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back to article Anti-white-space lobby enlists God, Dolly Parton

As part of an ongoing effort to bar internet devices from the country's television white spaces, Goosoft-battling government lobbyists have rolled out two pillars of the American heartland: God and Dolly Parton. On Friday, mega-church leader Rick Warren fired a letter at FCC commissioner Kevin Martin, claiming that white space …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I say

    we get rid of TV and Radio.

    Antiquated little things. We are in the 21st century this is not the 1900s any more, we have this thing called the CPU. We don't need a centralised Orwellian style propaganda machine for extremists to peddle their warped views to the masses. Let the people make the entertainment, and the news, so far it is working out rather well, far more exciting and informative.

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  2. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Flame

    White space?

    I see the people complaining know all about white space.

    Indeed, one might say it takes a brain with a lot of white space to believe in the invisible sky daddy!

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  3. Jonathan

    Meh

    They can just switch to legal bluetooth-based mics. It's not as if there is no other option for these lawbreakers ;)

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  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Flame

    Who the hell is Dolly Parton??

    "If the FCC ignores the value provided by current users of white spaces, the potential direct negative impact on countless people may be immeasurable."

    An immeasurable potential direct negative impact on countless people? Triggered by ignoring value, no less?

    Where's Bruce Willis when you need him!

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  5. Richard Silver badge
    Stop

    @Meh

    Actually, they can't.

    Bluetooth has a maximum range of around 10m, and a latency you'll notice.

    Plus it sits in 2.4GHz like everybody and their dog - I've dropped several calls due to somebody driving past me also on their Bluetooth headset.

    EL Reg - You're wrong, it's not illegal.

    Wireless microphones in the US have been using TV "Whitespace" for a very long time - that includes TV stations and Broadway productions.

    The rules just meant that you had to be aware of other users - it didn't really matter, because a TV transmitter powerful enough for a TV to receive will almost always stomp on a microphone.

    Finally, according to http://www.shure.com/proaudio/products/us_pro_ea_dtv

    " the FCC has ruled that wireless microphones may continue to use all presently unoccupied TV channels until the end of the DTV transition"

    - It's not entirely clear what'll happen after the transition though.

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  6. Pavlovs well trained dog

    all justified

    Didn't ya know - all things are justified in the name of god...

    Illegal microphones, stoning, hanging gay-boys on a fence to die, interference in what other people do in their own bedrooms..

    Its all fair game to the rabid bible folk.

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  7. Doug Bird

    Let me see if I understand:

    They're protesting the legalizing of their devices, because, the illegality of their use makes them less susceptible to interference? I hope the FCC ignores their testimony, no matter what conclusion is ultimately drawn. The statements/testimony of the few who came forward might have technically had licenses, but in their argument that the use of wireless mics is very widespread (in their narrow type of venues) they never addressed that this is probably only because of illegal use.

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  8. Chris G

    I am the God of Hellfire

    And verily if thou shouldst invade the white space that is only mine I shall smite thee mightily and

    ffzzzz--wheeeewoooo zz zz what the fuck zzzbff is whhooop wizzth is fffkin mike?

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  9. Andy Worth

    Blocking out god??

    Everyone knows that prayers use a much higher bandwidth.....

    Anyway, if these microphones are already illegal then their complaint cannot really hold any water.

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  10. dreadful scathe
    Joke

    god and dolly parton

    of course they are doing the right thing by getting two heavyweights behind their campaign...and god too

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  11. Richard Large

    Before any smart-alec gets in with the Digital/Bluetooth/whatever mic...

    No digital microphone can encode, transmit, decode and output the sound fast enough to keep lipsync. Thats why they have to use analogue ones that are subject to interferance. If a piece of spectrum was put aside for their use (like in Blighty) I suspect people would quite happily use it.

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  12. Mike Street

    Good Reasons

    to allow the use of these frequencies then. I hope they do interfere with his microphones.

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  13. Paul

    @Ac

    "Let the people make the entertainment, and the news, so far it is working out rather well, far more exciting and informative."

    Are you sugesting we close TV stations at all start watching You Tube?

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  14. Mark

    re: Meh

    And the google devices notice if there's already noise from a different device on that channel and move to another one.

    So the pastor's mike will remain interference free.

    But, because the mikes are done on the QT they don't negotiate a LAN like space for their use and not interfere with each other. What if Dolly has a mic and a local church is using that too? They'd have to change without knowing what the other one is doing.

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  15. Mark

    @Paul

    Given the crap on telly (and how much it's been dumbed down, see old episodes of Equinox and deBono's thinking course), the AC isn't necessarily wrong. It's likely that YouTube just has crap on it, but at least it's crap we didn't have to pay for.

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  16. Colin Millar
    Pirate

    More freetards

    99% of the current usage could be done as wired installations - of course it would cost a bit more as they'd have to pay a proper sound engineer.

    Freetardianity sponsors the 12th commandment - never pay for something when you can leech off the rest of the world.

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  17. David Kesterson
    Happy

    Must be the British spelling

    Make that Grand Ole Opry, without the extra e. Glad to excuse you since, as a Brit, you probably never lay abed listening to clear channel 650 WSM radio to hear Ernest Tubb and Loretta Lynn sing.

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  18. breakfast Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Digital microphones not so great for singers.

    It's hard enough trying to find a singer who can sing in time, without adding a microphone that then delays their vocal the whole time. Digital wireless microphones that behave like similar wireless devices I've used would be absolutely useless for musicians.

    I'm guessing this would also affect wireless in-ear monitors, which are a actually pretty great for musicians who want to be able to hear what they are playing without risking feedback or requiring hazardously loud stage monitoring.

    I don't really care about the godbotherers and whathaveyou, but I think they'll need to do something to facilitate the use of radio for live musicians, especially at really big shows.

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  19. Elmer Phud

    White Noise

    Anyone who wants to use public bandwidth should go right ahead.

    It can be a right pain , though, 'cos it's public -- meaning anyone can chuck out any old crap in to it.

    I've had experience with wireless lighting controls using public space to transmit. There is no guarantee that the lights will do what you want and have a habit of flickering on and off or just going full on and staying there. Even had the whole lot go off when a quad bike was started up nearby. All because it was a cheap way of getting rid of wires.

    There's an obvious need for more and more wireless stuff, it just need sharing out a bit better. In the meantime, I can expect an increase of drive-by preaching where the preacher's mic gets hijacked.

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  20. Alistair
    Gates Horns

    Dolly Partons

    There is a better illustration of why trying to cram digital networks into the guard bands between broadcast transmissions is a very very bad thing.

    Consider Ms Parton. Fabulous, yes? Now, consider Ms Parton with a miniature Bill Gates stuck in there, grinning at you. Not very nice, no?

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  21. Mike Moyle
    Coat

    "A Divine Right"

    ...And her Left one isn't bad either!

    http://www.instantrimshot.com/

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  22. Jacob Lipman

    Hundreds of millions?

    So, hundreds of millions of worshippers will be put out...

    http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/08s0076.pdf

    If the U.S. Census is moderately accurate, then there were only 133.37M Christians in the US as of the year 200. Despite the poor security at the southern border, I find it difficult to believe that the Christian population has increased by 67M in 8 years. Hell, even if there were 200-300M Christians in the U.S., I find it hard to believe that *most* of them attend megachurches which require wireless microphones.

    Fail.

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