Nashville (October 22, 2008)–The Producers & Engineers Wing of The Recording Academy and Shure Inc. are each urgetly working to garner last-minute support from the industry regarding pending White Spaces legislation. With an upcoming vote on November 4, the FCC will stop accepting any documents related to the issue as of next Monday, October 27.
In order to underline the industry’s widespread concern, Shure has issued a letter (below) to performers, agents, retailers, installers, SR providers, and more in an effort to make a final, loud statement from the industry and the public. Likewise, Maureen Droney, Sr. Executive Director/Producers & Engineers Wing, is spearheading the Recording Academy’s actions, reaching out around he industry in an effort to obtain as many “high profile” artists, music producers, live music sound companies and engineers as possible to add their names to a letter from The Recording Academy to the FCC.
Shure’s letter notes:
Friends and colleagues,
We as artists, performers, technicians, rental companies, managers, agents, and audiences NEED to address the ‘white spaces’ issue immediately. We are in the 11th hour before the U.S. Congress votes and potentially destroys the way we do business. The vote will conveniently take place on November 4th. Do you think anyone will be paying any attention to the white space issue that day? Monday, October 27 is the deadline for lobbying on the issue. You need to take action in the next few days. Please see attached document to become more familiar with this issue and find out who to contact to make a difference. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
THIS AFFECTS YOU!
As a live performer, agent, manager, technician – your current wireless in-ear, vocal, and instrument systems will be rendered useless. Costing you thousands of dollars. Collectively millions of dollars industry wide. Not to mention your ability to deliver an entertaining show to audiences will be seriously sacrificed resulting in potentially lower ticket sales. Many are already experiencing less than stellar ticket sales in this economy.As a retailer – Millions of dollars will be lost on the lack of sales of wireless systems. Current inventories containing wireless technology will also be rendered useless costing your business millions more.
As an installer/rental company – Millions of dollars on current inventories of wireless systems will be rendered useless. The ability to satisy the needs of your customers and clients will be seriously sacrificed potentialy causing a loss of revenue.
As an audience – the way we experience live performances from the Super Bowl and the Grammys to the person behind the pulpit of your church will be affected. A recent test of proposed white space devices resulted in the interruption of a wireless microphone from 10 rows back at the Phantom of the Opera theater in New York City.
We need your celebrity to make a difference. If you are an artist or artist manager, please contact Ryan Smith at Shure Artist Relations. They have representatives to help craft statements from you that will be most effective. All statements should be submitted to Ryan to ensure that your concerns will be communicated directly to the FCC commissioners.
Ryan Smith:
- Office: (615) 256-2609
- email: smith_ryan AT shureDOTCOM (email altered to avoid spam; use traditional email address style)
Similarly, The Recording Academy and Droney are looking to show high-profile support for the cause, as evidenced by this excerpt from The Producers & Engineers Wing’s letter:
The letter will come from The Recording Academy (NARAS) as a non-partisan organization representing diverse factions of the live music industry. It is key to this letter to obtain as many HIGH PROFILE (our goal is 100) artists, music producers, live music sound companies and engineers as possible to add their names to it. To that end we are reaching out to many in the industry to contribute. We are hoping that your company has some high profile clients or endorsers whose names would be recognizable to legislators and who are willing to add their names to the letter. As you know, this is EXTREMELY URGENT and time sensitive because the FCC will stop accepting any documents related to this as of next Monday, October 27th.
- Office: (310) 392-3777
- email: P&Ewing AT grammyDOTCOM (email altered to avoid spam; use traditional email address style)
The result of the FCC’s upcoming November 4 vote on the matter will likely determine whether the so-called “white spaces” between television signals can be used for wireless internet devices proposed by the likes of Dell, Google, Microsoft and others. Tests by the FCC conducted for the legislation showed that the prototypes didn’t work correctly, but the FCC issued a report based on its findings last week that portrayed the tests as an acceptable “proof of concept.” As a result, according to the National Association of Broadcasters and numerous pro audio entities, television signals and wireless microphone useage are both at serious risk if the vote rubber stamps the report’s reputed “proof” and allows the white space device concept to proceed as it is currently envisioned.
