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Friday, February 05, 2021
Shure Files Petition With FCC To Open Dedicated UHF Channel For Wireless Microphone Use
ProSoundWeb: Shure Incorporated has petitioned the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reverse its recent decision and ensure that at least one “vacant” 6 MHz UHF channel is designated in each market for wireless microphone use.
This of course is just another installment of the never-ending saga between the FCC and various radio users. It seems that because the technology is constantly shifting, the FCC periodically tries to re-allocate various frequency ranges. In my memory, the FCC re-allocated a band that had already been in use by wireless microphones for years and gave to public safety rendering lots and lots of equipment useless. We had microphones on that band that we had to continue using because we couldn’t afford to buy new ones. The FCC allocated everything and now everyone wants allocated frequencies. From the perspective of the microphone company, UHF is definitely the way to go, but everyone knows that for in town communications at the point. The FCC also needs to just allocate them a band and keep it that way because there is no way every theater and church should be coming up with sharing requests with a municipality 50 miles away, that is a waste of everyone’s time.
At my high school, I was the sound designer and we used Shure microphones. My department had to save a large sum of money to replace our Shure microphones the year after I graduated due to the radio frequencies they ran on being confiscated by the FCC. I am so glad to read and hear that Shure is filing this petition. Microphones are used in so many entertainment settings and are expensive equipment. It is extremely frustrating for users to have to keep up with buying new microphones due to the frequencies no longer working. Hopefully, if this is approved, Shure will have the radio signals to permanently satisfy their products and customers. In addition, the "Vacant Channels" wireless Shure microphones ran on previously were, in my experience, unreliable. Often times, other signals would interfere and create fuzz, or we had no choice but to run more than one wireless microphones on frequencies to close together. Hopefully, if given the alternative channels designated to wireless microphones, these issues will also be resolved.
2 comments:
This of course is just another installment of the never-ending saga between the FCC and various radio users. It seems that because the technology is constantly shifting, the FCC periodically tries to re-allocate various frequency ranges. In my memory, the FCC re-allocated a band that had already been in use by wireless microphones for years and gave to public safety rendering lots and lots of equipment useless. We had microphones on that band that we had to continue using because we couldn’t afford to buy new ones. The FCC allocated everything and now everyone wants allocated frequencies. From the perspective of the microphone company, UHF is definitely the way to go, but everyone knows that for in town communications at the point. The FCC also needs to just allocate them a band and keep it that way because there is no way every theater and church should be coming up with sharing requests with a municipality 50 miles away, that is a waste of everyone’s time.
At my high school, I was the sound designer and we used Shure microphones. My department had to save a large sum of money to replace our Shure microphones the year after I graduated due to the radio frequencies they ran on being confiscated by the FCC. I am so glad to read and hear that Shure is filing this petition. Microphones are used in so many entertainment settings and are expensive equipment. It is extremely frustrating for users to have to keep up with buying new microphones due to the frequencies no longer working. Hopefully, if this is approved, Shure will have the radio signals to permanently satisfy their products and customers. In addition, the "Vacant Channels" wireless Shure microphones ran on previously were, in my experience, unreliable. Often times, other signals would interfere and create fuzz, or we had no choice but to run more than one wireless microphones on frequencies to close together. Hopefully, if given the alternative channels designated to wireless microphones, these issues will also be resolved.
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