POMPTON PLAINS, N.J.—As the repack continues to move along, Zaxcom reports that the process will shrink the portion of the 614-698 MHz band that is available for wireless microphones. The company says it has addressed this, announcing that up to 226 channels of wireless will be available post-repack in the 598-698 MHZ UHF TV band as a result of its Zaxcom High Density modulation technology.
According to Zaxcom, after the 10 phase transition period of the repack ends in July 2020, 2 MHz in the guard band (614-616 MHz) and 10 MHz in the duplex gap (653-663 MHz) will be available for wireless channels. The 596-608 MHz band will be completed unaffected, however.
Current Zaxcom operators will be able to continue to operate within the 600 MHz UHF TV band by using Zaxcom Digital Recording Wireless. Also, Zaxcom Digital Recording Wireless is equipped with ZHD to increase the number of channels available in the UHF TV band. This allows the five different modulation modes (stereo, mono, XR, ZHD96 and ZHD48) to provide users with additional channels in a MHz range.
Zaxcom says that all Digital Recording Wireless are fully licensed by the FCC and will continue to operate after the repack. Also, Zaxcom devices are Software Defined Radio architecture, enabling Zaxcom to meet MHz band and power requirements through software updates.
For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.
