Rick Warren Sounds Off on White Space Debate

alansmithee »

Sat Nov 01, 2008 11:05 am Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

@believer: Hopefully you won't have to think about this at all, because the technical staff will have chosen appropriate channels. They already have to do this today, but under the new rules they may have to pay a bit more attention when choosing. You'll still have to figure out how to turn the mic on of course. ;)

Rick Warren Sounds Off on White Space Debate

alansmithee »

Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:01 pm Agree: 2   Disagree: 0

@believer: To begin with, several channels have been proposed for continued use by existing microphones. In addition, the current proposal includes the ability of microphone users to submit the frequencies they wish to use out of the whole set of bands, which would cause the proposed white space devices to avoid using the channel altogether (obviating the need to sense at all). This combined approach seems to be a good middle of the road approach which would allow existing microphone users to transition from their current technology to something that uses the same next-generation standards as the white space devices themselves. The biggest problem in this debate is inadequate understanding of these genuine technical concerns (and proposed solutions).

Rick Warren Sounds Off on White Space Debate

alansmithee »

Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:03 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

@crc: you are incorrect, no such exemption exists (although advocates of unlicensed use of white spaces have proposed creating a safe harbor for microphones)
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080618-white-space-group-amnesty-for-illegal-wireless-mic-use.html

@believer: We are stewards of a shared creation, which includes the spectrum used to communicate. The currently used microphones are decades-old technology that is profoundly wasteful. One example of a general statement of Christian stewardship is here:
http://www.crcna.org/pages/stewardship.cfm

Rick Warren Sounds Off on White Space Debate

alansmithee »

Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:49 am Agree: 0   Disagree: 1

You failed to mention that these churches are operating their microphones illegally, and are now brazenly asking the FCC to protect this illegal use rather than trying to find a way to work within the law to solve the issue. Indeed, the law of the country aside, churches' current use of this spectrum is tremendously spectrally inefficient, a violation of the higher call to good stewardship.

Legal details better covered here: http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=16311