lighting america wireless spectrum update€¦ · wireless spectrum update by: mel lambert the...

70 • December 2015 • Lighting&Sound America

TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO

As the Federal CommunicationsCommission continues to repurposecritical sections of the RF spectrumcurrently being used by wirelessmicrophones, IEMs, and intercoms, inaddition to the UHF TV band, it isbecoming obvious that the live enter-tainment, news, and production com-munities are in for a dramatic roller-coaster ride during the next severalyears. Following its auction in 2008 toclose out access to the 700MHz band

(698MHz — 806MHz)—and hencecontinuing the congressionally man-dated goal of transferring spectrum tomobile services—in early August, theFCC issued further details of the600MHz band auction, and new rulesto address the long-term needs ofwireless microphones, as well asexpanded access to other RF bands.

Acknowledging that wireless sys-tems continue to play an importantrole within theatres and music venues,

film studios, conventions, corporateevents, houses of worship, and otherlocations, the FCC’s recent Report andOrders FCC 15-68, 15-99, and 15-100prepares the way for late March 2016’splanned Spectrum Incentive Auction ofthe 600MHz spectrum to mobilebroadband carriers, and a timetablefor the scheduled four-year exit forlicensed and unlicensed users of thatspectrum space. The FCC’s ruling pro-vides additional opportunities forlicensed use within remaining TVbands by green-lighting extended useof the high-band VHF channels andco-channel operations under tight limi-tations, in addition to use by licensedusers of a 4MHz portion of the 11MHzduplex gap, new opportunities forlicensed wireless mics within the900MHz band, limited use of sectionsof the 1.435MHz — 1.525MHz, andsections of the 6.875MHz —7.125MHz spectrum.

Unlike conventional auctions, theFCC’s process involves two sequentialstages. During the reverse incentiveauction, the FCC will determine whichbroadcasters are willing to relinquishtheir assigned TV channels, share thechannels with other stations, or moveto lower channels, and at what price;this process is expected to take sever-al weeks. The forward auction will be atraditional auction that will place thereclaimed spectrum in each market upfor sale to the highest bidder. If the for-mer remains below a threshold priceset by the FCC’s formula, the sale willbe complete, with the United StatesTreasury pocketing the difference; thisprocess also is expected to take aminimum of several weeks, after whichthe FCC will determine how to repackthe spectrum space. In essence, theauction will let a TV broadcaster relin-quish or share a current spectrumlicense on a voluntary basis, in

Wireless Spectrum UpdateBy: Mel Lambert

The spectrum incentive auction will dramatically change the 600MHz RFlandscape for wireless systems

“We need around 100 microphones per theatreon Broadway, which, with 10 major venues,means we are using 1,000 channels each day.With careful RF coordination, we’re able toshare the current spectrum space. If we lose600MHz—as happened when 700MHz wasclosed down—we’ll be pushed for bandwidth.”— Richard Fitzgerald, Sound Associates

Lectrosonics’ Venue 2 receiver, with iQ filtering, and several wide-tuning transmitters.

Copyright Lighting&Sound America December 2015 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html

exchange for a share in the moneygenerated by the auction, which ispredicted to cost around $226 millionto implement. (Like the 700MHz auc-tion, no financial compensation will beavailable to replace existing wirelessmicrophone inventory.)

Following the 600MHz auction andrepacking process, TV operators elect-ing to stay on the air but currentlyoperating in spectrum to be repur-posed will be moved to different TVchannels. Some space has also beenset aside in the 600MHz band for wire-

less mics, IEMs, and intercoms in theresulting guard bands, which will beshared with White Space devices andthe duplex gap. After the completionof the auction and publication of theFCC’s public notice documenting thenew spectrum band plans, the repack-ing and reallocation process is expect-ed to take up to 39 months to com-plete. If the clock starts in the winter of2016, current RF users within thatspectrum will have until early 2020 tocease using such wireless mics, IEMs,and intercoms, and sooner if the new

spectrum owners are up and runningwith new broadband services. (Itshould be stated that doubts remainthat the planned auction will succeed,with the TV spectrum remainingunchanged for several years or theprocess being later re-activated.)

