According to a media release on Sunday, the FCC tested white space detection devices during Friday’s Buffalo versus Washington football game.
According to Shure Inc, one of the world’s leading microphone suppliers, the test failed to “consistently identify operating wireless microphones or distinguish occupied from unoccupied TV channels.”
The FCC’s tests of prototype white space devices at FedEx field prior to Saturday’s game between the Redskins and the Bills conclusively show that spectrum sensing white space devices will cause harmful interference to wireless microphones during live events.
As I wrote last October, there has been a coalition of technology companies driving the discussion of white space technology in the US including Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP and Intel. Their objective is to get FCC approval for a generic device that will detect unused spectrum to be made available for broadband internet.
We’ll continue watching this issue.