| Vol. 15, No. 4 - July/August 2003 | ||
CableLabs® Summer Conference |
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CableLabs® held its 15th annual Summer Conference at the Keystone Resort and Conference Center in Keystone, Colorado, August 10-13. Approximately 625 people attended, marking the second straight year of 25% growth in attendance at the annual event. The conference is held as a CableLabs' members-only event, accompanied by a number of exhibits and vendor demonstrations. In 2002, 500 people had attended, and in 2001, 400 attended. CableLabs' next major conference, its annual Winter Conference, will be held in Philadelphia on February 22-24, 2004. CableLabs also is planning its annual Law & Technology Conference on February 24-25 in Philadelphia. The Summer Conference opened with track sessions on August 11th. One track featured a session entitled "DOCSIS®-enabled Set-Top Boxes" with CableLabs Vice President and Chief Software Architect Ralph Brown as moderator. Speakers included: Bill Helms, Senior Director of Advanced Technologies, Time Warner Cable; Rich Woundy, Senior Director of Network Services Advanced Engineering, Comcast Cable; and Joe Godas, Director External Networks for Corporate Engineering, Cablevision Systems Corporation. The other opening track session was entitled "Hard Truths about Soft Switches", and featured CableLabs' Jean François Mulé, Director, PacketCable™ Architectures. Speakers included: Jack Burton, Director of Systems Engineering for Corporate Engineering and New Technologies, Cablevision Systems Corporation; Ron Raugh, Director VoIP, Comcast New Media Development; and Bruce McLeod, Engineering Manager, VoIP Development, Cox Communications, Inc. Next on the agenda was a general session entitled "Strategic Business Perspectives: Next Steps for Cable Service". CableLabs' Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning, Dr. David Reed, moderated. Panelists were: Dallas Clement, Senior Vice President of Strategy & Development, Cox Communications, Inc.; Mark Coblitz, Senior Vice President, Strategy Planning, Comcast Corporation; David Housman, Vice President, Corporate Development & Technology, Charter Communications, Inc.; and Roger Keay, Vice President, Technology, Rogers Communications, Inc. John Sie, Starz Encore Group, LLC, founder and Chairman, delivered the keynote address. Immediately following the keynote address was a CTO Forum moderated by Leslie Ellis, Independent Broadband Technology Analyst. Speakers were: Chris Bowick, Senior Vice President Engineering & Chief Technology Officer, Cox Communications, Inc.; Wayne Davis, SVP, Engineering & Technology Operations, Charter Communications, Inc.; Marwan Fawaz, Chief Technology Officer, Adelphia Communications Corp.; and Mike LaJoie, Executive Vice President, Advanced Technology, Time Warner Cable.  CTO Forum panelists included, from left, moderator Leslie Ellis; Marwan Fawaz, Chief Technology Officer, Adelphia Communications Corp.; Chris Bowick, Senior Vice President Engineering & Chief Technology Officer, Cox Communications, Inc.; Wayne Davis, SVP, Engineering & Technology Operations, Charter Communications, Inc.; and Mike LaJoie, Executive Vice President, Advanced Technology, Time Warner Cable. Track sessions resumed in the afternoon with Your New Friend: CableCARD™-enabled DTVs on Your Network, moderated by CableLabs' Mark Meyer, Project Director, Systems Integration, OpenCable™. Sessison speakers included: Paul Glist, Cole Raywid & Braverman, LLP; Charlie Kennamer, Vice President, Digital Engineering, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc.; and Lisa Pickelsimer, Director, Video Product Development, Cox Communications, Inc. Concurrent with that session was one entitled "The Future of Broadband Gaming", moderated by Ted Jarvis, Rogers Cable, Inc. Speakers for that session were: Cameron Feroni, General Manager, Xbox Live; Jason Rubinstein, General Manger, ubi.com; and David Wright, Director of Engineering, Gamespy Industries. The day concluded with two track sessions. CableLabs' Jim Fahrny, Senior Security Architect moderated the session on "Hacking Digital Cable and Satellite". Speakers were: Andrew Jaquith, Program Director, @stake; Christophe Nicolas, VP & Manager, Smart Cards & Security Competence Center, Nagravision, SA, Kudelski Group; Bill Warga, Director Digital Video Technology, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. The other track featured "The Management of High-Speed Data Systems", a panel moderated by CableLabs' Dr. Terry Shaw, Director, Network Systems. Speakers were: Jay Rolls, Vice President, Telephone & Data Engineering, Cox Communications, Inc.; and Jeff Turner, Director Hign-Speed Data Product Development, Adelphia Communications Corp. August 12 began with track sessions. One, entitled "Visions of the Future: Considerations for Transitioning to an All-Digital Network", was moderated by CableLabs' Reed. Speakers were: Kip Compton, Vice President, Video/Media Architecture, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc.; Nick Hamilton-Piercy, Senior Technology Advisory, Rogers Cable Inc., and Tony Werner, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Liberty Media Corp. Concurrently, CableLabs' Chief Security Architect, Oscar Marcia, moderated a session on "Security Events Management". Speakers