Audio Pro

Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, recently published a consultation response which sees the entertainment industry recognised as “at serious risk of market failure” should it sell off all the available radio frequencies to the highest bidder, in the planned auction of radio spectrum due as a result of analogue TV closedown or digital switchover (DSO).

As such, Ofcom has awarded the available interleaved spectrum or ‘white space’ (two blocks of spectrum; 470 - 550 MHz and 630 - 806 MHz) for use by the Programme Makers and Special Events (PMSE) sector and this will be administered by a band manager.

While seen as a tremendous boost for the PMSE sector, which incorporates broadcast, theatre, concert production and sporting events (early indications suggested that little or no spectrum would be made available post switch-off) a balanced reaction from the industry seems to suggest that this is just one battle won, as opposed to complete victory.

The reasons are varied, and although the sterling work, led by the British Entertainment Industry Radio Group (BEIRG), alongside industry groups AMPS, IBS, PLASA, PSA, SOLT and the MU, together with political lobbyists Ranelagh International, which was funded throughout the process by PLASA, has made a breakthrough, the view within the pro audio industry is that this is by no means a done deal.

And although Ofcom sees PMSE as an ‘exception’ to its market approach, it seems that there are still many questions remaining unanswered.

A major concern is the concept of a ‘beauty contest’ to award a package of interleaved spectrum to meet PMSE users’ needs. This will involve the appointment of a ‘band manager, who will be required to manage spectrum for PMSE users. This licensee will earn revenue by charging for access to the spectrum but, according to Ofcom, “will be required to meet reasonable demand from PMSE users on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

“These measures will ensure that PMSE users can continue to access spectrum while moving towards a more market-based approach over time."

For many in the audio industry, this, while possibly beneficial, and indeed similar to the present situation, where usage licenses are issued by the Joint Frequency Management Group (JFMG), creates a few important questions.

For example, who will be appointed band manager, and what charges will be made? And alongside this, what is meant by the concept of movement towards a ‘more market-based approach’. There are certainly more questions than answers. Another aspect of concern is the sharing of these ‘white spaces’ with cognitive devices, which will be license exempt.

As outlined by Ofcom, cognitive radio is a new technology that can detect spectrum that is otherwise unused and transmit without causing harmful interference. It has the potential to support a wide range of uses, including high speed always-on broadband, and is considered “particularly suited to operating in interleaved spectrum, where significant capacity is often unused at any one location at least some of the time”.

However, as Ofcom also points out, “use of equipment in the UK will need to protect licensed users of this spectrum, including digital terrestrial television (DTT) and PMSE, against harmful interference. We will not allow cognitive equipment to use interleaved spectrum until we are satisfied on this point.” And that is a big point, especially given grey importation considerations.

Last month, Ofcom released a new statement "Access to interleaved spectrum for programme-making and special events after digital switchover". This was intended to clarify the spectrum available for use by wireless microphones after completion of Switchover (2012). The information is presented in the document using maps detailing availability throughout the UK.

In the meantime JFMG are hosting the information online (jfmg.co.uk) in the form of a database similar to its online mic-check tool, where potential users can simply pick from a list of popular locations, type in the postcode or Ordnance Survey grid reference, and then find out detailed spectrum availability in that area.

Yet, even with these concerns still to be ironed out, comment from several industry personnel is positive.

"We feel that it is an excellent result for the industry," states JFMGs managing director, Paul Gill. "Ofcom has realised that an auction is not feasible for the pro-audio industry, and this provides the industry with ten years of security, but even after that (2018) there is no cliff edge."

However, with JFMG considered as a prime contender for the role of band manager, he is keeping his cards fairly close to his chest, especially as it is not yet clear what the criteria for the 'beauty contest' will be. This will emerge from Ofcom's consultation in the spring.

"JFMG has the technical and managerial ability and the ambition to be the band manager”, he explains, “but there has to be a viable business case. The crucial next step is for Ofcom to indicate the level of pricing for the spectrum, but this won't be known until an information memorandum is published in Autumn 2008.

"For Ofcom, there is much more work to do in determining the terms of protection for PMSE. For example, the band manager will be required to satisfy the 'reasonable demand' for PMSE before it can look towards any commercial opportunities. This will need to be carefully defined. JFMG has a proven track record of providing fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory access.

"Having secured access, the industry and its band manager now needs to work together on how it is going to pay its way. 'Free-riding' is an issue that needs to be addressed, and we are working closely with BEIRG on this."

British Entertainment Industry Group (BEIRG) spokesman Alan March is equally satisfied with the initial findings, especially following a recent meeting with Ofcom in late January.

“The general feeling at the moment is that things are moving in the right direction, we hope. We’ve managed to achieve recognition for the PMSE sector. So much so that they’ve made an exception – the only exception to a general approach, which is market led.

“They’ve recognised that the PMSE sector is not going be able to bid as a group for spectrum and that content that is produced using PMSE equipment is vital to the UK, not just in terms of consumption, but also for export around the world. That’s great, however, there are certain areas that we’re still concerned about to do with the policy and the quality of any inter-viewer that will be ‘digital’, operating post DSO in 2012. We’re still working through those issues.

