Network engineering leaders from Comcast, Charter, Cox, Shaw and Denmark’s Stofa will headline the speakers at a seminar focused on Distributed Access Architectures (DAA), which will help kick off this year’s SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta on Oct. 22.

A follow-up to last year’s Remote PHY seminar at the Expo in Denver, this year’s event will address the ability of DAAs and the Headend Rearchitected as a Datacenter (HERD) to drive cost efficiencies, decrease time to market and increase customer satisfaction. The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers says more than 600 attendees are already registered.

Related: SCTE Announces Finalists for Energy 2020 Adaptive Power Challenge

Speakers include Kevin Kwasny, principal enter for Charter Communications; Rob Howald, VP of network architecture for Comcast; Jeff Finkelstein, executive director of advanced technologies for Cox Communications; Jamie Brown, director of network technologies for Shaw Communications; and Kjeld Balmer, head of network technology for Stofa A/S.

On the vendor side, speakers include Arris’ Tom Cloonan, CTO for network solutions, and Mike Emmendorfer, VP of systems engineering and architecture; Peter Wolff, VP of wireline product management for Casa Systems; John Chapman, CTO of cable access and fellow at Cisco; Asaf Matatyaou, VP of solutions and product management at Harmonic; Barak Hermesh, owner of network technology for the Intel Network Platforms Group; Steven Krapp, technical marketing director at MaxLinear; Jeff White, head of cable strategy and business development at Nokia; Timon Sloane, VP of marketing and ecosystem from the Open Networking Foundation; and Colin Howlett, VP of architecture for Vecima Networks.

Related: Charter, Comcast, Cox Execs Added to Cable-Tec Expo Opener

The event is jointly sponsored by CableLabs, which will also have two technologists present—Doug Jones, principal architect, and Jon Schnorr, lead engineer for network technologies. 

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SCTE/ISBE said attendance at this week’s Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia surged past that 10,000 mark, noting that the rise was up roughly 21% from the 8,600 who joined the 2015 confab in New Orleans.

The organization said international attendance hit more than 1,300, a 14% increase over 2015., and had a show floor with nearly 400 exhibitors, including 62 that were new to the event. SCTE/ISBE said the event attracted nearly 130 first-time exhibitors over the past two years.

Notably, Cable-Tec Expo announced the rise in attendance the day after NCTA announced that it was “sunsetting” its annual show, INTX.

“Our experience this week underscores a primary reason for the robustness and relevance of Expo: the telecommunications community requires a crossroads that connects technology partners, operators and the cable workforce with the innovations and the educational resources that are powering the future of the industry,” said Chris Bastian, senior vice president and CTO of SCTE/ISBE, in a statement.

SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2017 is set for Oct. 17-20 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.  Terry Cordova, executive vice president and CTO of Altice USA, and Charter’s Blackley will serve as Program Committee co-chairs for the 2017 event.

DOCSIS 3.1 is already gunning for multi-gigabit speeds over HFC networks but a new project that will bring data symmetry to that platform and likely prolong the need to pull fiber all the way to the home, appears to be making swift progress.

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CableLabs announced that project, called “Full Duplex” (FDX) DOCSIS, in February 2016, and it’s going to be a hot topic at this week’s SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia.

RELATED: Cable-Tec Expo 2016: The Hot List

Rather than requiring a cable system to separate spectrum dedicated to the downstream and the upstream with a traditional “split,” FDX will enable “dual-use” bands for traffic that runs in both directions. FDX will also require an N+0, passive network, which fits in with the plans of some operators to pull fiber deeper and remove the active amplifiers present between the node and the home.

Following an initial feasibility/evaluation phase, the FDX project has since transitioned to the R&D and spec-writing phase. In August, CableLabs kicked off face-to-face meetings for the working groups and, if all goes to plan, is poised to become an extension to the DOCSIS 3.1 specs sometime in 2017, according to Belal Hamzeh, vice president of wireless technology at CableLabs.

FDX is an “evolution” of the current D3.1 specification, he said, noting that there will need to be some hardware modifications to existing gear. Whether that’s at the silicon or board level will be up to the specific implementations of the vendors.  

There’s an expectation that existing DOCSIS 3.0 bands will not overlap with the FDX band, but those implementations will vary from one operator to another and perhaps even within the same operator, Hamzeh said.

Tom Cloonan, chief technology of network solutions at Arris, said spectrum allocation for an eventual migration to FDX is still an active discussion among MSOs and vendors.

However, a possible deployment scenario could see an MSO set aside a band for the legacy DOCSIS upstream (at 5-85 MHz or 5-100 MHz), another band for the legacy downstream (perhaps at 700 MHz to 1.2 GHz), with a band sandwiched in the middle (say, 100 MHz to 700 MHz) that’s dedicated to the FDX operation.