included: Jeff Hartley, Manager of Engineering Security and Abuse, Cox Communications, Inc.; Bruce Kaalund, Director of Network Security for the IP Services Division, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc.; and Albert Kim, Director, IP Services Technology, Rogers Cable, Inc. The next set of sessions featured one on "Headends in All Digital Services", which was moderated by Jorge Salinger, President of the Consulting Division, YAS Broadband Ventures, LLC. Speakers included: Steve Craddock, Senior Vice President, New Media Development, Comcast Corporation; George Hart, Director Technology Integration, Rogers Communications, Inc.; and John Hildebrand, Vice President Multimedia Technology, Cox Communications, Inc. Also in this time slot was a session on "OCAP™ Platform for Programmers' Enhanced Services", moderated by CableLabs' Frank Sandoval, Sr. Software Architect, Advanced Platforms & Services. Speakers were: Arthur Orduña, VP Strategic Initiatives, Advance/Newhouse Communications; Rebecca Lim, Director, Interactive Television Technology, Starz Encore Group, LLC; and Michael Tesoro, Director of Broadband and Interactive Television Sales, ESPN. A general session followed, entitled "Assessing the Value: Wall Street Insights" and featured Gary Lauder, Managing Partner, Lauder Partners, L.L.C. as moderator. Speakers: Niraj Gupta, Managing Director, Cable Analyst, Citigroup Smith Barney; Doug Shapiro, Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst, Banc of America Securities, LLC; and Tom Wolzien, Senior Media Analyst, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.  Assessing the Value: Wall Street Insights panelists included, from left, Niraj Gupta, Managing Director, Cable Analyst, Citigroup Smith Barney; Doug Shapiro, Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst, Banc of America Securities, LLC; and Tom Wolzien, Senior Media Analyst, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Another general session followed, moderated by Mark Greenberg, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager, of Invesco, which was entitled "Game On: Cable v. The Other Guys" and featured as speakers Patrick Esser, Executive Vice President, Operations, Cox Communications, Inc.; and Nomi Bergman, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Development, Advance/Newhouse Communications. The afternoon began with a session on "Privacy and Digital Rights Management" moderated by CableLabs' Simon Krauss, Counsel, Intellectual Property. Speakers inclcuded: Leslie Spasser, a lawyer with Wilcox & Savage, and Gerard Lewis, Senior Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. On another track, the concurrent session was "Go2BroadandSM: Making the Retail Experience Better", which was moderated by Jerry Bennington, Executive Consultant to CableLabs. Speakers included: Seth Morrison, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM); Chris Caffrey, Vice President Retail Sales, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc.; Dave Ryan, Product Manager, Broadband & Digital Cable, Best Buy Co., Inc.; and Kent Shuart, Strategic Commodity Manager, Dell, Inc. The next set of sessions included one on "Presence in Instant Messaging" and was moderated by Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Director, Strategic Planning, Comcast Online. Speakers were: Joe Hildebrand, Chief Architect, Jabber, Inc.; Maxime Seguineau, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Antepo, Inc.; and Alexandre Nolle, Architect for Presence and IM solutions, France Telecom. At the same time, CableLabs' Ralph Brown, moderated a session on "Approaches to Video On Demand Services through Integrated Services Architectures and Interfaces". Speakers included: Compton of Time Warner Cable, Joe Buehl, consultant to Time Warner Cable; and Michael Pasquinilli, Director, Interactive Television Technologies, Cox Communications, Inc. The conference concluded with six concurrent roundtable discussions that featured CableLabs staff and member speakers. The roundtables were on the following topics: (1) "Identifying future Strategic Assessment Issues" with Reed and Mark Coblitz of Comcast Corporation. (2) "Legal Issues in the Secure Home Domain" with CableLabs' Jud Cary, Assistant General Counsel; Paul Glist of Cole Raywid; and Phil Weiser Associate Professor, School of Law/Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program, of the University of Colorado. (3) "New IP-Based Services that Require Quality of Service" with Doug Jones, Chief Architect, of YAS Broadband Ventures, LLC, and Jason Gaedtke, Director of IP Technology, Comcast New Media Development. (4) "DOCSIS 2.0 Operations Rollouts" with CableLabs' Mike Hayes, Director Interop Team, Broadband Access, and John Coppola, Manager-DOCSIS Technology, Data & Engineering, Cox Communications, Inc. (5) "Triple Play on a Chip" with CableLabs' John Eng, Director, DOCSIS Platforms, and Doug Semon, Vice President, Technologies and Standards, Time Warner Cable. (6) "Advertising in the Digital (Cable) Age" with CableLabs' Joe Weber, Senior Technologist, Strategic Assessment, and Paul Woidke, Vice President, Technology, Comcast Advertising Sales. In addition to the sessions, there were demonstrations from the following companies:
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