From Clearcom
What is EN 300 328 v1.8.1?
A new ETSI standard to address interference issues within the 2.4GHz ISM band.
The main changes relate to how devices communicate and allocate radio space when they are in the same area. A new "adaptive mode" is required, which provides a mechanism so equipment can adapt to its environment by identifying other transmissions present in the 2.4GHz band.
So, once kit starts to become compliant, how will it affect the performance of, say, the DX210 in congested Wi-Fi environments?
Will W-DMX finally play nicely with everything else?
Difficult question to answer with anything approaching certainty. If you're willing to wait 10-15 years until the vast majority of current equipment has been replaced with newer, more spectrally efficient versions, then you will likely see a slower degradation of performance as the spectrum simply becomes more and more congested.
The updated ETSI standard primarily addresses out of band and adjacent channel emission reductions by implementing more stringent spectral masks along with permissible power levels. This should result in less noisy adjacent channels and more channel reuse based on physical separation.
However, a co-channel user will always be a potential source if interference if close enough, and the 2.4GHz band will only become more and more congested over the years. If wireless coms are critical to your production, 2.4GHz products, even FHSS, are likely not your best choice given the increasingly widespread and dense WiFi deployments in most public venues.