“There might be some variations there, but at a high level, that's the kind of spectrum some people are talking about,” Cloonan said, noting that FDX could be initially targeted to plant that has already deployed N+0 along with a move to remote/distributed architectures that move the PHY or the MAC and PHY closer to the edge.

Though the specs for FDX are still in flux, Cloonan said there’s some optimism that the technology could be ready by as early as 2018, but sees 2019 as the year when it sees its true heyday.

“There’s a force-function to make it happen quickly,” he said. “A very high level, there's an awful lot of interest in Full Duplex DOCSIS among the MSO community.”

Comcast is among the MSOs that’s shown interest in FDX.

“With Full Duplex, we’re witnessing the emergence of yet another powerful tool for delivering leading-edge speed and performance to Internet customers,” Dr. Robert Howald, vice president, network architectures at Comcast, said in a statement to Multichannel News. “We take an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach when it comes to providing choice to our Internet customers.”

Comcast has already launched D3.1-powered gigabit services in Atlanta, Nashville and Chicago, with Miami and Detroit among those that are already on deck.

“Full duplex is also an impressive reminder of both the flexibility and power of the Hybrid Fiber Coaxial model, and of the tremendous innovation that continues unchecked in HFC technology,” Howald noted. “The toolbox gets bigger and better every year, and our focus is on using those tools to deliver the best possible experiences to customers.”

FDX and a move to distributed architectures “could go hand-in-hand” as MSOs conceive their deployment strategies, Jeffrey Leung, director of product management at Casa Systems, said.

As operators go fiber-deep, “that will be potentially a perfect time to change,” he added. “In order to prepare yourself to go with these technologies, remote PHY will be a key requisite.”

Still, going with FDX or just taking that next step, and pulling fiber all the way to the home, is a point of debate.

"It becomes an interesting business case analysis that each MSO has to do individually, and the answer is likely to be different for each MSO,” Cloonan said, noting that Arris continues to make bets on both options. "We're a firm believer that DOCSIS has a long life ahead of it. We also know that PON has good life coming ahead of it as well.”

Cisco Systems is also placing bets on FDX. Last month, Cisco introduced a silicon reference design for Full Duplex DOCSIS alongside a pledge to contributing the design on a royalty-free basis to the cable industry in order to accelerate the speed of the technology’s development and eventual deployment.

Nokia, meanwhile, has also been keeping its fingers on the pulse of FDX. It demonstrated a prototype of the concept, calling it “XG-CABLE,” in May at the INTX show in Boston.

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Philadelphia – The DOCSIS 3.1 era is in its early days, but the results so far indicate that the new multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks is delivering as promised when it comes to producing gigabit-class speeds alongside improved bandwidth-efficiency.

All 3.1-based modems have shown they can support a Gigabit-class service, initially in the downstream path, no matter the modulation profile that the device is using, Jorge Salinger, vice president of access architecture at Comcast, explained, adding that the MSO has plans to support a D3.1-enabled upstream further out.

RELATED: DOCSIS 3.1 In The Wild

As a quick recap, DOCSIS 3.1 is designed to be 50% more bandwidth efficient (from a bits per hertz per second perspective) than DOCSIS 3.0 via the use of blocks of tiny OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) subcarriers in tandem with an improved forward error correction scheme called Low Density Parity Check (LDPC).

Comcast now has “hundreds” of customers online with DOCSIS 3.1 in markets such as Nashville, Chicago and Atlanta, where Comcast is conducting advanced market trials of the technology, he said.

RELATED: Comcast Launches DOCSIS 3.1 Trial in Nashville

That’s important to know, because DOCSIS 3.1 modems and cable modem termination systems (CMTSs) can dynamically tap into multiple “modulation profiles” (up to 4086 QAM) depending on the condition of the spectrum they’re using. The use of tiny OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) subcarriers for DOCSIS 3.1 enables operators to shift to different modulation profiles depending on the signal-to-noise ratio that’s present in the spectrum.

Operators will be set up to set up multiple profiles that can be adjusted “multiple times per day” as new automated tools to manage them enter the market, Salinger said, noting that 3.1 modems are set up for five modulation profiles (four, plus one for testing), while CMTSs can handle 16 modulation profiles per downstream per service group.

The initial trials show that OFDM signals delivered on HFC networks are performing well, Salinger said.

As for the speeds delivered, Comcast’s initial work also showed that it can easily achieve 1 Gbps-plus speeds by aggregating traffic from 24 DOCSIS 3.0 single-carrier QAM channels (about 900 Mbps) with a 96 MHz block of DOCSIS 3.1/OFDM traffic (about 800 Mbps).

Midco has also seen promising results from its early D3.1 trial work in Fargo, N.D., the first top of many as the MSO looks to offer gigabit speeds to all subscribers by the end of 2017.

