n4voxgill
Silent Key
They do not like to be called radio cops. They insist on frequency coordinators. But on rare occasions at National Football League games, the NFL’s Game Day Frequency Coordinators have to get a bit insistent.
And 45 of them will be suiting up for Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., to organize the use of some 10,000 wireless devices. The NFL launched its frequency coordination effort in 1996 at Super Bowl XXX in Phoenix.
The initial goal was simple: organize the use of limited radio frequencies at the Super Bowl. Three years later, the program expanded to all NFL games, so that the ever-growing crowd of wireless users, from quarterbacks to cleaners, can use an ever-growing number of wireless devices without interfering with each other.
Sometimes things get testy.
Wireless users, such as TV crews, are required to coordinate with the NFL before the game, to get a frequency assignment. At the NFC Championship game Jan. 20, between the Green Bay Packers and the winning New York Giants, the GDCs monitoring the frequencies found an uncoordinated TV news crew, called a CoordNot. To link a wireless microphone to the camera, the crew was using a channel assigned to another wireless user. This crew was a repeat offender, says Jay Gerber, manager and founder of the NFL Frequency Organization Group. He wouldn’t identify their employer.
Continued
And 45 of them will be suiting up for Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., to organize the use of some 10,000 wireless devices. The NFL launched its frequency coordination effort in 1996 at Super Bowl XXX in Phoenix.
The initial goal was simple: organize the use of limited radio frequencies at the Super Bowl. Three years later, the program expanded to all NFL games, so that the ever-growing crowd of wireless users, from quarterbacks to cleaners, can use an ever-growing number of wireless devices without interfering with each other.
Sometimes things get testy.
Wireless users, such as TV crews, are required to coordinate with the NFL before the game, to get a frequency assignment. At the NFC Championship game Jan. 20, between the Green Bay Packers and the winning New York Giants, the GDCs monitoring the frequencies found an uncoordinated TV news crew, called a CoordNot. To link a wireless microphone to the camera, the crew was using a channel assigned to another wireless user. This crew was a repeat offender, says Jay Gerber, manager and founder of the NFL Frequency Organization Group. He wouldn’t identify their employer.
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). I'm not sure if he's going out to Glendale, but he certainly does very cool stuff. It's a lot different being a coordinator at a real-time event than just trying to coordinate the next user on a public safety frequency.
