As Ofcom prepares to sell access to the radio spectrum to the highest bidder, Alan March reveals the progress of the campaign to save the spectrum for the arts and entertainment community.
There can be little doubt that wireless microphones, in-ear monitor systems and talkback systems have become absolutely fundamental to modern day theatre production. Over the past ten years systems have become more reliable, easier to use and cheaper to buy. However, as a result of Government policy, access to the electromagnetic spectrum which all of these devices utilise, may become severely restricted. This is why BEIRG (the British Entertainment Radio Group) and latterly the PMSE (Program Making and Special Events) Pro User Group have been so pro-active, attempting to highlight to Ofcom the unintended consequences of their plans to move from a command and control model to a more market-led approach. In Ofcoms eyes one of the mechanisms for achieving this would be a series of auctions for spectrum. The entertainment industry, which the PMSE Pro User Group represents, has a real problem with this as the community is so fragmented and diffuse that organising a coherent joint bid for spectrum would be impossible.
Ofcoms 150-page consultation document entitled The Digital Dividend Review (DDR) was released in December last year. This document finally laid out Ofcoms plans in black and white. Although some of the needs of the PMSE community not just theatre but also broadcast, live music, conferencing etc had been recognised, it was clear that Ofcom still believed that the industry could somehow form a consortium to bid for spectrum. The PMSE Pro User Groups response to the DDR made it clear that the industry would not accept an auction process.
A lot of political activity relating to this problem has since taken place. Early Day Motion 531 was launched, highlighting the potential threat to the industry or more accurately, group of industries that Ofcoms plans could result in. As I write EDM531 currently has 190 MPs signatures. This, along with numerous questions in Parliament, an adjournment debate secured by Peter Luff MP and lots of Parliamentary murmurings have resulted in Ofcom announcing a sub-consultation or as they prefer, a discussion document, specifically on the PMSE issue. The document is due out in May but, I suspect, would never have been offered without all of the above activities.
So, currently we are in a kind of limbo. Ofcom has been contacted with regard to the PMSE group offering input to its discussion document, but with over 750 responses to the DDR to wade through, I suspect they feel they have enough information to be going on with! I dont envy Ofcom its task. In the meantime meetings are scheduled with Shaun Woodward at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and there are presentations planned with the All Party Parliamentary Groups for Music, Theatre, Choir, Film, Jazz and Folk. What Ofcom must recognise is that unlike all the companies queuing up to launch new services, we are already here, utilising spectrum to make first-class content 24/7 365 days a year. We have Grandfather rights, and need to be accommodated in this brave new liberalised, spectrum-efficient world.
Alan March is a spokesperson for Beirg, the independent and non-profit-making trade association for all those who use radio spectrum in the entertainment industry. w: http://www.beirg.org.uk