RELATED: Midco Preps for DOCSIS 3.1, Gigabit Speeds

DOCSIS 3.1 “worked well in the lab, it worked well in the field,” Jason Miller, technical marketing engineer at Cisco Systems, which has been working with Midco on the trial, said.

In the Fargo trial, Midco used a 144 MHz block of OFDM combined with eight DOCSIS 3.0 single carrier QAM channels and produced sustained downstream speeds of about 1.57 Gbps.

Jay Rolls, SVP and CTO at Charter Communications and session moderator, wondered if operators will need a legion of DOCSIS 3.1 gurus to operationalize DOCSIS 3.1.

Salinger stressed that MSOs will need to adjust their operations for DOCSIS 3.1, particularly in areas such as installation and maintenance.

Salinger acknowledged that setting up multiple modulation profiles is a “daunting task,” noting that it takes time -- sometimes a week -- to do that by hand, “and we’re good at it.”

However, he said tools are being created to automate that process on a continual basis, and expects them to be ready for deployment this quarter.

Philadelphia -- The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers/International Society of Broadband Experts honored Bill Spies with its prestigious Member of the Year Award while also ushering three into the Society’s Hall of Fame here during Wednesday's annual awards luncheon.

Spies, currently senior manager of construction with Charter Communications in Cincinnati, is also president of the Buckeye State Capital Chapter, which has demonstrated contagious exuberance in helping to make quality training and professional growth opportunities available to industry professionals,” SCTE/ISBE said.

As is the custom, Spies was unaware he was going to be honored until it was sprung on him at the luncheon. “I was completely stunned,” he said, noting later that he heeded the call when his chapter came calling for help.

Spies also had advice for other SCTE chapters that need a jolt. “Just start. Just start somewhere, and  you’ll just reap the benefits from it.”

The Society also welcomed three industry vets to its Hall of Fame: Former SCTE/ISBE board of directors chairman Bob Foote; Steve Richey and Cathy Wilson.

Foote an AVP of sales, MSO markets with KGP Logistics, has been a Society member since 1989, and a 31-year industry vet. Richey is president and CEO of 4Cable TV in Conway, S.C., and a Society member since 2003 and a 53-year industry veteran. Wilson, founder and publisher of Broadband Library, has been in the industry for 37 years, and a Society member since 1999.

“I’m very humbled and honored to accept this Hall of Fame induction,” Foote said. “I look at the other names that are on this list...and I’m a bit overwhelmed.”

Holding that he “didn’t invent anything,” Foote said he’s “like a lot of people in this room…In their own small way, [they] contributed to the world-class networks that we have today.”

“While I get the honor, much of the honor goes to all of you hardworking people out there in the field,” Richey said.

In recalling her career, Wilson said the only constant has been change. “Once upon a time there was a young, and I mean a young girl, who wanted to sell advertising in the top trade journal of cable TV [Cablevision]. Almost 40 years later, I’m still selling advertising. Not much has changed, except for the entire industry,” she said .

Ron Hranac, technical leader with Cisco Systems and a Society member since 1979, received the Excellence in Standards Award, recognized for his leadership in the ANSI-accredited SCTE/ISBE Standards Program and for his service as chairman of the program’s Network Operations Subcommittee (NOS).

He credited others for his achievement in the area of standards.  “It’s not an individual effort. It's very, very much a team effort,” he said, giving a shout out to the engineering committees and the working groups underneath the subcommittees.

Theresa Hennesy, senior vice president, group technical advisor of Comcast Cable, was formally given the Women in Technology Award, presented by SCTE/ISBE, WICT, and Cablefax. Hennesy, a 30-year vet of the communications industry, has been a driving force behind Comcast’s engagement with the SCTE/ISBE Energy2020 program.

In addition to thanking the organizations behind the award and colleagues at Comcast, she also extended a special word to her family. “They've always been my greatest supporters...without their guidance, love and influence, I would not be who I am today.”  

SCTE/ISBE also bestowed the following awards and recognitions:

-Sam Khola of Liberty Global received the Energy 2020 Award.

-SCTE/ISBE Board of Directors Chairman Tony Werner of Comcast Cable presented his Chairman’s Award to two groups of individuals for their exemplary support of the Society over the past year—the Chapter Support Committee, chaired by Steve Williams, and the Learning & Development Committee, chaired by Andy Parrott.

-The Excellence in Learning and Development Award went to Douglas MacLeod, director of technical services, PCT International, and Franklin Snider, CEO, CATV Training Institute.

- Former SCTE/ISBE Board of Directors Chairman Tom Gorman, president, opXL LLC, and Andrew F. Staniak, vice president and CTO, 4Cable TV, joined the Society’s Senior Member ranks.

