The Federal Communications Commission picked the venues of the sports and theater tests for its unlicensed mobile devices.
According to the commission, the sports test will be Aug. 9 at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., outside of Washington, D.C., when the National Football League’s Washington Redskins host the Buffalo Bills.
The theater test will be on Broadway (as in New York) the week of Aug. 11, although which show was not specified.
The NFL offered the Redskins’ stadium as well as the Ravens’ stadium in nearby Baltimore for the testing. The FCC is doing field tests of the devices, having already conducted lab tests. While it already staked out most of the test venues, it did not announce the tests in a theater and sports setting until this week.
Various entertainment venues were offered up by industry, including music festivals, TV-show tapings and even the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
Theater and sports producers are concerned that the unlicensed devices will interfere with their wireless microphones. The FCC is considering how, and whether, to allow the devices -- like laptops and remote-sensing radios -- to share the TV-spectrum band with digital TV stations.
