One element of channel repacking for the incentive auction is finding a home for wireless microphones, widely used by various communications businesses. A request for more time to comment no mics and other unlicensed devices has been granted.
The request came Shure Incorporated and was echoed by CTIA, 4G Americas, the Aerospace & Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council, TIA and CIA.
The parties noted that the plans for the auction “…propose many substantial changes in technical and operational rules that will require significant evaluation, testing and analysis, and that extensions of time will permit interested parties to analyze the complicated technical issues raised by these proceedings and develop data-driven responses to the Commission’s inquiries.”
The FCC agreed that an extension is warranted and moved the deadlines back a full 30 days, to 2/2/15 for comments and 2/25/15 for reply comments.
RBR-TVBR observation: This is just one more area of US communications policy that faces dramatic change as a result of the auction.
Wireless mics are used by broadcasters for remote broadcasts, for things like covering news or sporting events; they are also used at sporting and other outdoor events, and by theaters and churches.
Space for unlicensed devices is seen by many as a fertile breeding ground for innovation. The issue with them prior to the incentive auction came front and center was allowing them to exist on the white spaces between television channels.