-SCTE/ISBE said Juan Ramon Garcia Bish, an engineer with GigaRed S.A., will receive the International Engineering Professional Award at Thursday morning’s International Attendee Breakfast. 

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PHILADELPHIA -- As cable operators go deeper into wireless and WiFi offerings, hackers and cyber criminals pose a constant and growing threat, according to two security experts at Cable-Tec Expo.

By 2020, the average consumer will interact with 26 wireless devices in an average home, said Chris Kocks, director of the Internet of Things practice at Pure Integration, during a Wednesday session. Indeed, many homes, with security, light and doors controlled by WiFi commands, already exceed that number.

And many MSOs are staking out wireless strategies to deploy a WiFi-first network supplemented by a mobile network operator.

The vulnerabilities of a wireless system can be magnified when integrated with the cloud and multiple users. Executives are concerned about insecure interfaces, insufficient authentication and lack of transport encryption just a name a few.

“Wireless security is tough,” said Kocks. “It’s hard because there are a lot of different technologies, a lot of different platforms, a lot of different a lot of different moving parts.”

In WiFi-first applications that integrate with multiple devices, carriers and cells, each of the hand-offs represents a potential threat, said Ram Sridharan, CTO of Applications, Analytics & Cloud for the MSO segment for Nokia.

Sridharan said that security and access management “spans physical and virtual networks,” a reference to the increasing dependence on the cloud for network architecture.

When the Internet of Things arrives over the next decade, among the many threats will be human error: already new WiFi products available at retail are vulnerable, but no one sets a new password suggested by the manufacturer. “Most of us don’t – that’s a reality,” Kocks said.

One example that Kocks gave involved a popular WiFi device: a voice-controlled home automation hub called the Echo that answers to the name “Alexa.” In a demo, a person standing outside a home could unlock the front door by yelling voice commands through the window.

The solutions, while simple, are expensive and difficult to execute as more potent defensive software is evolving: develop an end-to-end, holistic defense for the network. Specifically, Sridharan and Kocks suggested developing a strong vulnerability program and implementing strong access and authentication controls. Simply waiting for software patches isn’t enough of a security plan. 

The various attack vulnerabilities of IoT are the biggest threat for cable operators on the wireless front, said Kock, but “it’s also the biggest opportunity.”

Philadelphia -- If customer experience is indeed the most important product, then it’s probably time to move machine learning up on the priority list. 

That was the gist of Monday’s kickoff workshop on machine learning and network operations, where executives detailed how the techniques can be applied to network optimization and customer care. 

“Right now, we throw away more data than we use,” said Tom Cloonan, CTO for Arris's Cloud & Network Solutions division and the moderator of the session. “We can do better, in terms of the decisions we make about how to modify plant, split a node or not, replace an amplifier, and ultimately, know whether customers are happy or not.”

Jason Schnitzer, founder of Applied Broadband, described his work to optimize DOCSIS 3.1-based networks using the three metrics of optimization: Modulation Error Ratio (MER), Codeword Error Ratio (CER), and downstream receive power -- no small feat, given that DOCSIS 3.1 essentially obviates traditional 6 MHz channel widths, instead spreading 7,680 OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) subcarriers, between 24 MHz and 192 MHz of spectrum. 

“If you’re collecting data from tens of millions of devices, doing 7,680 samples, four or so times a day, you quickly get into very large-scale data,” Schnitzer said. Ultimately, DOCSIS 3.1 will enable operators approach the Shannon Limit by enabling multiple modulation profiles across the entire population of cable modems. “So, in a sense, optimization is necessary, for 3.1 to be successful.” 

Chris Menier, VP of products and marketing for Guavus, said machine learning is growing out of the industry’s early steps into “big data” -- which began in departmental silos. “Network operations, field operations, billing, care, they all had their own tools, reports, and dashboards,” he said. 

Next came data warehousing and federation, then automation use cases, he said. “Now, it’s about enriching and correlating the data -- where did it happen on the network? To what type of device? What was it playing when it failed?”

By detecting anomalies, and correlating them with additional data, operators can identify and address problems before they impact customers. And if care agents are armed with enriched data, in a timely manner, “you can turn someone into a promoter, from a detractor, in NPS [Net Promoter Score] terms,” Menier said.

By applying machine intelligence, anomalies can be detected, correlated and even automatically repaired. Does it work? “It sure does,” Menier said, to the tune of $70 million in savings for an unspecified operator.

While emerging “Full Duplex” DOCSIS technology aims to bring symmetrical, multi-gigabit speeds to hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks, Antronix has developed a new, possibly complementary, hybrid PON/HFC platform that, it says, can also deliver multi-gigabit speeds by taking advantage of high-spectrum frequencies.

