Kasey Gchachu<\/strong>, PWS project manager and RF technician at the series, a few cities presented especially challenging environments \u2014 notably, Los Angeles and Santa Clara \u2014 because of the density of digital television in the area. Combined with an RF environment in flux, that meant that frequency coordination had to start as long as two months ahead of the series.<\/p>\nThe major networks informed PWS about the type of wireless-microphone systems and the frequencies they expected to deploy, using a web portal set up for that purpose. PWS coordinated the compiled frequency lists with the local chapters of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and submitted all the SBE-approved frequencies to the FCC for final confirmation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt each venue, we conducted a sweep of the area to ensure that the frequencies allocated were available,\u201d Gchachu explains. \u201cOnce [that was] complete, we set up camp for the media and to handle any last-minute requests before moving on to the next venue. In addition, we had to make sure we stayed clear of all public-safety frequencies, which differed depending on what city we were in.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were a few bumps in the road. For instance, some overseas broadcasters showed up with 700-MHz gear, a frequency range that was closed to commercial RF use more than four years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe explain to them that they can\u2019t use that frequency range in the U.S. and that they\u2019ll have to make other arrangements,\u201d Gchachu says. That usually means resorting to a hard-wired microphone system, which he notes that most visiting broadcasters usually have with them as backup. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to recommend alternatives, but it\u2019s hard to find a rental house open on the weekends at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds that he has begun to notice broadcast crews arriving with a more diverse array of frequency capabilities, most opting to move down into the VHF range. The larger cities have not yet been touched by new spectrum owners, like Verizon and T-Mobile, lighting up their spectrum. \u201cBut that is happening now in smaller cities and towns, and that\u2019s going to get noticed as we move into the college football season,\u201d Gchachu says. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be very busy in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The multi-event series illustrates the future complexity of frequency coordination By\u00a0Dan Daley, Audio Editor, Sports Video Group Last month\u2019s CONCACAF championship series took place at the cusp of the new […]\n More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13684],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}