CableLabs® 16th Summer Conference Enjoys Record-Setting Attendance

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CableLabs® held its 16th annual Summer Conference at the Keystone Resort and Conference Center in Keystone, Colorado, August 8-10. Approximately 710 people attended, marking the third consecutive year of record-setting attendance. The conference is held as a CableLabs' members-only event, accompanied by a number of exhibits and vendor demonstrations. In 2003, 625 people had attended, and in 2002, 500 attended.

CableLabs and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) also co-hosted a Smaller Market Conference in Keystone August 7-8, and it attracted nearly 100 attendees.

CableLabs' next conference is its Winter Conference, to be held February 27-March 1, 2005, at the Westin Hotel in Westminster, Colorado.

The Summer Conference opened with concurrent tracks. One track began with a panel entitled "The All MSO Fabric - Building a National Broadband Footprint", with Paul Bosco, Executive Consultant to Comcast, as moderator. Speakers: Jason Gaedtke, Director of IP Technology, Comcast New Media; Bruce McLeod, Manager, VoIP Development Engineering, Cox Communications, Inc.; and Howard Pfeffer, Vice President, Broadband Technology, Time Warner Cable.

The other opening session was entitled "Operations & Customer Care - Raising the Bar", and had James Hendricks, Vice President, Support Services, Time Warner Cable Customer Care as moderator. Hendricks also delivered a presentation, along with Charlotte Field, Senior Vice President, Network and Technology, Comcast Cable; and Debbie Simmons, Director of Network Services, Engineering Operations, Cox Communications, Inc.

Next on the agenda was a panel "DOCSIS® -- Today's Experiences Leading to Tomorrow's Roadmap", moderated by Ralph Brown, Senior Vice President of Broadband Access at CableLabs. Speakers: Brown, John Coppola, Cox Communications, Inc.; and Rich Woundy, Comcast Cable.

The other track panel was "Competition - Do They Have Something We Don't?" and was moderated by Tony Werner, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Liberty Media. Speakers: Werner, Gary Lauder, Managing Partner, Lauder Partners, LLC; and David Waks, Co-Founder, System Dynamics, Inc.

The first general session followed, entitled "CableLabs and the Next Generation Network Architecture", was moderated by Mike LaJoie, Executive Vice President and CTO of Time Warner Cable. Speakers: Dallas Clement, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development, Cox Communications, Inc.; Mark Coblitz, Senior Vice President Strategic Planning, Comcast Corporation; Kevin Leddy, Sr. Vice President, Strategy and Development, Time Warner Cable; and Kip Compton, Vice President, Video/Media Architecture, Comcast Cable.

The CableLabs and the Next Generation Network Architecture panel featured (from left) Mike LaJoie, Time Warner Cable, Kip Compton, Comcast Cable, Mark Coblitz, Comcast Corporation, Dallas Clement, Cox Communications, Inc., and Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable.

After lunch, the second general session of the day featured Canadian cable operators and was entitled "Northern Exposure - Canadian Cable and the Competition" and was moderated by Michele Beck, Vice President, Regulatory Engineering, Canadian Cable Television Association. Speakers: Alain Boissonault, Director, New Technologies, Engineering, Vidéotron ltée; Dale Butler, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Shaw Communications Inc.; Mike Lee, Vice President of Strategy & Development, Rogers Cable Inc.; and Tom McCutcheon, Vice President, Product Management and Planning, Cogeco Cable Canada Inc.

The Northern Exposure - Canadian Cable and the Competition panel featured (from left) Michele Beck, Canadian Cable Television Association, Tom McCutcheon, Cogeco Cable Canada Inc., Mike Lee, Rogers Cable Inc., Dale Butler, Shaw Communications Inc., and Alain Boissonault, Vidéotron ltée.

Track sessions resumed after the general session, with a panel "Emerging Network Architectures - Where Are We Going with CMTS, Headends and VOD Technologies", and moderated by David Fellows, Chief Technology Officer, Comcast Cable. Speakers: John Treece, Comcast Cable; Doug Jones, Chief Architect, YAS Broadband Ventures; and Pfeffer.