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As an overlay approach, Antronix’s “Intercept eHFC” platform is designed to enhance existing DOCSIS capacity and deliver symmetrical data while keeping the cost-per-bit low using spectrum in the 3.4 GHz to 4.7 GHz range – something the vendor likes to call “Ultra Wideband.”

The platform, the company explains, delivers PON signals to the company’s access-class node in conjunction with multi-taps that are optimized to handle ultra-wideband frequencies. The cable headend, meanwhile, would require a network controller that houses the provisioning piece to control the upstream and downstream data rates. In this initial phase of the product, the customer premises would require a media converter to access the additional throughputs supported by the Intercept eHFC  platform.

Antronix said its Intercept platform is compatible with DOCSIS, RF over Glass (RFoG) and MoCA 1.0 and 2.0 architectures. Like Full Duplex DOCSIS, Antronix’s Intercept eHFC platform is a node+0 solution. However, Antronix claims that the bit-per-dollar of its platform will be lower than that of traditional DOCSIS QAMs.

RELATED: CableLabs: DOCSIS 3.1 Upstream Booster on Fast Track

Antronix sees its technology fitting into consumer and business services applications, though it views residential as the more challenged of the two when it comes to delivering gigabit speeds.

“We think it will play well in both markets,” Dave Wachob, Antronix’s director of business development, said of Intercept eHFC. “Consumers baffled us all on their thirst for data so we think that will continue.”

DOCSIS 3.1 represents a good “incremental leap” for cable operators, but this new approach could help MSOs free up spectrum for other services because the platform delivers service at higher frequencies, Juan Bravo, vice president of national sales at Antronix, added.

Antronix expects to have trials underway by the first quarter of 2017, and to have the platform production-ready by Q2 2017. 

Evolution Digital has inked deals with five independent operators, all members of the National Cable Television Cooperative – have committed to deploy the vendor’s eVUE-TV offering on “VU-IT,” the co-op’s managed IP video solution.

Operators that signed on for those commitments include Advanced Cable Communications, Vast Broadband, Click! Cable TV, Schurz Communications and Westman Communications. That group, Evolution Digital said, are the NCTC members to commit to eVUE-TV and are starting to integrate it to deliver IP VOD content to its customers. Evolution said eVUE-TV plans to support additional components, including the delivery of IP linear channels, network DVR and TV Everywhere capabilities.

RELATED: Evolution Digital Notches Another NCTC Deal

The deals come a few months after Evolution Digital cut a deal with NCTC to distribute eVUE-TV as an option for members that operate the co-op’s VU-IT platform, which handles elements such as back office integration, OTT apps, and support for the TiVo interface. The VU-IT solution features TiVo Series 4 set-top boxes, Evolution Digital’s eBOX IP Hybrid Set-Top Box and other third-party hardware.

Introduced by Evolution Digital in February, eVUE-TV supplies “thousands” of hours of movies and TV shows on-demand while also integrating IP linear and VOD across a unified interface. Evolution’s future plans for the platform include cloud-based services, including a cloud DVR.

PHILADELPHIA – A panel of some of the industry’s top engineering executives shed some important light on why distributed architectures and the shift toward the software-driven, virtualization of network functions have rapidly become major priorities for MSOs around the globe.

Boiled down: Old models, driven by purpose-built hardware, simply won’t work anymore.

There’s a huge “disconnect” between the data that people are consuming and what cable operators must spend in order to keep up with that demand, Balan Nair, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Liberty Global said in a wide-ranging panel session that was moderated by Bob Stanzione, executive chairman and board chairman of Arris.

As network capacity planning goes, Liberty Global is already allocating enough capacity to deliver an average of about 1 Mbps per sub. With annual capacity growth in the range of 30% to 40% per year, it won’t be long before that hits 2 Mbps per sub.

STATUS ‘NOT SUSTAINABLE’

That would equate to about 25 8MHz-wide channels at Liberty Global, or “like half of our whole plant,” Nair said, noting that this trend causes MSOs to keep “feeding this beast” with capital just to expand capacity to stay ahead.

“That’s a problem for all of us,” he said. “That’s not sustainable.”

And it doesn’t add up with a business that grows revenue at 4% to 5% per year. “Eventually, it breaks,” Nair said. “The math will never work.”

The historic practice of buying specialized devices from traditional suppliers that cost a lot to build and buy won’t work anymore. “That model has to change,” Nair said.

The shift is toward cheap, commodity hardware running on very specialized software.

“So, we’re going to ask our vendors to think about the software and to run it on some cheap hardware because, at the current rate, it's not sustainable,” he said.

Vendors appear to have gotten that message loud and clear. Just this week, Nokia, Casa Systems and Harmonic all announced virtualized versions of Converged Cable Access Platforms that can work in tandem with distributed architectures that move away from traditional monolithic access devices.

