White-Spaces Debate Hits Broadway

They say the neon white spaces are bright on Broadway. But, according to Broadway theater owners, the lights of the "Great White Way" could be extinguished by mobile wireless devices in the "white spaces" between digital-TV channels. These owners squared off with the technology industry Wednesday over the issue of using those white spaces (opponents of the devices call them "interference zones") between DTV channels for unlicensed mobile devices like laptops and spectrum-sensing radios. In the technology-industry corner was the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which includes Google, Dell, Microsoft and Motorola. It said Wednesday that it asked the Federal Communications Commission to back a "compromise" proposal for solving interference issues with wireless microphones -- which also use the TV-spectrum band -- pointing out that a combination of beacon and spectrum-sensing technology had been proposed by Shure, one of the top wireless-mic manufacturers. The Broadway League -- which represents theater owners, producers and others -- shot back that the microphone-protection plan was a public-relations blitz intended to mask "fatal flaws" in proposals to use the white spaces for national voice- and data-transmission services.
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