(This information was obtained from the Shure Inc. website)

DTV: February 17, 2009 is the completion date for transition from analog television broadcast to digital television broadcast (DTV). All broadcast television stations will be required to operate in what are now channels 2-51. Only DTV stations will remain on the air. The analog stations will be gone. The former TV channels 52-69 are going to be reallocated for other purposes; one of them is Public Safety, which will be using Channels 63, 64, 68 and 69. The rest of that spectrum will be primarily used by communications services in devices that resemble cell phones.

Wireless microphone or personal monitor system products that operate in these former television bands may begin to suffer more interference from these services. That doesn't mean that the systems won't work any longer. But users will probably have to change frequencies to avoid these new services.

There's still likely to be a fair amount of open spectrum in different places around the country on some of the frequency ranges. In some places though, it may be difficult to operate as many systems as previously because there may not be enough spectrum for all of it. If users have frequency-agile systems, they'll be likely to continue using that system with very few problems in the foreseeable future.

Shure will not sell equipment that operates on channels 52-69 after February 2009 and we haven't sold equipment in that range for some time now.

DTV is completely separate from the White Spaces issue. The only common denominator is the date – February 17, 2009.

White Spaces: Even when all the remaining TV stations are in the range of channels 2-51, there will be plenty of open channels in most places. There won't be 51 channels on the air in every city. But there may be 15 to 33 open TV channels scattered around the country in different cities. These are the licensed channels that wireless microphones and personal monitors currently occupy.

There is a White Spaces Coalition that includes Microsoft, Intel, Google, Hewlett-Packard and several other companies proposing that a class of consumer electronic devices operate in the unused portion or the open television channels. These devices would be unlicensed, that is, anyone could operate such a device without obtaining an FCC license. Cell phones, cordless phones, and wireless laptop computers are examples of unlicensed devices. Historically, the nature of consumer electronic devices has been to heavily populate the unlicensed bands in which they have been allowed to operate. This includes the 49 MHz band, the 900mHz band, the 2.4 GHz band and several others. The concern is that new devices could disrupt professional audio users because their operation would be unpredictable.

The FCC's issue is deployment of rural broadband Internet access, using unused TV channels to provide service. Cable is expensive to run to these areas and satellite is a downlink only, so rural high-speed broadband access via wireless transmission offers a good solution.

Shure, as part of a group of concerned audio users and manufacturers, has organized a very strong campaign within Congress and the FCC to make sure that the interests of wireless microphone users are protected. There are various technical schemes that are being proposed for these unlicensed devices to be able to detect the operation of current users of the spectrum in order to avoid interference. Pending the outcome of FCC testing, the initial target date proposed for introducing these devices is February 18. 2009 and that's the only nexus with the DTV issue.

The task of the FCC is to weigh the needs of the current users of the spectrum (broadcasters and audio professionals) versus potential new users (consumers)–and make sure that the incumbents are not disrupted. We believe that wireless microphones will get appropriate consideration from the FCC.

The best advice for wireless audio users is to purchase frequency-agile systems.