If the process runs as expected,the 600MHz landscape after repackingwill be very different. The FCC plans toallow unlicensed operators—mics andWhite Space devices—to operate inguard bands, or buffers, that will sepa-rate broadband, TV, and other primary

services from each other. These allo-cations may vary by market and fromcity to city, and may be subject tointerference from out-of-band emis-sions from the primary services.Likewise, mic operation will be allowedin the duplex gap separating thebroadband up/downlink blocks. A4MHz portion of the duplex gap will bereserved for Part 74 licensed micro-phone use, with the upper 6MHz ofthe duplex gap being allocated to unli-censed mics and White Spacedevices. (Incidentally, the FCC’s earlierReport and Order FCC 14-62 statedthat “new LPAS licenses [indicating



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www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • December 2015 • 73

Low Power Auxiliary Stations, a defini-tion that includes wireless mics, IEMs,and intercoms with a range of around300'] granted between now and [theend of the spectrum reallocation],including licenses granted to newly eli-gible licensees, [will] cease operatingin the repurposed spectrum no laterthan that date.” Following the post-auction process, such Part 74licensees will be able to operate onlywithin the remaining bands allocatedfor TV broadcasting.)

A crowded RF spectrumIn terms of practical implications, if allgoes according to plan, four yearsfrom now there will be far less spec-trum available for wireless users inboth the 500MHz and 600MHz bands.“We need around 200 channels forsuch events as the Grammy Awardsheld at the Staples Center,” says DavidBellamy, of Soundtronics Wireless, thefirm that provides RF coordination andsystem rentals for a number of enter-tainment events, including theAcademy Awards, Emmy Awards,American Music Awards, and BETAwards. “I feel pretty good about thefuture; we are always adaptable.

“We will need to wait to see what’sleft [after the auction and repackingprocess] but we are already looking atthe spectrum above 2GHz,” advisesBellamy. “And while antenna require-ments and coverage will be differentfor these frequencies, due to reducedpropagation compared to the 600MHz

range, we can put into place an addi-tional number of our Phoenix antennaarrays, which, within reason, can offerthe type of coverage we currentlyenjoy. For example, during this year’sEmmys [at the Microsoft Center indowntown Los Angeles] we deployeda Phoenix 8 antenna system that iscapable of eight diversity zones, 16antenna arrays in all. We only need touse five zones to cover the venue. Ifwe were working at 5GHz, we wouldneed to use all eight zones to give uscomparable coverage across the

stage, floor, and house. We’ll alsoneed to wait and see what manufac-turers can offer us in terms of moreelaborate hardware” to operate inbands other than 600MHz.

“We have been working in the900MHz range for some 10 years,”Bellamy continues, “and have devel-oped some proprietary solutions forthat spectrum. High-band VHF is alsoattractive, but pretty crowded,dependent upon which city you’reworking in; everybody seems to begravitating there! While it’s probably

Lectrosonics’ IFB system is now availablein VHF frequencies.

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not suitable for wireless mics, becauseof the higher noise floor, the high-bandVHF range is probably safe for PL,IEM, and IFB links. We will likely stayin 900MHz range for our artists’ micro-phones.”

As T. Richard Fitzgerald, theatricalsound designer and CEO of New York-based Sound Associates, points out:“We need, on average, around 100microphones per theatre on Broadway,which, with 10 major venues, means

we are using 1,000 channels each day.With careful RF coordination, we’reable to share the current spectrumspace. But if we lose 600MHz—ashappened when 700MHz was closeddown—we’ll be pushed for bandwidth.But new technologies will come along[from wireless manufacturers] to packmore frequencies into each RF block.Now we can live in TV channels andthey don’t know we are there; who isgoing to see our 50mW transmitters insomebody’s pocket? After all, we needto keep the power levels low becauseof adjacent theatres [sharing the samefrequencies and to prevent in-bandinterference].

“It should be no problem, becausewe have a right to use the frequencyband to get the job done,” Fitzgeraldadvises. “Comcast—or whoever elseis buying the 600MHz frequenciesfrom the TV broadcaster—will have tokick us out!”

“But there’s always the chance theFCC auction could be a bust,” com-

AKG’s DMS800 reference digital wireless microphone.

ments Henry Cohen, senior RF engi-neer/designer and FCC liaison with CPCommunications. “It’s not yet a slamdunk. Insufficient broadcasters maynot want to sell off their channels at afeasible price. However, when talkingwith clients, I’m advising them that it’sfairly certain the majority of the600MHz band will be gone within fouryears, leaving much less usable spec-trum.

“The good news is that Part 74users will have access to the duplexgap and additional bands in the900MHz spectrum immediately, andthe 1.4GHz in the near future, both ofwhich will need to be coordinated, andwill be shared with other incumbentusers. But the bottom line is relativelysimple: We have new opportunities butcurrently lack equipment to use thespace—unlike the cell phone industry,we do not have the economy of scaleto develop suitable chipsets quicklyand cheaply. What the manufacturerswill offer us depends on their return on

investment. Part 74 users are lookingfor high-quality RF systems and willpay more per channel, but the sys-tems will sell in fewer numbers; unli-censed Part 15 users, on the otherhand, use systems that sell in greatnumbers at lower prices, and hence

have a better economy of scale fromthe OEM’s perspective.”

