http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0002/can-broadcasters-meet-repack-deadline/282687
Can Broadcasters Meet Repack Deadline?
Vendors are prepared, debates over costs continue
February 6, 2018
By James O'Neal
ALEXANDRIA, VA.-The FCC's "green flag" has been dropped and the great repack
race officially underway. Although odds-makers haven't put a big spotlight on
this event, there's a lot at stake, with some broadcasters facing the prospect
of taking their stations dark if there's even a small amount of trouble on the
track and they don't make the July 2020 "game over" date.
Close to 1,000 U.S. television stations will have some minor-in order for new
owners of the broadcast spectrum being vacated to start their wireless network
buildouts.
When the FCC first announced the initial timeline, many broadcasters and other
industry figures decried it at as woefully inadequate for a project of this
magnitude, and one fraught with so many uncertainties. However, the commission
continues to hang tough, stating categorically that "after 39 months, no
station will be permitted to operate on its pre-auction channel."
So, what are the various players saying at this point in the great race: will
it happen, or not?
Stephen Lockwood, senior engineer at Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers, is
optimistic.
"I really think we have a decent chance of meeting the deadline," he said.
"While the FCC may be granting STAs to some stations, I don't believe that
things are going to be as bad as some people have made out."
UP TO THE CHALLENGE
While not everyone shares Lockwood's optimism, those involved in the supply
side of the equation (antennas, transmission line, transmitters and associated
RF components needed for transitioning stations to new berths) appear ready for
"crunch time."
Bill Harland, vice president of marketing for Electronics Research Inc. (ERI),
a Chandler, Ind.-based provider of antennas and installation crews, reports a
high state of readiness.
"We started expanding our business as part of the T-Mobile agreement that we
announced the year before last," said Harland. "We'd already expanded our
facility substantially, and we've hired additional people and trained them, and
increased our inventory to handle the anticipated demand. We're full speed
ahead on meeting the timetable and well prepared to handle any sort of a flood
of orders."
Dielectric, another major supplier of antennas and RF components, has also
prepared for "land rush" business.
"We've added people and product," said Jay Martin, vice president of sales for
the Raymond, Maine-based company. "We've been gearing up for this for a couple
of years now and have opened a second [manufacturing] facility. While some
groups have placed orders for all 10 phases, other groups are taking it by
phase, and we're trying to maintain incremental capacity for those people who
wait until the last minute, because we know there will be those people."
Transmitters shouldn't be a problem either. Richard Fiore, president and chief
executive officer at Southwick, Mass.-based Hitachi-Comark, says his company is
prepared to handle requests from stations that have done their homework, as
well as those who procrastinate.
"Our company has made significant investments in technology, inventory, and
human resources in anticipation of the repack," said Fiore. "We have
reorganized our entire production facility for the manufacturing and testing of
the Parallax solid-state transmitter product line and have over 700 Parallax
solid-state 2kW power amplifiers in stock, with more on the way for UHF
systems, plus hundreds of VHF amplifiers."
Rohde & Schwarz, another supplier of transmitters, is also prepped and ready.
"Due to the significance and timing parameters of the repack, our broadcast and
media division has been treating this event with the highest prioritization,"
said Erik Balladares, vice president of Rohde & Schwarz North America. "With
the full support of our global organization, we are able to fulfill the
increased demand and number of orders, and with an expanded support team across
North America and an exclusive partner and numerous contractors, we are able to
provide an allencompassing installation service on the highest level."
GatesAir also reports a high state of readiness.
"Our company is very focused on making sure we deliver to our customers in a
timely fashion," said Rich Redmond, chief product officer for the Quincy,
Ill.-based company. "We've been continually hiring people in the factory. We've
been working to ensure that our test processes are both thorough and efficient,
looking at how you line up all your suppliers and the supply chain to make sure
they can deliver in a prompt manner. We made sure we had multiple sources for
such things as cables, certain metals, machine work and we've also been
developing products to simplify installations."
BROADCASTERS SPEAK OUT
TV stations have more at stake than anyone else, and-at least at this point in
the repack process-optimism about the outcome is prevalent also, but perhaps a
bit more guardedly.
"I feel confident that our stations are in a position to meet our deadlines,"
said Brady Dreasler, director of television engineering at Quincy Media. "But
the wild card in all this is the weather, especially for the northern latitude
stations. We don't have a year to work on things. We have, for some of our
stations, a window of four to five-and-a-half months to get things done and if
the weather doesn't cooperate during the summertime that could be a major
problem."
