US Cable wins. There is a big Cable trade show this week, Divi/Cube isn't there. I won't expect a US cable announcement until June 13th. NCTA Cable '99 Starts June 13th..................
multichannel.com
SCTE to Draw 9,000 to Expo
By BILL MENEZES May 24, 1999
Top corporate and technology players share their visions of cable's future at this week's Cable-Tec Expo, highlighting the biggest annual broadband event with an agenda focused on new, advanced services.
While this edition of the technical conference and exposition comes during the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers' 30th anniversary, participants will focus on broadband's emerging technology issues and equipment as much as on the sponsor organization's storied past.
Attendance is expected to reach 9,000 or more at the gathering, which begins with preconference sessions today (May 24) at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., wrapping up Friday (May 28) with the final day of three days of SCTE certification testing, plus the event's annual golf tournament.
In between, the technical cable staffers who are the show's focus will also have the chance to view and learn about cutting-edge technology as more than 400 exhibiting vendors display or introduce new gear and services.
"When we cut the exhibition-floor ribbon at 2 p.m. Tuesday, it may look like the Oklahoma land rush," said SCTE president John Clark, who is overseeing his first Cable-Tec Expo since succeeding William Riker last June as head of the industry's training, certification and standards-setting organization.
"Interest in technology is at an all-time high in our business," Clark said. "There's a lot of membership anticipation about being able to see, touch and feel the new hardware."
Anticipating that interest, exhibiting vendors have increased the size of the sold-out exhibition floor by 15 percent from last year, showing the gear that attending engineers and technicians -- who will actually deploy it -- want a first-hand glimpse of: hybrid fiber-coaxial network components; headends; Internet-protocol telephony infrastructure; set-top boxes and related applications; and standards-based cable modems.
Also reflecting the demand to learn about and see new technology and advanced service platforms are the week's preconference briefings and the technical workshops held during the show.
This year's topics include some of the hottest issues facing cable's tech population: the migration to Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification-based cable modems and what it will mean to field engineers and consumers; network upgrades for advanced services; the status and profile of the industry's OpenCable equipment-compatibility initiative; cable telephony; dense-wave-division-multiplexing deployment; and digital-video deployment.
"These workshops were not in existence three to five years ago," Clark said.
A highlight of the week could be Tuesday's official opening of the Expo, which will include a ceremony honoring SCTE charter members of 30 years ago.
That will precede the keynote discussions kicking off Tuesday's Engineering Conference by major MSO executives and chief engineers who are all with companies that have been either predator or prey in major mergers and acquisitions in recent weeks.
Discussing their vision of broadband's business future will be: James Robbins, CEO of Cox Communications Inc.; Jan Peters, CEO of MediaOne Group Inc.; Stephen Burke, president of Comcast Corp.; Barry Babcock, vice chairman of Charter Communications; and Bill Fitzgerald, chief operating officer of AT&T Broadband & Internet Services (formerly Tele-Communications Inc.).
After them, chief technology officers will explain how they plan to implement the strategic visions described by their executive suites. The panelists are Tom Jokerst, senior vice president of engineering for Charter; Bud Wonsiewicz, MediaOne's CTO; Alex Best, Cox's senior vice president of engineering; and Tony Werner, CTO for AT&T Broadband.
"I assume they'll look at Cox and ask me from a technical perspective, having launched them all, about video, high-speed data and telephony in terms of maintenance issues, which were hardest to launch and so on," Best said.
He added that Cox will be looking at advancements in areas where it has already begun or plans rapid deployments, such as DOCSIS modems. Best also wants to see what is being offered in conjunction with the advanced digital platforms his MSO will deploy from Scientific-Atlanta Inc. and General Instrument Corp.
Some of the best stuff may come from off the floor, as engineers trade gossip or pass along information about technical advances, such as AT&T Corp.'s rumored plans to push fiber much deeper into its newly acquired cable networks than other MSOs have done so far, Best said.
"If there's any knowledge to be gleaned there from hallway conversations, that's of interest," he added.
A number of vendors plan to introduce new products at the Expo, which occurs only three weeks before the industry's main gathering, the National Show.
Philips Broadband Networks, for example, will use the venue for the official coming out of its DOCSIS-based modem, OpenCable set-top box and "SpectraHub" DWDM solution.
In addition to offering a daily DOCSIS workshop for technicians, 3Com Corp. plans to display its DOCSIS-based cable-modem-termination system; its home-networking and end-to-end IP-telephony solutions; and its network-management and virtual-private-network solutions.
Technicians will also be able to view a myriad of new component gear. Ortel Corp. will introduce its "Medallion Series" of 1550-nanometer transmitter engines, configured either for stand-alone operation or as a plug-in module for integration into custom designs.
ADC Telecommunications Inc.'s show introductions include the "HWX STX" 1550-nm transmitter, an addition to the HWX broadband-analog-transmission system; two new optical amplifiers for the existing erbium-doped fiber-amplifier product line; and the "HWX QUAD Return Path Receiver," providing four 5- to 300-megahertz return-path optical receivers in a single module.
Off the exhibition floor, the SCTE will conduct organization business including meetings by seven SCTE standards-setting subcommittees: Interface Practices; Data Standards; Emergency Alert Systems; IPS Test Procedures; Materials Management; Construction and Maintenance; and Hybrid Management Sublayer.
On Tuesday, the SCTE will hold its awards presentation, which includes naming this year's new chairman of the board.
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