CableLabs Winter Conference
Basks in Colorado Sunshine

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Conference Sets New Attendance Record

CableLabs' 18th annual Winter Conference set records for warm weather and attendance during its two-day run at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado, February 27–28. With temperatures in the 70s both days, about 313 CableLabs members attended sessions and viewed advanced technology demonstrations from 77 companies. Overall attendance was 844, showing an increase from a year ago.

The conference was keynoted by National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) President and CEO Kyle McSlarrow. His speech focused on cable's success-based technology and new service deployments and the reactions that success has generated in Washington, D.C., among other industries.

The conference began on February 27 with two concurrent track sessions. CableLabs Executive Consultant Jerry Bennington moderated a session entitled “Business Services: Assessing the Opportunities”. Speakers: Charles Scarborough, Senior Manager, Voice & Data Product Development, Cox Business Services; Lee Berk, Senior Manager, Commercial Product Engineering, Comcast Cable; and Kurt Fennell, Vice President, Product Management, Commercial Services Business Unit, Time Warner Cable.

At the same time, a session entitled “The Impact of Next Generation Applications on the Network” was moderated by Alberto Campos, Chief RF Engineer, CableLabs. Speakers: Ben Bekele, Senior DOCSIS® Engineer, Cox Communications, Inc.; Mike Giobbi, Vice Presidente, Engineering & Technology, Armstrong Utilities, Inc.; and Brady Volpe, Vice President, Advanced Technologies, Sunrise Telecom Broadband.

McSlarrow's keynote address was next on the agenda, followed by a general session moderated by Dan Brenner, Senior Vice President for Law & Regulatory Policy, NCTA. The session, entitled “Washington Insider” featured speakers Kerry Knott, Vice President, Government Affairs, Comcast Corporation; and Paul Gallant, Senior Vice President, Stanford Washington Research Group.

The morning concluded with a session entitled “OCAP™ Roadmap and Deployment”, moderated by Frank Sandoval, Director, OCAP Specifications, Advanced Platforms & Services, CableLabs. Speakers: Labeeb Ismail, Vice President of Technology, TVWorks; George Sarosi, Chief Software Architect, Advanced Technology Group, Time Warner Cable; and Mark Jensen, iTV System Engineer, Cox Communications.

The concurrent session was entitled “DOCSIS® 3.0 & IPTV: How Higher Bandwidth and IP Multicast Will Enhance IPTV Capability”, and was moderated by Deepak Karbanda, Senior Engineer IP Networking, Broadband Access, CableLabs. Speakers: Cox's Bekele, Doug Semon, Vice President, Technologies and Standards, Time Warner Cable; and John Brzozowski, Principal Engineer, Comcast Cable.

In the afternoon, the first set of sessions included one entitled “IP Multimedia Systems (IMS) Comes to Cable” and was moderated by Steve Craddock, Senior Vice President, New Media Development, Comcast Corporation. Speakers: George Hart, Director Technology Integration, Rogers Cable Inc.; Stephen Hayes, Manager for North American 3GSM Standards, Ericsson; and Eric Rosenfeld, Director, PacketCable™ Architecture, CableLabs.

Bruce Kaalund, Director of Network Security, Comcast Cable, moderated the concurrent session, which was entitled “Cross-Project Security Initiatives at CableLabs”. Speakers: Stuart Hoggan, Project Director, Technology Development, Broadband Access; Balu Ambady, Senior Security Architect, Advanced Platforms and Services; and Steve Dotson, Senior Security Architect, PacketCable™.

The final set of sessions for Monday included a panel on “Broadband Applications” moderated by Terry Shaw, Director, Network Systems, CableLabs; Speakers: Mark Francisco, Fellow, Comcast New Media Development; and Robert Goodman, Director, Product Management, Rogers Cable Inc.

Concurrently, Peter MacCormack, Director of Advanced Digital Technologies, CableLabs, moderated a session entitled “Deploying Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) Networks”. Speakers: Ken Falkenstein, Vice President, Wireless Engineering, Comcast Cable; and Kashif Haq, Senior Vice President of Broadband Technology & Services, Advance/Newhouse Communications.

February 28 sessions began with a session entitled “Trends in Content Protection, Including DRM (Digital Rights Management)”, moderated by Jud Cary, deputy general counsel at CableLabs. Speakers: Tim Dodd, Vice President, Technology Policy, Time Warner Cable; and Paul Glist, Partner, Cole, Raywid & Braverman. The other panel occurring at that time was “Getting Ready for DOCSIS 3.0” which was moderated by Greg White, Lead Architect - Broadband Access, CableLabs. Speakers: Lorenz Glatz, Senior Vice President, Network and Systems Design & Architecture, UGC Europe; Saifur Rahman, Principal Engineer II, National Engineering, Comcast Cable; and Ron da Silva, Senior Director, Network Engineering and Technology, Time Warner Cable.