The other track session was VoIP - The Rollouts Begin" and was moderated by Ed Miller, Vice President of Advanced Network Systems at CableLabs. Miller spoke, along with Liliane Zreik, Vice President of Technology and Engineering, Voice Services, Time Warner Cable; and Dianna Mogelgaard, Director of Product Development, Cox Communications, Inc.

The last pair of track sessions featured one panel entitled "Adding Value to Legacy Digital Set-Top Boxes", and was moderated by Don Dulchinos, Vice President of Advanced Platforms and Services at CableLabs. Speakers: Craig Smithpeters, iTV Systems Engineer, Cox Communications, Inc.; Fred Pappalardo, Vice President, New Product Management, Time Warner Cable; and Arthur Orduña, Vice President Strategic Initiatives, Advance/Newhouse Communications.

The concurrent track session was titled "Wireline-Wireless Convergence - Winning the Mobile Customer" and was moderated by Glenn Russell, Director, Multimedia Applications, Advanced Network Systems, CableLabs. Speakers: Alexander Brock, Vice President, Business Development, Rogers Communications Inc.; Jonathan Palmatier, Director of Strategic Planning, Comcast Corporation; and Seth Hogan, Executive Director, Business Development, Cox Communications.

The second day of the conference began with concurrent sessions. One track started with "What's Next for OpenCable™ and OCAP™" and was moderated by Mike Hayashi, Senior Vice President, Subscriber Technologies and Advanced Engineering, Time Warner Cable. Speakers: Bill Helms, Senior Director, Time Warner Cable; Doug Ike, Vice President, Advanced Video Engineering & Development, Adelphia Communications Corp; and Charlie Kennamer, Vice President of Digital Engineering, Comcast Cable. The other track session was "Broadband Service Delivery Networks - Netting It Out" and was moderated by Tom Buttermore, Vice President, Data Engineering & Operations, Adelphia Communications. Speakers: Ron da Silva, Director of Broadband Network Technology, Time Warner Cable; Mark Herrick, Director, Data and Network Security, Adelphia Communications Corp.; and John Leddy, Vice President of Network & Transport Engineering, Comcast Cable.

The next set of sessions included "Advanced VoIP and Video Services - New Technologies, New Opportunities", which was moderated by Jean François Mulé, Director of PacketCable™ Architecture, CableLabs. Speakers: Mike Emmendorfer, Corporate Director of Advanced Network Technologies, Charter Communications; Rick Gasloli, Vice President of Engineering, Comcast Online; and Roy Perry, Director, VoIP Engineering and Technology, Adelphia Communications Corp.

The concurrent track session was "Digital Video - Toward The All-Digital Future" and was moderated by Joe Weber, Senior Technologist, Strategic Assessment, CableLabs. Speakers: Kip Compton of Comcast, Paul Conway, Director, Strategy and Development, Time Warner Cable; John Hildebrand, Vice President of Multimedia Technology, Cox Communications, Inc.; and Pragash Pillai, Director of Digital Engineering, Charter Communications, Inc.

A general session "Business Development - Looking Ahead", followed. David Reed, Chief Strategy Officer and an Executive Vice President at CableLabs, moderated. Speakers: Coblitz of Comcast, Clement of Cox, Tom Cullen, Executive Vice President of Advanced Services and Business Development, Charter Communications; and Peter Stern, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning, Time Warner Cable.

A general session of top cable CTOs followed, and was moderated by Leslie Ellis, independent technology analyst. Speakers: Dave Fellows of Comcast, Chris Bowick, Senior Vice President, Engineering & Chief Technical Officer, Cox Communications, Inc.; Marwan Fawaz, Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President Engineering & Technology, Adelphia Communications Corp.; Wayne Davis, Executive Vice President of Engineering & Chief Technical Officer, Charter Communications; and LaJoie of Time Warner.

The CTO panel included (from left) Dave Fellows, Comcast Communications, Chris Bowick, Cox Communications, Inc., Wayne Davis, Charter Communications, Mike LaJoie, Time Warner Cable, and Marwan Fawaz, Adelphia Communications Corp.

NCTA President and CEO Robert Sachs provided a Washington update immediately after lunch and then concurrent track sessions resumed with "IPTV - Is Video Over IP the Future of Cable - or the Competition". Reed moderated a session of speakers: Peter Barrett, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of Engineering, Microsoft TV Group; Bruce Eisen, Executive Vice President, CinemaNow, Inc.; and Bob Greene, SVP Advanced Services, Starz Encore Group LLC.

