FCC to Attend The Phantom of the Opera
Majestic Theater in New York to be site of testing unlicensed mobile devices.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/8/2008 9:04:00 AM
The Federal Communications Commission picked The Phantom of the Opera to help test whether unlicensed mobile devices could disrupt the music of the night.
The FCC said Friday that it picked the Majestic Theater in New York for testing those devices' use of the white spaces between TV channels and wireless microphones.
The theater is host to the longest-running show on Broadway, with Phantom now in its 21st year.
The test will be primarily during preshow sound checks, but some portion will also be during the actual performance of the musical.
The FCC is testing the devices primarily in and around Washington, D.C., and just this week selected the final two testing spots -- a sports-production test during the Washington Redskins-Buffalo Bills preseason National Football League game outside Washington and now the theater-production test at the Majestic.
Was the FCC just looking to get into one of the most popular shows in town? Or did "masks" and "phantoms" suggest interference? A source said it was actually a case of logistics working out for both the commission and theater owners.
Both the NFL and the theaters offered up venues for testing, concerned that the devices could interfere with the wireless microphones they use extensively in their respective productions.
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08/10/2008
