The EVVC calls for the event industry including all its houses to be reimbursed for a total of 2-3 billion Euros due to the expenses incurred in connection with the Reallocation of radio frequencies (digital dividend). “Our houses, that are for the most part communally sustained and thus dependent on tax payments, are faced with huge subsequent costs,” predicts EVVC President Joachim König. To be able to continue offering the technology of wireless microphones after the reallocation of radio frequencies in convention centers, multipurpose halls, arenas and theaters and many other events facilities from the Adult Education Center to the Staff College it will become necessary to purchase entirely new equipment almost everywhere. The wireless microphones that are being used so far do not work on other frequencies.
The radio frequencies will be reassigned for different users as part of the so-called digital dividend, allegedly to be able to close “white spots” in broadband internet supply. This means that the telecommunications companies, as users and financially strong partners, will be the likely winners of this reallocation. The frequencies from 790 to 862 MHz that were available for television broadcasts and wireless microphone systems in the past, will therefore in future be available to the mobile industry, who as of yet have not developed market-ready technologies to actually use those frequencies.
For the modern industrial organization however, giving up the possibilities of wireless microphone systems is unthinkable. “It is hard to imagine that we will, in terms of sound equipment, fall back into the times of Vico Torriani or Peter Frankenfeld, where the use of the cable-based microphones was almost part of the stage choreography. The modern dramaturgy of political party conventions, with all its modern technological linkages of audio, video and lighting technology, will be thrown back into the fifties,” said EVVC President Joachim König.
To this day, it is completely unclear which alternative, interference-free frequencies for wireless microphone systems will in future be available. It is however certain that the currently used wireless technology in the event houses will be worthless because it is focused on the frequency band from 790 to 862 MHz. Since the reallocation, according to the Federal Network Agency, will take place from mid-2010, the chaos is inevitable due to the short time frame. At the moment no one can assess whether the newly-allocated frequencies for the event industry will mean a new development of equipment.
The EVVC therefore calls for a clear and unequivocal implementation of the Federal Council dated 12 June 2009 over a reasonable reimbursement thof the parties involved. This also means that all facilities, also after reaching the amortization period, are fully reimbursed, since these systems would have remained in use for several more years, knowing the financial situation of the municipalities. “If these costs are not fully reimbursed, it will once again be the taxpayer who will suffer,” said König. “No event house that wants to be competitive can afford go without wireless sound systems nowadays. Thus, these investments will inevitably burden municipal coffers. Once again a naive miscal-culation has been made, because, of course all proceeds of the reallocation have to held against he costs”, continued the König.
The EVVC therefore calls for the immediate notification of prospective radio frequencies available to the event industry. Only then can the sound and recording industry take action to develop new devices and calculate the costs. These in turn are the basis for the designation of capital investments and thus a reliable and reputable basis for the claims against the federal government. Only in this way - combined with an optimized time frame - can significant failures in the event business and cost transfers to the municipalities be avoided”.