The other concurrent track session was "Digital Rights Management - Moving Toward a Workable Solution?" It was moderated by Jim Fahrny, Senior Security Architect, Comcast Cable. Speakers: Fahrny, Frank Gonzalez, Systems Architect, Cox Communications, Inc.; and Bill Helms of Time Warner Cable.

A general session was next, with NCTA's Sachs conducting a question and answer session with FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin.

Robert Sachs, NCTA, and FCC Commissioner, Kevin Martin.

The conference concluded with a set of roundtables, conducted concurrently. They included:

• "CableHome® 1.1/CableOffice/Connected Home CPE Directions", Kevin Luehrs, Project Director, Technology Development, CableLabs CableHome project; and Jeff Austin, Director of Product Engineering & Development, Comcast Online.
• "Data Traffic: Composition and Management", with Terry Shaw, Director, Network Systems, CableLabs; and Joe Godas, Vice President, Broadband Technology Integration, Cablevision Systems Corporation.
• "Advanced Codec - Deployment Considerations and Scenarios", with Yasser Syed, Project Manager, Emerging Digital Video Technologies, CableLabs; and Weidong Mao, Sr. Director, Video Architecture, Advanced Engineering, Comcast Cable.
• "FCC and Regulatory Issues" with Simon Krauss, Counsel, Intellectual Property, CableLabs; and Paul Glist, Cole, Raywid & Braverman, Partner.
• "Video Home Networking - In-Home Distribution & Storage of Digital Content", with Ralph Brown and Frank Sandoval, Senior Software Architect, Advanced Platforms & Services, both of CableLabs; and Vince Groff, Director, iTV Product Development, Cox Communications, Inc.; and Tim Dodd, Vice President Technology Policy, Time Warner Cable.
• "Network Security -Don't Leave the Front Door Unlocked", with Oscar Marcia, Chief Security Architect, CableLabs; Jeff Hartley, Manager of Engineering Security and Abuse, Cox Communications Inc.; and Bruce Kaalund, Director of Network Security, Comcast Cable IP Services.

A demo area of about 70 companies was also part of the conference. Those vendors included:

• Advanced Digital Broadcast, Inc.
• Arcwave, Inc.
• ARRIS
• Arroyo Video Solutions
• ATI Technologies Inc.
• AudioCodes, Inc.
• Aurora Networks
• BigBand Networks, Inc.
• Broadband Innovations, Inc.
• Broadband Physics, Inc.
• Broadbus Technologies, Inc.
• Broadcast Data Corporation
• Broadcom Corporation
• CableMatrix Technologies, Inc.
• Camiant
• Casa Systems, Inc.
• C-COR
• Cedar Point Communications
• CIENA Corporation
• Cisco Systems
• Conexant Systems, Inc.
• Core Networks, Inc.
• Digeo, Inc.
• EDB Telesciences, Inc.
• Ellacoya Networks
• Entropic Communications
• F-Secure Corporation
• GoldPocket Interactive
• Harmonic Inc.
• ICTV™
• IMAKE Software & Services, Inc.
• Incognito Software Inc.
• Irdeto Access
• iThinkTest, Inc.
• Juniper Networks, Inc.
• LG Electronics Inc.
• Liberate Technologies
• Lucent Technologies
• Modulus Video
• Motorola Broadband Communications Sector
• N2 Broadband, Inc.
• NagraVision
• NDS
• Net2Phone
• NETGEAR Inc.
• Netrake
• Next Generation Broadband
• Nortel Networks
• NPTV
• Nuera Communications, Inc.
• OpenTV Inc.
• Osmosys S.A.
• Pulse-LINK, Inc.
• RAD Data Communications
• RGB Networks, Inc.
• Samsung Electronics
• Sandvine Incorporated
• Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.
• Siemens ICN U.S.
• Sigma Systems
• Softel-USA Inc.
• Sony Electronics Inc.
• STMicroelectronics, Inc.
• Telcordia Technologies
• Terayon
• Thales Broadcast & Multimedia
• Two Way TV
• UniSoft Corporation
• Vidiom Systems Corporation
• Widevine Technologies, and
• Xtend Networks.

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