Spectrum Bridge’s White Spaces Database is Helping Make North Carolina Safer, Greener

Spectrum Bridge and the City of Wilmington, North Carolina just added another technology “first” to their lists.

Today, we joined together in a public-private partnership with the County of New Hanover and TV Band Service to announce the launch of the nation’s first “Smart City” services powered by TV white spaces. Spectrum Bridge’s white spaces database and software are at the heart of this network, controlling and managing the frequencies accessed by the various applications.

You may recall that Wilmington was the test bed for the national digital TV transition, which freed up white spaces for use, and Spectrum Bridge deployed the white spaces database-driven network employing those frequencies for the first time last October.

Spectrum Bridge’s database and software are now helping white spaces power traffic monitoring on one of Wilmington's busiest thoroughfares, Martin Luther King Parkway. Traffic cameras are currently providing much needed safety for many cities throughout the US. In Wilmington, white spaces are delivering wireless traffic safety for daily commuters (and in the event of a hurricane evacuation) in a very green way: Laying fiber in this environmentally protected area would have been cost-prohibitive.

Meanwhile, across town, this white spaces test network is providing environmental monitoring, with real time wireless reporting and measurements of water levels. Previously this was a manual process, where employees had to drive to the locations and wade into the water to access level readings. Costs to perform this task made this a monthly effort. The white spaces test network will save the local government (and taxpayers) money in data collection, and provide for faster identification and mitigation of problems.

In addition, visitors of the County’s Hugh MacRae Park are now enjoying WiFi access -- and the peace of mind that comes with security monitoring of playgrounds and ball fields – all thanks to white spaces. You can read more about this success story here.

On hand to celebrate the event today were North Carolina’s Lt. Governor Walter Dalton, New Hanover County Chairman Jason Thompson, and Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo – as well as a large group of Mayors from all over the state of North Carolina.

Rick Rotondo, Spectrum Bridge co-founder and CMO extended our thanks to the many forward-thinking partners who brought this test network to fruition at today's event. “We are proud to have provided the technology and know-how for these visionary public and private business leaders to turn their ideas into tangible benefits,” he told the crowd of 130 gathered at Screen Gems Studios. “They know the white spaces opportunity is unique in that it lets them be cost-effective and environmentally conscious while delivering new services to the community.”

Additional services for this test network already in the planning process include the remote monitoring of at risk patients at home (which will result in speedier delivery of care and fewer emergency room visits) and for utilities equipment monitoring to provide energy reduction and cost savings.

I was privileged to be on site for Spectrum Bridge's white spaces trial network launches in Claudville and Wilmington, and have seen the impact they are already having on these communities first hand.

Wilmington is far more urban than Claudville, but the benefits of white spaces for both communities (while different) cannot be overstated. And the appreciation and sense of partnership in both communities has been inspiring.

For us at Spectrum Bridge, white spaces represent more than just being “first”, or a great vehicle for demonstrating our database driven spectrum allocation technology.

White spaces have enabled us to deploy test networks that are already helping to bridge the digital divide and bring much needed services to some terrific people in two beautiful communities.

And that feels pretty good.

- Beverly Lambright

ShowMyWhiteSpace.com Database and Shape Files Updated

ShowMyWhiteSpace.com continues to receive steady traffic. The web site provides tools and resources that make TV white space easy for everyone to find and understand. TV white space channels are the unused and unassigned TV channels left over after the digital TV transition on June 12th 2009. The FCC will allow these unused TV channels to be used by part 15 (unlicensed) wireless devices, like cordless phones, WiFi like access points, etc. However, the number and frequencies of these channels vary substantially by location.

A few days before the digital TV transition on June 12th, Spectrum Bridge updated the database used by our white space search tool with the latest FCC TV broadcast license file. Fresh shape files (used to determine in-use TV channel exclusion zones) were also generated using this updated database. These changes deliver search results that more accurately reflect the available white space channel map resulting from the June 12th DTV transition.

To find the TV white space channels anywhere in the country, please visit http://www.showmywhitespace.com/

What Channels Within White Space are Actually Available?

Spectrum Bridge has launched a Web site called ShowMyWhiteSpace.com that offers an easy online tool to find open TV channels available at any location in the U.S. Now there is a place to figure out what parts of "white space" are really accessible in a given location.

“We have seen tremendous excitement about the opportunity that this vast swath of free, unlicensed spectrum opened up for new and innovative services.” said Peter Stanforth CTO and cofounder of Spectrum Bridge. “We want to make it as straightforward as possible for people to ‘show my white space’, while also helping them understand how they could benefit from white space-based solutions.”

It was a common misconception that all channels left open by the TV Stations from their transistion to digital could actually be used be future white space devices -this is not the case. Because the number of broadcast TV stations varies throughout the country, the amount and frequencies of available white space channels can differ significantly at any given location.

When Spectrum Bridge put some of our spectrum mapping technology to work along with the new white space rules set forth by the FCC, we found some areas (especially metro) where even after the digital switch is complete in June there will not be any whitespace available. If white space IS available, the FCC rules are basically saying it is up to the communications industry to figure out how not to interfere with each other. When deciphered, the few rules the FCC suggested are illustrated in the pictured graphic.

The site allows wireless microphone users to pre-register their information with Spectrum Bridge, who will ensure its secure delivery to a white space database manager, once these entities have been designated by the FCC.

Since ShowMyWhiteSpace.com is actually the first site where someone can look up a specific address and find out if white space devices are an option, as well as pre-registering devices such as microphones, the response so far has been tremendous.