Inaugral meeting of DTG’s PMSE Group elects Chair
October 25, 2016
The DTG hosted the inaugural meeting of the Implementation Group for Future PMSE Audio last month. Attended by DTG Members including BBC, Ofcom, Sky and Sony the meeting reflected a broad range of opinion and Mark Waddell, Lead R&D Engineer at the BBC was unanimously elected as Chair of the Group.
Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) Audio Applications will lose the potential to access approximately 100MHz of spectrum on a secondary basis when 700MHz clearance happens. The full impact of 700MHz clearance will not be known until the UK’s detailed plans for DTT in the remaining UHF band are made available.
The objective of the DTG’s PMSE Group is to oversee, coordinate and inform this transition, ensuring that it minimises disruption to PMSE users, service providers and manufacturers. As the spectrum regulator Ofcom recognises this DTG industry group as an important stakeholder body and has agreed to actively participate in group meetings.
Richard Lindsay-Davies, CEO of The DTG commented: “This is an important issue and it was great to have so many stakeholders discuss how to tackle it in a relaxed, open and neutral setting. Our aim is to ensure attendees are fully informed about the key background issues and have an opportunity to discuss which actions, decisions and milestones are required to enable a roadmap to be built and maintained for the PMSE community.”
Alex Buchan, Head of Wireless Technologies at the DTG said: “In addition to debating 960-1164MHz we wanted to explore the development of a DTG work-stream to support the PMSE community through these and future changes. Our aim is to ensure PMSE is front of mind on future spectrum allocation debates and to form an independent coordinated message from all areas of the PMSE sector that can be clearly delivered to regulators and government.”
Mark Waddell, the Chair of the Group added: “I am delighted to be elected to chair this new DTG Group which aims to help address the challenges facing PMSE users in the next few years. Important decisions are required to protect the interests of programme makers and the creative industries who rely on UHF spectrum for their operations. This new Group provides an opportunity to develop a collective understanding of the problems and make appropriate plans to protect PMSE stakeholder interests to ensure that the UK retains a successful and vibrant creative industry.”