The next set of sessions featured one entitled “Mobile Entertainment”, which was moderated by Jiong Gong, Senior Advisor, Strategic Assessment, CableLabs. Speakers: Ken Anderson, Senior Researcher, People and Practices Research, Intel Corporation; Scott Wurman, Director, Product and Business Development, Comcast Cable; and Mike Lee, Chief Strategy Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.

Rogers Communications, Inc., Chief Strategy Officer Mike Lee, left, makes a point during the CableLabs 2006 Winter Conference panel session on Mobile Entertainment. Others on the session were Moderator Jiong Gong, Senior Advisor, Strategic Assessment, CableLabs; Scott Wurman, Director, Product and Business Development, Comcast Cable; and Ken Anderson, Senior Researcher, People and Practices Research, Intel Corporation.

Advance/Newhouse Communications Senior Vice President of Policy and Product Arthur Orduña moderated “ETV (Enhanced TV) Report” which was the panel occurring concurrently. Speakers: John Carney, CTO & Senior Vice President, TVWorks Application Division, Comcast; CableLabs' Sandoval; and Joan Gilman, Vice President, Interactive TV and Advanced Advertising, Time Warner Cable.

Tuesday's general session “Competitive Landscape” followed, and was moderated by Tom Wolzien, Chairman, Wolzien LLC. Speakers: Jeff Halpern, Senior US Telecommunication Services Analyst, Sanford C. Bernstein; Richard Johnson, COO, USDTV; and Blake Krikorian, CEO, Sling Media.

The conference concluded with a pair of concurrent sessions Tuesday afternoon. “Digital Advertising - New Opportunities” was moderated by Don Dulchinos, Senior Vice President, Advanced Platforms and Services, CableLabs. Speakers: Steve Riedl, Principal Architect, Advanced Technology Group, Time Warner Cable; Sandoval of CableLabs; and Paul Woidke, Vice President, Technology, Comcast Spotlight.

CableLabs Vice President, Internet Protocol Technologies and Services, Jean-François Mulé moderated the final session “Talking Nets: VoIP or PSTN (public switched telephone network) Peering”. Speakers: Jason Livingood, Senior Director of Forward Looking Communications Services, Comcast Cable; Jack Burton, Director of Systems Engineering, Cablevision Systems Corporation; and Suzanne Howard, Director — Federal Regulatory Affairs, Cox Communications, Inc.

The companies exhibiting at the conference were:
Acme Packet, ADB, Alcatel, Alticast, Arris, ATI, Aurora Networks, Auspice, Bigband Networks, Broadbus, Broadcom, Cable Matrix, Camiant, CASA Systems, Cauldron, Cedar Point Communications, Ciena, Cisco Systems, Clique Communications, Ellacoya Networks, Ensequence, Ericsson, F-Secure, Gallery IP, Harmonic, IBM, ICTV, Incognito Software, Integra5, IP Unity, Iptivia, JacobsRimmel, JDSU, Juniper Networks, Kasenna, Level 3, Lucent, Marvell Semiconductor, MediaCell, MoCA, Motorola, Nagravision, NARAD Networks, NDS, Neustar, Next Generation Broadband, Nokia, Nortel, Nuera, Opvista, Pace Micro, Packet Design, Panasonic, PerfTech, Primal Solutions, RGB Networks, S&T/Unisoft, Samsung, Sandvine, Scopus, SeaChange, Siemens, Sigma Systems, SMC, ST Microelectronics, Sunrise Telecom, Tandberg/Goldpocket, Terayon, Tollgrade, Trilithic, Tropic Networks, VectorMax Corp., Verisign, Veveo, Inc., Vidiom, Vyyo and Wavetone.

Participants on the Chief Technology Officer general session that kicked off the MSO & Vendor Face to Face meeting held immediately after the conclusion of the CableLabs Winter Conference 2006 are pictured, from left: Analyst Leslie Ellis, moderator; David M. Fellows, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Comcast Cable; Tony G. Werner, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Liberty Global, Inc.; Marwan Fawaz, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President Engineering & Technology, Adelphia Communications Corp.; Wayne H. Davis, Executive Vice President Engineering and Chief Technology Officer, Charter Communications, Inc.; Kevin Leddy, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Development, Time Warner Cable; and Dermot J. O'Carroll, Senior Vice President, Network Engineering & Operations, Rogers Cable.