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number of wireless manufacturers areinnovating new systems that will offeralternatives to current hardware thatfaces imminent obsolescence, or willat least within four years, according to

a reasonable assessment of the spec-trum reallocation. As Mark Brunner,senior director of global brand man-agement at Shure, states: “The land-scape of the TV band will continue to

change during the 39-month periodfollowing the incentive auction. It isunknown how many channels will beleft after the sale and repacking of theTV band, but it seems certain that wewill be losing much of the 600MHzspectrum.”

In terms of alternates to 600MHz,Brunner states that, while propagationand antenna requirements are differentfor each frequency band, “We caninnovate as necessary. But not allbands are created equal; we face dif-ferent design challenges depending onthe frequencies of the band and itsother users. Our current ULX-D sys-tems now operate in the unlicensed900MHz — 928MHz bands, in additionto Part 74 licensed regions, whichmeans they can be used in regulatedand unregulated areas of spectrum.Our GLX-D systems operate in the2.4GHz unlicensed band.”

“At Lectrosonics, we are also look-ing at high-band VHF from 174MHz —216MHz,” explains Karl Winkler, thefirm’s vice president of sales. “Forexample, our new IFB Systems—avail-able by the end of the year—will allowcustomers using UHF bands for thesesystems to migrate to high-band VHF,thus relieving some of the pressure onthe critical remaining UHF bands. Wehave also developed wider tuningsolutions coupled with iQ tracking fil-ters for dense channel packing,together with the high audio quality ofDigital Hybrid Wireless in our newVenue 2 receiver system.

“We are also following develop-ments within the 941MHz — 960MHzrange, for which we already haveproduct, including IFB units, Venuemulti-channel receivers, and SM Seriestransmitters, with expanded applicabil-ity for Part 74 users. And although the7GHz spectrum is wide open, it willneed totally different technologies,particularly in terms of antenna design.The 2.4GHz band is not as interestingto us because of limited channel countand other problems, including acrowded spectrum; we do not recom-Join us on facebook www.neutrik.com www.experience-neutrik.com SETTING STANDARDS SINCE 1975

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mend the band’s use for critical appli-cations by professional users.”

Joe Ciaudelli, Sennheiser USA’sdirector of spectrum affairs, points outthat the portion of 470MHz — 698MHzspectrum that will be retained for TVstations versus the amount that will berepurposed for mobile broadband usewill not be known until after the auc-tion. “By mid-2016, following thechannel re-assignment, we will knowthe spectrum that will remain availablefor wireless mic users. With publica-tion of the channel re-assignment, the

39-month transition period starts.Wireless microphones will have tovacate repurposed spectrum by theend of the transition period. However,they may need to leave sooner inareas where broadband services areinitiated before that final deadline.”

Looking to the future, Ciaudelli pre-dicts more entities will apply for a Part74 license. “The FCC wants to make aclearer distinction between licensedPart 74 and unlicensed mic users; alicensed operator has privileges aswell as access to additional bands. Forexample, its recent ruling [Report and

Order FCC 15-100] opened portions of941MHz — 960MHz to all Part 74users. Previously, the more condensed944MHz — 952MHz range wasrestricted to mic use only by broad-casters. Our SK5212 MKII andSKM5200 MKII transmitters and

EM3732 receivers can operate in thatband. The FCC has also outlined per-mitted use of 1.435MHz — 1.525MHzband with approved coordination withthe primary service. This range hasbeen utilized for mics by power userson special temporary licenses for such

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events as The Super Bowl, using cus-tom-built systems.”

The challenge for the unlicensed professional“The FCC basically drew a line defin-ing a licensed operator as a broad-caster or a venue or sound companythat routinely uses 50-plus mics,”Ciaudelli continues. “There are plentyof other highly professional users,such as non-profit performing artscenters, that do not qualify. The prob-lem is that the FCC is eliminating thepath for these unlicensed profession-als to apply for interference protectionfor their productions. These new rul-ings hit the unlicensed professional thehardest, so we will continue to workwith the commission to address suchissues. As we have pointed out to theFCC, an unlicensed user does notnecessarily imply an unprofessionaluser; many of them operate profes-sionally, so let’s treat them as such.We have suggested that the commis-

sion expand its view of the broad uni-verse of microphone operators beyondsimply unlicensed and licensed.”

