Sports Execs Forecast Gloomy Outcome in White Spaces Fight
ESPN: Nov. 4 FCC vote amounts to "redefinition of this industry"
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/23/2008 2:57:00 AM
The television industry looks likely to lose its hard-fought battle against computer companies over allowing unlicensed devices to operate in the so-called “white spaces” of the broadcast spectrum.
That was the message from the Sports Audio Summit in New York on Wednesday, organized by advocacy organization Sports Video Group, where representatives from ESPN and microwave manufacturers Shure and Sennheiser, urged the audience to engage in vigorous last-minute lobbying of the FCC to convince it not to approve the devices.
Sports leagues and broadcasters have lobbied persistently on the issue, saying that unlicensed devices will interfere with the wireless mics they use for live productions. But the prognosis isn’t good, said Jeff Willis, coordinating technical manager of event operations for ESPN, who noted that the FCC’s Nov. 4 meeting is only 13 days away.
“In 13 days, there is going to be a redefinition of this industry,” said Willis. “And quite honestly, it doesn’t bode well for us at this point.”
Both Willis and Edgar Reihl, technology director of advanced development for Shure, suggested that the FCC under Chairman Kevin Martin is placing politics ahead of science in moving ahead with a vote next month on whether to allow the devices. They described how the FCC’s report on the white spaces testing conflicts with the actual test data from its own Office of Engineering and Technology. That test data, which includes a field test in Washington’s FedEx Field that ESPN participated in by setting up wireless mics around the stadium, shows that prototype “white spaces” devices from Philips and I2R couldn’t accurately sense either wireless microphones or television stations operating in the broadcast spectrum.
“In the end, the Commission has chosen to ignore these unfavorable results and go ahead and authorize white space devices that depend exclusively on spectrum sensing,” said Reihl. “That’s what Microsoft and the other members of the [White Spaces] Coalition have been lobbying for.”
Reihl, who attended the FCC tests, said it was unusual for the FCC to not have a public comment period on its report, a point broadcasters also made when they made an emergency request to the FCC last Friday asking for such a comment period. He declared that the most damaging test data had been “sanitized” from the FCC’s report, and that the report’s language closely mirrors language used by the White Spaces Coalition over the past year.
“The most unfavorable test data basically got swiped under the carpet,” said Reihl, who also criticized the FCC’s separate ruling that broadcasters currently operating wireless mics in the 700 MHz band (Ch. 52-69) need to clear out of those frequencies by Feb. 17, 2009, when analog broadcasts cease.
Reihl declared that if the white spaces vote remains on the agenda for the Nov. 4 meeting, “it’s going to pass.” He said that broadcasters should focus on making sure that the FCC includes workable parameters in implementing the devices, such as requiring higher-powered devices to use geo-location technology that lets them be tracked through an online database, and setting aside several channels for broadcasters and other wireless mics users to safely operate in. Reihl is also concerned about the potential impact on the digital TV transition, and said that he has personally observed a prototype white-space device knock out DTV reception on a living-room HD set.
Willis recounted how ESPN had tried to get the FCC to test white-spaces devices during a Monday Night Football game in 2007, where it was using over 100 wireless mic channels that were frequency-coordinated with the NFL, which was using 45 to 60 channels itself. The FCC declined that opportunity, but did take ESPN up on a subsequent offer to test mics around a preseason NFL game in August. For that test, ESPN set up 11 mics—the number the FCC requested—at four locations around FedEx Field.
Willis showed data that indicated that neither the Philips nor I2R device could sense the mics with any degree of accuracy. He said the White Spaces Coalition’s fundamental premise is “flawed,” as he doubts that a handheld device with a small antenna would ever be able to sense wireless mics in a sports stadium with enough accuracy to prevent interference. Understandably, he is frustrated by the FCC’s recent decision-making.
“It just seems so upside-down, that the data, over 15 months, really hasn’t changed,” says Willis. “In two rounds of testing, from early ‘07 right up until the release of the report, it’s pretty much the same—there are no appreciable successes. Why is the Commission moving forward when their own data doesn’t support their decision? I can only speculate, and I certainly don’t want to do that.”
However, Willis had no problems speculating on the agenda of the White Spaces Coalition, the consortium of technology companies that includes Microsoft, Google and Dell Computers.
“They smell victory, they can sense victory, and they’re already pushing for the next level, and the next level is to get as much spectrum as they can,” said Willis. “And they want it all—they want it from zero hertz right up to infinity.”
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here, take this tissue... and this tin foil hat!
invitedmedia - 10/24/2008 2:47:00 PM EDT -
To: Invitedmedia.com -- You sound suspiciously like those paid disinformation trolls that haunt the political sites to harass and harvest IP addresses for your dossiers. Funny how you seem to post immediately after I write something here. Like Agent Gibbs says on N.C.I.S., "I don't believe in coincidences." So now it's telecomm? Holy Big Brother...
Adam Smith - 10/23/2008 7:59:00 PM EDT -
can i offer you a tissue?
invitedmedia - 10/23/2008 4:41:00 PM EDT -
TIME FOR 'SAVE FREE TV' CAMPAIGN. This is an idelogically motivated FCC. They are seeking to render ineffectual "free" broadcast television and make it a wired medium, available only to those with the ability to pay. By allowing white spaces devices, they ensure sporadic interference with DTV signals, driving viewers to wired or pay wireless media such as cable, fiber and satellite. A sizable percentage of older cable subscribers signed up to get better reception. Broadcast TV now poses a serious competitive threat because uncompressed broadcast digital signals are superior to broadcast signals that are compressed by cable companies. Some 20 years ago, what was then known as ITV mounted a public campaign extolling "free" broadcast TV. It's time to do that again. Many viewers still do not realize they can get uncompressed HDTV signals from major networks for free via an inexpensive antenna. Such a campaign also must be aimed at lawmakers. This is truly an emergency and industry bigwigs should convene a "summit" to address this issue well before the Christmas holiday. While they're do that, they should lobby Congress to pass a law mandating the extension of analog service until Aug. 31st, 2011, the Canadian deadline, since the public is nowhere near ready for a transition to DTV -- especially when white spaces sharing threatens to spoil their reception. This is a bandwidth grab that will decimate broadcasting if allowed to proceed.
Adam Smith - 10/23/2008 3:34:00 PM EDT
White Spaces Remain Murky
08/16/2008Microsoft Presses for White Spaces Vote
10/27/2008
