffalo Bills game. The FCC has already completed laboratory testing on the so-called White Space devices that would operate in the bands separating the assigned frequencies of television broadcasters. The sports and entertainment industries rely heavily on wireless microphones during live events; hence their understandable interest in avoiding interference to these devices. Shure, a well-known manufacturer of wireless microphones, issued a press release on the Sunday following the game. According to Mark Brunner, Shure, Inc.’s Senior Director for Public and Industry Relations, “The FCC’s tests of prototype white space devices at FedEx field prior to Saturday’s game between the Redskins and the Bills conclusively show that spectrum sensing white space devices will cause harmful interference to wireless microphones during live events. Simply stated, the prototype devices were unable to consistently identify operating wireless microphones or distinguish occupied from unoccupied TV channels. More troubling, the devices failed to detect the presence of wireless microphones when switched on – an occurrence that takes place multiple times during any NFL game. Given the poor performance of these sensing devices, there is no reason to believe that the other proposed protections, such as beacons, will be any more capable of providing reliable and robust interference protection to wireless microphone transmissions.” Incidentally, the Redskins won 17 to 14. This report was prepared with a press release from Shure, Inc. Learn more about Shure at the company website. FCC engineers seem to have their work cut out for them in testing these “White Space” devices.What’s your take on this issue? Should the spectrum be opened to these new unlicensed devices, or will doing so create interference problems? Why not weigh in on the new InterferenceTechnology Testing Forum.
Redskins Win, Wireless Prototypes Did Not Fare as Well