Winkler concurs. “It may be difficultfor the FCC to [instigate] that third cat-egory,” he says, “but we need to relaxthe 50-microphone category for Part74 users. It’s worth doing, to raise

awareness of our industry.”“That proposed Category #3 offers

potential for AV companies, smallersound companies, and smaller theatri-cal productions,” agrees Cohen. “Butwe may reach a situation when sounddesigners and operators will have tosay no to a client. For events like the

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“The FCC basically drew a line defining alicensed operator as a broadcaster or a venueor sound company that routinely uses 50-plusmics. There are plenty of other highly profes-sional users, such as non-profit performing artscenters, that do not qualify. The problem is thatthe FCC is eliminating the path for these unli-censed professionals to apply for interferenceprotection for their productions. These new rul-ings hit the unlicensed professional the hardest,so we will continue to work with the commissionto address such issues.” — Joe Ciaudelli, Sennheiser


Super Bowl, we can secure an STA[Special Temporary Authority] forunused spectrum space, or maybeuse proprietary equipment, but therecan come a limit. It’s almost certain wewill need to say to clients that, in thenear future, it might be impossible toprovide several hundred channels,simply because we cannot find thespectrum space, and advise them touse wired microphones in more posi-tions.

“In the end, RF spectrum space is acommodity sold to the highest bidder;if you cannot afford to pay for it, youhave to take table scraps.”

Balancing optimismagainst pessimism“Nothing is happening [in the lead upto next year’s spectrum incentive auc-tion] that we were not expecting,” con-siders Jackie Green, VP of

R&D/engineering with Audio-TechnicaUS. “It is better to discuss with cus-tomers what we can do, and makethose systems work as best we can.Once we know the outcome of thetwo-stage auction, and the effect ofthe guard bands and duplex bands,then we can make plans to addressthe resulting spectrum with innovativenew hardware, as well as learningmore about the FCC’s new plansbeing offered for existing wirelessapplications.

“In reality, it doesn’t matter whereyou design the new wireless systemsto work, since we can pretty much

design for those propagation charac-teristics and spectrum space. The bigquestions then will be cost and avail-ability. High performance can beoffered at any frequency, given ouraccess to suitable development tools.

“But our industry is not a big one;we ride along on the coattails of themobile phone industry for chipsetsand mass-affordable components,”Green advises. “Yes, we are innovatingnew technologies for use in the2.4GHz band—including our new 10-channel System 10 Pro wireless sys-tems with a choice of frequency, time,and space diversity—in addition tomore ultra-wideband products justaround the corner.”

“We support a broad range of cus-tomers, from the professional commu-nity all the way to the singleowner/operator,” states SonyElectronics product manager Andy

Munitz, “and will offer advanced tech-nologies to integrate into an ever-chal-lenging RF environment. To that end,at [last year’s] IBC Show [inAmsterdam] we introduced our DWX-N series of digital ultra-widebandtransmitters and DWR-R02DN rack-mount receivers, which, to add greaterflexibility to current frequency-coordi-nation tasks, offers access to 198MHzof frequency range from 470MHz —710MHz (depending on the region),which translates to more than 7,500frequencies. In addition to the tradi-tional UHF frequencies, we also have2.4GHz products, and recently

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“We are also following developments within the941MHz — 960MHz range, for which we alreadyhave product, including IFB units, Venue multi-channel receivers, and SM Series transmitters,with expanded applicability for Part 74 users.Although the 7GHz spectrum is wide open, it willneed totally different technologies, particularly interms of antenna design.” — Karl Winkler, Lectrosonics



launched the new DWX Series Digitalproducts for the Japanese domesticmarket in the GHz range.”

“As the consumer ecosystemexpands,” advises Brunner, “for theforeseeable future the shifting land-scape of the RF spectrum will be ofmajor concern for the pro-audioindustry. We have been very success-ful at highlighting the societal signifi-cance of these frequencies,” for theentertainment, news, and live-per-formance communities. “Recent [FCC]decisions, while not ideal, have beenaccording to our requests; we aregrateful for that.”

“I’m confident that the FCC willremain willing to work with our indus-try so that they can accommodatemicrophone operators,” concludesCiaudelli.

Mel Lambert has been intimatelyinvolved with production industries onboth sides of the Atlantic for moreyears than he cares to remember. Heis principal of Content Creators, a LosAngeles-based copywriting and edito-rial service, and can be reached [email protected];818.558-3924. He is also a 30-yearmember of the UK’s National Union ofJournalists.

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