Fellow panelist Jim Blackley, EVP, engineering and IT at Charter Communications, called Nair’s characterization of the situation “spot on and accurate.”

He added that, when it comes to capital, “you can’t spend it everywhere. … You can't spend it in the home and spend it in the network and spend it on content and all of the other things we need to deal with."

He said it’s important to think about virtualizing the functions of the consumer premises equipment (CPE) and move the compute, storage, encryption, and packaging into cloud-based centralized systems.

Charter is moving in that direction with ActiveVideo (a vendor it owns as part of a joint venture with Arris). Virtualizing the CPE means "you can put out devices that will last longer,” Blackley said. “The reality of our business is, the day you [deploy] something, it's legacy."

He said Charter was a “huge fan” of network virtualization and separating out the MAC and PHY elements.

Zoran Static, EVP and CTO of Shaw Communications, said he’s also keying on these trends and listening to partners on “how the future is going to land.”

But when it comes to a move toward virtualization, “the starting point becomes remote PHY,” he said. “The old model is not sustainable. It’s not a choice really, anymore.”

Nair called the shift to software-driven models as one of his top worries. “It requires a skillset change in all of our businesses,” he said. “The change is not just the skillsets in our employee base, but the skillsets of our vendor base as well."

Vendors, meanwhile, prefer to innovate on their own platforms. Interests of the two sides might not match up and could become a source of tension.

Nair thinks it’s best to solve that problem, “or else you're going to see more and more operators building their own stuff, and that won't be very good for the industry."

The early part of the talk centered on the move toward Gigabit-level broadband – something that has become a table stakes option for consumers who need it, or at least think they need it.

But Nair doesn’t see 1-Gig going “mainstream” until 2018 or 2019. By that, it won’t become a “bullseye” product for Liberty Global that is backed heavily by marketing and promotion. Today, that’s relegated to the operator’s 250 Mbps product, he said.

“We’re looking at increasing it,” Nair said, noting that MSOs have the luxury to press two levers with broadband – price and speed – while competitors with less robust networks can only fiddle with price. “Speed wins.”

Blackley said Charter is already getting positioned for the 1-Gig future. Its all-digital migration is freeing up capacity and Charter is also plunging fiber deeper into the network.

He added: “It’s not just about speeds; it's about latency, and it's not just about in-home; it's out of home.”

Blackley hesitated to say when consumers will actually need 1-Gig speeds, but won’t be surprised to see it happen eventually. "Like your garage, if you build it, it will get filled,” he said.

‘IRRATIONAL’ GOOGLE MOVES

Stakic, meanwhile, warned against “irrational behaviors” occurring in the United States, largely “triggered by Google,” that might cause MSOs to rush prematurely to 1-Gig.  He questioned if adoption rates will be high enough to justify the returns, noting that there aren’t many apps now that require three-digit megabit speeds at this point, let along 1-Gig.

Nair said the challenge of getting gigabit to the home pales versus getting gigabit support inside the home with WiFi. “The cost of WiFi now is actually more expensive on a per subscriber basis than DOCSIS,” he said.

The panel dove deeper into wireless and mobility now that Comcast and Charter Communications are both looking to put their MVNO agreements with Verizon in play.

Blackley said having an MVNO deal won’t prevent Charter from having to bulk up its own network with denser WiFi and backhauling capabilities.

“Wireless is just an extension of the wired network, and our consumers want their products where they are..and we have to have a network that will support that with economics that make sense." 

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Philadelphia -- While 2016 is a “foundational year” for the industry, 2017 is poised to be the year of “innovation and collaboration,” Tony Werner, president, technology and product for Comcast Cable, said here Tuesday morning in remarks that opened this year’s Cable-Tec Expo. 

On the foundational side, he noted examples such as the closing of the Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable merger, with Charter now pushing ahead with a cohesive technology and service plan that covers the combined company’s new, broader footprint.

“I think the industry has got a very solid year under [its] belt,” Werner said, pointing to cable’s continued broadband growth, with accelerated rollouts of multi-gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 technology on the horizon.

2017, he said, is “the year that we can seize as an industry,” added Werner, who this week was re-elected as chairman of the SCTE/ISBE board for the 2016-2017 term. “The wind is at our back as we go into 2017, and I think it's the time for us to really capitalize as an industry and as a Society…The industry has gotten knocked a few years back that we couldn't innovate,” he said. “I think we’re showing everyone that’s not true.”

Reiterating next year’s anticipated theme for MSOs, Werner said the industry’s “secret weapon” is its ability to work together.

“We collaborate, we work across,” he said. “We are not competitors, at present…It allows us to punch above our weight, which I think is so absolutely critical.”

He also presented what he said are key ingredients for the industry’s future success.

