In the late 1990s, the FCC announced that they would mandate all television broadcasts to switch over to digital broadcast signal. Digital transmissions are more efficient, bandwidth wise, freeing up much of the UHF frequency spectrum. This future, unoccupied bandwidth has been begun to be referred to by policy makers as "white space," and technology giants have been chomping at the bit for access to these frequencies as part of the push to offer wireless broadband to consumers. Several tech-industry Goliaths -- Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink and Samsung are among them -- have formed what amounts to a lobbying group called the White Spaces Coalition to represent the industry's interests in Washington.

Why is this of interest to the professional audio community? At the risk of sounding apocalyptic, the opening of white spaces to unlicensed wireless devices could render all pro-audio wireless devices unusable. Currently, professional wireless devices, including microphones, in-ear monitoring systems, wireless instrument systems and even short-wave walkie-talkies, operate in these unused, UHF "white spaces" as secondary, licensed devices. If the White Space Coalition were to have its way, there'd be no check on what bandwidth was being used where, and every industry that currently relies on wireless communication would have to revert to wired solutions. Broadcast news, sports, and concert sound would be thrown 30 years into the past.

As a company with a vested interest in wireless technology, Shure Inc. has been at the forefront of representing the relatively diminutive wireless audio industry against the massively powerful White Spaces Coalition, and their website provides not only a detailed overview of the white spaces controversy, but also information on how to submit a formal complaint to the FCC urging them to consider the impact that their reallocation plans will have on all wireless audio users.

Every audio professional and semi-professional owes it to themselves to stay abreast of this situation, and to make their voices heard. The whole DTV-inspired reallocation cluster-funk can be a bit impenetrable, but we've found Shure's press releases and "White Spaces Overview" to be very elucidating. Go to their website and check out the link on how to file a complaint to the FCC.