[opendtv] Re: FCC TAKES STEPS TO ALLOW NEW LOW POWER DEVICES ON VACANT TV CHANNELS
- From: "Hunold, Ken" <KRH@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:27:34 -0400
Craig,
I'm not intimately involved in the process, but my understanding is that
unallocated TV channels are used for broadcast applications, most often
wireless microphones, for news and sports broadcasts (and in New York,
Broadway theatre performances.) As most of these channels aren't really
vacant, these links are limited by interference. It is not easy
shoe-horning in all the people who want to use the system today, not
counting any new users. As far as I know, it has not been demonstrated
how well the front ends of these new unlicensed devices would be at
detecting whether there is already anyone operating on a channel that
the unlicensed device wants to use. My understanding is that these
devices are designed to be inexpensive, so how much of the product cost
will be devoted to determining when and where the device *cannot* work?
All that has been stated so far is that these devices *could* check
before they transmit. This is not an "ethernet" environment where
collisions are expected and most often dealt with by repeating the
transmission before anyone knows that it didn't work the first time.
That is not the strategy used by broadcast devices.
Also, any additional interference could interrupt extant signals
(wireless microphones in this example) while the new services are firing
up and negotiating their own services. How many times do you think
producers will accept their programs being interrupted in this manner?
I think the number would be less than one, if possible. Nothing is
worse than seeing lips move and not hearing anything, or hearing hash.
I'm sure you've been there before. As stated before, it would be
extremely difficult to find the interference source after it occurs, and
even if you did, the damage has been done.
In most markets, there isn't any unused spectrum for these existing
services to move to. At the risk of sounding nimby-esque, why not let
these new devices use some of the other "new" already
shared-digital-usage spectrum?
Ken Hunold
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Craig Birkmaier
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 11:12 AM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: FCC TAKES STEPS TO ALLOW NEW LOW POWER DEVICES ON
VACANT TV CHANNELS
At 9:18 AM -0400 10/17/06, Hunold, Ken wrote:
>Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, but my point has been missed (or
>perhaps co-opted.)
>
>The type of interference I am referring to is not direct interference
>to broadcast stations by unlicensed wireless devices. This could be
>the case at the edge of coverage for broadcast stations, but that is a
>different debate.
>
>The sort of interference that I am talking about affects the TV
>Production industry that feeds the broadcast, cable, and other
>entertainment industries. Unlicensed devices could affect every live
>news and sports program origination, and it would be very difficult to
>find the source of the problems that these devices would cause.
Ken
What frequency bands are used today for these broadcast applications?
As I understand it, there is an expectation that any uses of these
frequencies would be required to check for other users so as NOT to
interfere. Also, I would assume that it would be possible for
broadcasters to utilize ANY unused frequency for the kind of
applications you have described, thus there might be a significant
increase in the available frequencies for these applications.
Regards
Craig
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