Chief among them, again, was collaboration, with Werner giving some credit to X1, Comcast’s  cloud-based platform, which relies on agile and DevOps models, attracting top engineering talent, and creating a culture and environment “where people like to show up and work…and build great products on top of powerful platforms.”

And Comcast, Werner reminded the crowd, is collaborating outside of Comcast’s ecosystem, pointing to syndication deals it has with Cox Communications and Shaw Communications.

“The collaboration back and forth [with those partners] is powerful,” Werner said.

More on those opening remarks, including Werner’s follow up conversation with Zoran Stakic, Shaw’s EVP and CTO, will be featured in the Day 2 daily from Multichannel News that will be distributed here Wednesday. 

SCTE/ISBE has tapped Terry Cordova, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Altice USA, and Jim Blackley, EVP, engineering and information technology at Charter Communications, to co-chair the program committee for next year’s Cable-Tec Expo.

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Cable-Tec Expo 2017, set to run October 17-20 in Denver, will carry the theme, “The Big Deal,” and focus on new technology approaches that can power next-gen services, SCTE/ISBE said.

Cordova and Blackley will helm the creation of next year’s Expo program.

“Terry Cordova and Jim Blackley are at the epicenter of the trends that are shaping the future of our industry,” Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE/ISBE, said in a statement. “Their visions of how to implement transformative customer experiences are pivotal both to the product roadmaps of technology partners and to the development of SCTE/ISBE training that has a material effect on operators’ bottom lines.”

“At Altice USA, we are focused on investing in innovation and technology and commend SCTE/ISBE’s commitment to applied science, which is accelerating the deployment of advanced technologies such as fiber to the home, Wi-Fi 3.0, and customer-focused platforms,” added Cordova.  “I look forward to working with Jim and the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2017 Program Committee to develop an agenda that aligns SCTE/ISBE’s educational strengths with operator needs.”

“The technologies being deployed today by Charter and other operators are greatly improving the video and communications experience our consumers enjoy,” said Blackley.  “By co-chairing the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2017 Program Committee, Terry and I will create a forum for the exchange of ideas that can more quickly and more efficiently bring new services to market and continue the rapid evolution of our industry.”

Keying on a major trend that will impact the future of the cable access network, Harmonic has introduced CableOS, a virtualized, software-based version of the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP).

Harmonic is entering the vCCAP game as cable operators start to consider a shift away from centralized, monolithic CCAPs, which combine the functions of the cable modem termination system and edge QAM, and eye more distributed, scalable architectures that can be controlled and manipulated by software in tandem with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware.

Get complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2016

Harmonic said CableOS runs on COTS Intel servers installed in headends, hubs or data centers, and that MSOs can add servers as they need to tack on additional capacity.

Going with a virtualized approach could also help Harmonic gain more traction in a CCAP sector that is dominated today by Arris, Cisco Systems and Casa Systems, which are also working on vCCAP products. Harmonic will also be looking to fend off others that are aggressively pursuing this market, including Huawei and Nokia, which recently acquired a virtual CCAP-focused startup called Gainspeed.

RELATED: Nokia Puts Gainspeed Buy to Work

“We believe that this a great opportunity to address key challenges that current solutions don’t resolve,” particularly when it comes to space and power requirements as well as future capacity growth, Asaf Matatyaou, vice president of solutions and product management for Harmonic’s cable edge business, said. “We’re seeing unprecedented growth, and pain points that are reaching our customers’ operational and financial limits…We feel like we’ve solved the great equation.”

Harmonic’s new offering is a remote PHY platform that works in tandem with a software-based core that that works with the edge devices. That combination can also support centralized deployments as well, Matatyaou said. .  In centralized CCAP situations, Harmonic’s NSG Pro can serve as the video core/PHY shelf. 

RELATED: Casa Systems Intros Virtual CCAP

Harmonic claims that its approach can help MSOs reduce space and power by up to 75% when used in a centralized CCAP deployment or more than 90% in a distributed remote PHY scenario.

Regarding the remote PHY element, Harmonic plans to come out with modules that can fit into existing nodes from other suppliers as well as its own nodes that are tailored for the virtualized approach.

RELATED: Harmonic Seeks Edge With ‘Distributed’ CCAP

Matatyaou said a barrier has been crossed in terms of having access to the right mix of CPU power and software capabilities to bring a vCCAP to bear, and could lead to a day when operators can avoid having to go through upgrade cycles of purpose-built CCAP hardware – from cards to the chassis themselves.

Harmonic sees CableOS playing a role early on in systems where the centralized CCAPs are starting to be tapped out – from a space and power standpoint – and need a sustainable path forward as they add capacity.  That might not be the case across an MSO’s entire footprint, but could enter play where an operator is feeling the heat from a competitor like Google Fiber.

