New York city is one of the most challenging environments for wireless microphones, IEMs, and production communications. The densely packed TV band and close proximity of venues of all kinds can lead to a chaotic operating environment for even the most experienced engineers. And of course, the T-Mobile deployment and testing of 600 MHz range radios for mobile phones isn't making life any easier.
This week we have an RF Venue WaveTower remote RF spectrum monitoring system deployed at a NYC Fashion week event (pictured above). These handy devices allow you to remotely monitor and manage RF conditions from anywhere, right in your web browser. This particular Tower has been set to "public" view so if you haven't signed up for a free WaveTower account yet, you can drop in for a live look at the spectrum scene here. There are also more Public Towers and static scan uploads coming online everyday. The 24 hour max hold view at this particular location in the Tribeca neighborhood in NYC is looking pretty busy:
Understanding and managing RF conditions is all about planning and preparation. While a six month old RF scan or a DTV database might help to give you a rough idea of static transmitters in the area, there is no substitute for current or near term data on the ground.
Since this Tower is scanning on a continuous basis, we can easily jump back in time and look at peak activity periods, export the scan data, and feed that into a frequency coordination and band plan.
In a series of posts, we'll be going through some best practices for coordinating wireless frequencies and configuring your antennas and RF signal distribution systems to maximize chances of success- even if you're not doing large channel counts in NYC.
(And if you're looking to brush up on some essentials be sure to check out our free white paper at the link below)