“There’s an open debate at the moment on the Olympics and how that’s going to be covered in a post DSO environment, if indeed, we are post DSO at that point. So the general feeling is that we are very pleased that Ofcom have listened, its to be welcomed, but there’s still a lot of talking and a lot of discussion to be done, until we can feel confident that we’ll be good to go.

“Whatever happens though, we’ll have to get used to the concept that, potentially, we’re going to be operating across a lot less spectrum than we’ve been used to in the past, but we’re hoping that by continued dialogue and negotiation, we can put a timescale on things and give the industry enough time, and enough motivation, to migrate from primarily where it is at the moment, which is between TV bands 63 and 68, through to these two new bands that have been allocated to digital terrestrial TV”.

The key here is that although Channel 69 (854 – 862 MHz) remains in the PMSE fold, Channels 31–37 (550 – 607 MHZ), 39-40 (614 – 630 MHz), 61-62 (790 – 806 MHz) and 63-68 (806 - 854 MHz) are due to be cleared of PMSE use on a region to region basis in line with the DSO plan. In those regions switching to digital early, extended use of channels 63-68 will be available only until the new spectrum owners require usage. In the meantime, interleaved channels 21-30 (470 – 550 MHZ) and 41-60 (790 – 806 MHZ) will be guaranteed for PMSE access until at least 2018.

Steve Baker, co-founder of BBM Electronics, a UK radio microphone product manufacturer for over 20 years trading as Trantec Systems, also sees benefits to the announcement, but again with reservations.

“Some news is certainly better than no news at all,” he states. “From our perspective, we’re happy that we have some spectrum available, particularly channel 69 of course, which is very important to us.

“Obviously, we expected to lose some spectrum, but we’re quite happy with some of the outcomes, because we could have ended up with nothing, which is really the crux of the entire thing. No one was sure from any point of view how long we would have any frequency allocations, so, yes, we’re reasonably happy at the moment.

“There are still logistical problems though, because channels 61 and 62 will be removed almost immediately. This leaves us with channel 63 through to 68 until the Olympics of 2012, which will then will become another problem. Short term however, at least we have something to play with. We’re optimistic, particularly as new technology comes along, which means that in our case, we now have digital devices too.

“One of the nice advantages of digital devices is that you can get a lot more channels in a given space. Whereas before, with analogue radio mics, the maximum was normally 14 channels in 8 megabytes, now we’re talking over 20 channels. Part of the story is that we need to use the spectrum more economically, or in a greener kind of way. This is certainly a step forward.”

For London-based Hand Held Audio, a leader in radio equipment sales and hire for the music, theatre, broadcast and corporate event industries, the news is especially important, as co-founder Mick Shepherd explains.

“Its come out better than most people thought it was going to, and we’re going to have frequencies available to us using the white spaces between digital TV transmission.

“Because of the campaign that was mounted by BEIRG, PLASA and the PSA, to a certain extent, Ofcom became aware of the special needs of PMSE. At least we do not have to go to auction and bid against the likes of Vodafone to get the frequencies, which is a good thing because nobody would’ve been able to do that.

“With regards to the organisation that ends up managing the frequencies that will be available to us, JFMG currently do it, and do it very well, so I hope that they win the beauty contest. They’ve got the infrastructure and are setup.

“However, it is a shame that the amount of frequencies that will be available to us after the switchover will be less than what we currently enjoy. There’s a huge chunk between channel 61 and 68 that will not be available and this is where most of the existing gear operates. So a lot of gear will become redundant. Some of it will be able to be retuned, and most of us have until 2012 to deal with that. However, in some regions where the DSO is coming in earlier, like the end of this year and 2009, those frequencies will be lost as soon as the people who get them through the auction process are using them, and that may be before 2012.

“As someone from the industry who it effects, all I can say is that the situation is better than we thought it was going to be, and that’s all down to the efforts of BEIRG and PLASA and the PSA in mounting that campaign and making Ofcom take notice of our industry.”

“As promising a statement as it is, what it really shows is that Ofcom has recognised that PMSE is a valuable part of British industry and that they can’t just not pay attention to what we’re saying,” adds Tuomo Tolonen, Applications and Product Planning Manager for Shure UK.

“But there’s a long way to go, we can’t take that statement to mean that we’ve won and we can put our feet up. What we really need now is for everybody to chip in – manufacturers and people who use radio mics, whether you’re a pub owner, church leader, PA hire company owner, or tour manager – it affects everybody’s livelihood. The more people we can get interested, the better, especially for funding, because PLASA have funded the whole thing up until now, with some contributions from other manufacturers, but in reality they’ve really carried the burden on this.

“We need financial funding because it’s not cheap to get ex MP’s, for example, to do the political lobbying for us. We know how to use a mic, but we’ve got no experience in parliament, and so we have to get professionals to do that. Without their help, we’d have never got statements like this. There’s a long way to go, and the more people get interested, the better off we’ll be”

beirg.org.uk
jfmg.co.uk