IET changes wireless microphones to satisfy new FCC rule

Starting June 12, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission is banning the use of all wireless microphones that operate in the 700 MHz band. At UC Davis, the Academic Technology Services department of Information and Educational Technology (IET-ATS) will be replacing the wireless microphone systems in the general assignment classrooms.

Anyone who provides or uses wireless microphones should check their equipment's frequency against the FCC list, to see if it operates outside the legislated bandwidth. The A/V Engineering Group in IET-ATS is glad to help departments that have questions about this change; please contact them at (530) 752-2133 or ats@ucdavis.edu.

The FCC announced the new bandwidth in January. The 700 MHz band is now reserved for public safety agencies and companies that sell wireless services, such as wireless broadband. Signals from the wireless mics can interfere with those services.

Broadcasters used the 700 MHz band to transmit television signals until the industry converted to digital signals in June 2009. The wireless microphones employed frequencies that fell in between the ones used by the TV stations.

Read more about the new FCC bandwidth assignments here.