Cable-Connected Living Room and Home Office Highlighted CableNET® '98

Exhibit's Plug-and-Play Theme Showcased Consumer Accessibility

ableLabs and the California Cable Television Association (CCTA) organized a cable-connected, highly interoperable living and work area as part of the CableNET® '98 demonstration held at this year's Western Show in Anaheim, California.

In its sixth year, CableNET® '98 demonstrated the power of the cable industry's hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) systems and its expanding telecommunications and entertainment applications. With nearly 60 participating companies, this year's Plug-and-Play theme was showcased through interoperable modems, digital set tops, and Internet phones - demonstrating the impact of these technologies on consumers in business and home environments.

The living room and small office/home office (SOHO) exhibits included multiple cable modems, Internet telephony, video conferencing, and digital entertainment services running over the HFC cable system.

Pictured at the CableNET® '98 booth are, from left, Kay Monigold, a vice president with Buford Television, and members of the CableLabs Board of Directors: Ben Hooks of Buford Television, Bill Schleyer, a consultant to MediaOne; and Trygve Myhren, president and CEO of Myhren Media. Myhren is making a phone call over one of the PacketCable demonstrations.

In addition, CableNET® '98 demonstrated:

  • A Cable Retail Concept Store, designed by Circuit City, which depicted the approaching retail sale of high-speed, always-connected cable modems and advanced digital set-top boxes.
  • A High Definition Television (HDTV) Display Area, where signals were received off-air from broadcast and satellite. The signals were transmitted over the CableNET® '98 cable television system and run through cable set-top boxes into HDTV sets from Pioneer, Sharp, Samsung, Hitachi, and Zenith.

Interoperability Areas

CableLabs, on behalf of the cable television industry, is pursuing interoperability aggressively in its high-level projects -DOCSIS, OpenCable, and PacketCable.

DOCSIS is aimed at attaining interoperable high-speed cable modems; OpenCable is seeking to advance interoperable digital set-top boxes; and PacketCable is focusing on interoperable Internet protocol-based services that will be distributed over cable's HFC systems. One of the initial services on which PacketCable is concentrating is IP telephony, which uses the Internet or other packet networks for delivery of telephone calls at competitive prices.

This interoperability will enable the cable industry to choose equipment from a variety of suppliers building similar products. It also will provide cable customers with the economic benefits of price competition and product innovation, as well as the opportunity to purchase interoperable products at retail stores in the near future.

Companies whose demonstrations were chosen for the living room and SOHO as representative of the overall work underway in DOCSIS, OpenCable, and PacketCable were:

3Com and Cisco for DOCSIS cable modems.

Motorola, VideoServer, and Vienna Systems, Inc., for voice-over-Internet Protocol.

8X8, Inc., and Intel for video-conferencing using the Internet.

General Instrument and Scientific-Atlanta for advanced digital set-top boxes.

SeaChange International for a video-on-demand service.

Pioneer and Samsung for HDTV displays using the IEEE 1394 interface.

In addition to this year's vendors and exhibitors, CableNET® '98 received support from companies that provide enabling technology and services. The supporting vendors included:

@Home Networks - broadband backbone connectivity.

3Com - data switches.

AIC - support of DHCP server.

Belden Wire & Cable - data networking cable.

Century Communications - cable television signals, fiber optic splicing, integration space, and technical support personnel.

Cisco Systems - routers, support for the backbone data network, cable modems, and cable headend systems.

CommScope - technical consulting and support, coaxial cable, data cable, fiber optic cable, and freight handling and shipping.

General Instrument - fiber optic transmitters and receivers.

Gilbert Engineering - coaxial connectors and installation tools.

HBO - high-definition programming content.

Hewlett Packard - Testing equipment for PacketCable.

Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc. - HDTV monitor.

Nortel Networks - cable modems, cable headends, routers and support for the CableNET® '98 backbone data network.

PanAmSat - satellite dish and transponder time.

TeleCrafter - cable labels.

Sharp Electronics Corporation - HDTV monitor.

Sony Electronics, Inc. - television sets for demonstrations.

YAS Corportion - consulting services for network integration.

Zenith Electronics Corp. - VSB signals.