Splicetoday

Digital
Nov 04, 2008, 09:30AM

Broadway vs. FCC

How the blanket transfer from analog to digital broadcasting will throw a wrench on Broadway.

Didn't see this coming:

With the transfer of telecasting from analog to digital, slated for Feb. 17, 2009, a huge section of the spectrum has become available. Most of it was auctioned earlier this year to large communications companies such as Verizon and AT&T. However, there also exists something known as white space: unused spectrum pathways that exist between digital TV signals. Companies such as Google and Microsoft want the space opened up to unlicensed wireless devices so they might develop new technology and services to operate within it.

However, theatre producers and Actors' Equity Association have joined several other special-interest groups that want to delay the opening because, they contend, a sudden proliferation of wireless devices will strain the spectrum and interfere with Broadway's wireless microphone systems. Further, they say the technology designed to regulate expanded traffic on crowded airwaves has yet to work consistently, and field tests conducted at the Majestic Theatre over the summer were unqualified failures, according to Tom Ferrugia, director of government relations for the Broadway League and a witness to the tests.

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