The FCC has waived the identification requirement for digital video transmissions for one year. The change concerns Section 25.281(b) of the agency’s rules.
The commission says in a notice “In light of information concerning the equipment available to meet these requirements, this temporary waiver will allow additional time to update the record on the anticipated costs of compliance and to determine whether any additional relief is warranted.” The waiver extends the deadline to Sept. 3, 2017. The change affects those responsible for satellite news gathering (SNG) uplinks. The rules had stated:
“As of June 1, 2016, transmissions of fixed-frequency, digitally modulated video signals with a symbol rate of 128,000/s or more from Satellite News Gathering vehicles or other temporary-fixed earth stations must be identified through use of an ATIS…”. ATIS stands for Automatic Transmitter Identification System. This is also known as Carrier Identification (CID). Broadcasters had expressed concerns about the cost and availability of equipment to provide this for older SNG vehicles.
Read the order on the SBE website at: www.sbe.org/
