Doug Lung / 12.13.2012 04:43PM
FCC Launches National Unlicensed Wireless Mic Registration System
Last week the FCC released a Public
Notice (DA 12-1957) announcing the nationwide launch of its
unlicensed wireless microphone registration system.
For details on how the system works, see my article FCC's
Unlicensed Wireless Mic Registration Opens which describes the
limited opening of the system in the northeast United States.
As a reminder, unlicensed microphone registration is only
available for “major events where large numbers of wireless microphones will be
used and cannot be accommodated in the available channels.” Operators of
unlicensed wireless microphones must first file a request for registration and
establish that they have met the necessary requirements to qualify for
registration.
A list of websites for the TV bands database system is
available at http://www.fcc.gov/help/database-administrators-unlicensed-wireless-microphones.
In a separate Public
Notice (DA 12-1956 the FCC announced that it is authorizing an
approved TV white space database system to assist in using unlicensed radio
devices that operate on unused TV channels in the East Coast region. The FCC
anticipates authorizing nationwide operation of TV white space databases by
mid-January, 2013.
TV and radio broadcasters using licensed wireless
microphones should start entering their wireless microphone channel usage and
schedules in one of the TV white space databases to ensure protection from TV
band white space devices.