Harvey Arnold, vice president of engineering at the Sinclair Broadcast Group,
is equally upbeat.
"We would like to be optimistic about the repack schedule being met," he said.
"If we get cooperation between broadcast community, the FCC, the equipment
manufacturers and the tower guys-and no bad weather or accidents-we just may do
it. We might fall short in some markets, but we're going to try. I'm really
optimistic. We're going into it with positive thinking."
THE COST
Aside from the weather, virtually everyone polled cited another issue that
could muddy the track-problems with FCC reimbursement to stations. There are
actually two concerns: a shortfall in funds earmarked for reimbursement and,
directly related to the this, hesitancy by the FCC-at least initially-in fully
meeting station reimbursement requests.
From the get-go, many broadcasters and legislators viewed the original
Congressional repack funding allocation of $1.75 billion as inadequate and the
figure has increasingly been denounced as "unrealistic." Citing an anticipated
funding gap in excess of $250 million, last July, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr.
(D-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, introduced the
Viewer Protection Act, with the goal of adding another $ 1 billion to boost the
funding level to $2.75 billion. Last month, Pallone was joined by the chairman
of that committee, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), in pushing for an even bigger
repack kitty-$3 billion. (Walden's recommendation for this largesse was
seconded by NAB CTO Sam Matheny during January Congressional testimony in the
aftermath of the EAS Hawaiian missile alert scare.)
The potential shortage of funds has prompted the FCC to initially offer only
partial reimbursement to stations wanting to order equipment and services. Bill
Meintel, a partner with Meintel, Sgrignoli, & Wallace, feels this could offset
efforts to keep the repack's various phases on track. "It looks like there's
probably not enough money to fully reimburse stations at the moment, and the
Commission is going to have to go to the Hill and get more money," he said.
"Whether they get any is another matter. There are stations out there that
don't have the money to repack unless they get fully reimbursed. That could
really slow things down."
The NAB's Executive Vice President of Communications, Dennis Wharton, also
acknowledges that timely reimbursement is a critical factor.
"NAB is devoting enormous resources educating Congress and the FCC on the
repack funding shortage," said Wharton. "Our top priority remains ensuring that
all TV and radio stations are fully reimbursed for repack expenditures and we
are cautiously optimistic that we will succeed. Fortunately, there is
bipartisan support in both the House and Senate for a budget fix and NAB won't
rest until this issue is resolved in a manner that sustains a vibrant U.S.
broadcasting system."
------Sidebar------------------
Channel Change Challenges
According to information on https://rabbitears.info, after the repack dust ;
settles, some 39 stations will be operating on Channel 14, probably the least
favorite UHF allocation due to potential adjacent-frequency land mobile radio
interference issues. About two dozen of these are newcomers to the 470-476 MHz
frequency slot, and with the potential for interference to established
services, shoehorning in additional players is not often easy.
One station drawing the Ch. 14 card was Washington, D.C.'s WETA-TV. Station
officials turned to the Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace engineering firm to
determine if the mandated move was feasible. According to Dennis Wallace, it
was-provided that something could be done about the projected interference
cases involving some 1,206 of the 2,136 land mobile licenses located within 100
km of the proposed WETA facility.
"It was very clear to us that this would be a very costly facility to
implement, particularly with regard to mitigation of interference to land
mobile facilities," said Wallace. "Given the very short 39-month repacking
process, it would be difficult to resolve all of those potential interference
issues."
A better solution involved petitioning for a change to Channel 31; however,
this required four other stations to shift channels and/or operating power
levels, as well as installation of better mask filtration at one of these.
Channel 14 issues aren't quite as severe in the western part of the United
States as they are in the east, due to the "wide open spaces" there, according
to Hatfield & Dawson's Stephen Lockwood.
"There are some Channel 14 reassignments out here in the northwest, but these
are tame compared to what's happening in the eastern part of the country," he
said. "Most of the Channel 14 issues we've seen have been resolved fairly
easily, although a few have required changes to multiple stations.
Other repack issues of a different sort haven't been so easy, according to
Lockwood. "We have had to resolve a couple of situations where disparate
partners have entered into channel sharing," he said. "For example, you might
have two stations sharing a channel, whose target audiences have different
geographic distributions. Situations such as this can be a bit challenging when
designing a facility modification, because the needs of both parties have to be
taken into account."
James O'Neal
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