Harmonic said CableOS is in trials with multiple tier 1 cable operators in North America and Europe. Initial deployments of CableOS expected to begin in Q4 2016, Matatyaou said.

Harmonic (booth 1948) is debuting CableOS at this week’s Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia. 

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance has introduced MoCA 2.1, a new firmware feature and extension of MoCA 2.0 that supports throughputs of 500 Mbps and a 1 Gbps “bonded” offering alongside the addition of a handful of new features that set a migration path toward MoCA 2.5. 

RELATED: MoCA Feels The Need For Speed

The Alliance said MoCA 2.1 and MoCA 2.1 Bonded, which can be used with whole-home DVRs and speedy networking setups that use a home's coax as the backbone, also bakes in new features spanning network set-up, management, and enhanced privacy settings:

-MoCA protected setup (MPS):  Easy setup of new nodes with unique password sharing via push-button (similar to Wi-Fi WPS).

-Management proxy: Management of nodes that don’t have upper layer management support by supporting management queries from one node on behalf of other nodes.

-Enhanced privacy: Secure data communications with a longer password using different keys between MoCA 2.1 nodes compared to MoCA 1.1/MoCA 2.0 nodes, along with the ability to control data forwarding of legacy nodes to and from MoCA 2.1 nodes.

-Network-wide beacon power management: Improved control of peak signal power on the coax by configuring the beacon power of nodes to an absolute level (within tolerance of the hardware) and advertise that level to other nodes so that the same value is used after any handoff.

-Bridge detection: Ability to distinguish between nodes belonging to different networks and pass operator specified information between nodes before admission, as well as pass that same information to upper layers to prevent neighbors from forming a common network.

“We now offer a broad suite of specifications inclusive of various performance modes and features providing the versatility to support and compliment IOT,” MoCA president Charles Cerino said, in a statement.

In April, MoCA introduced a 2.5 version of its platform that supports a wide range of profiles, including one that delivers net data rates topping 2.5 Gbps.

Get complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2016

Philadelphia -- 4K video and High Dynamic Range (HDR) represent what’s next in video quality, but the technology ecosystem required to support them are still in catch-up mode.

While 4K packs about four times the pixels into a picture than what’s seen with HD, HDR expands the color gamut and the luminance of those pixels by going to 10-bit technology and supporting billions of colors, including blacker blacks and whiter whites.

RELATED: SCTE/ISBE Adds 4K, HDR Focus to Cable-Tec Expo

But both are complex to support with legacy systems, Jeremy Morrison, vice president of solutions engineering at Deluxe OnDemand, said here Monday during a Cable-Tec Expo workshop focused on “Advanced Encoding Meets IP Video Delivery.”

Operators are also faced with competing formats, such as HDR10 and Dolby Vision, he said, labeling this  as the “21st Century Version of VHS vs. Betamax.”

Deluxe OnDemand is helping pay TV providers get around these challenges with a platform that manages those complexities, including elements such as backend scheduling, encoding, content acquisition, ingest, delivery and reporting and management.

In an outline of a case study with an unnamed pay TV operator, Deluxe OnDemand is enabling this with a managed system adapted from the standard- and high-def video world that  delivered 4K content at bit rates ranging from 15 Mbps to 3 Mbps, while also supporting legacy set-top boxes as well as apps running on new OTT platforms.

Arris, meanwhile, is also investigating these issues, with a particularly focus on adaptive bit rate (ABR) technologies in tandem with Big Data and predictive analytics systems.   

ABR isn’t new. Well known in the OTT world, It adapts the video stream in real time with the current network conditions, and switches to a lower or high bit rates based on those conditions. ABR continues to grow in popularity because it’s agile enough to deliver content to mobile devices as well as traditional TV screens, and can support HD and 4K fare as well as lower-resolution video.

However, many of those services run in silos and lack a “unified dashboard,” Sridhar Kunisetty, distinguished engineer at Arris, explained, noting that his company has been working on a platform that can work across devices and show a combined view to the operator that reduces costs and enables them to better manage the network.

Arris is also focused on an approach it calls Cloud-Assisted ABR, which takes the decision from the ABR client on a smartphone, for example, and manages that in the cloud. ABR clients are “greedy” in that they want to consume as much bandwidth as it can.  A cloud-assisted approach, he said, is a fairer way to distribute content and works well with an MSO’s managed network environment.

Arris is also working on Multicast-Assisted ABR approaches that are more bandwidth-efficient than unicast streaming platforms because it allows for more than one person to share a stream. In concert with real-time usage data, it’s possible for an operator to identify the 20 to 30 channels that consumers use most, making them good candidates for which content to deliver in a multicast setting, Kunisetty noted. 

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), and Colorado-based tech training specialist opXL Learning Systems have inked a partnership aimed at expanding workforce learning and development opportunities for cable operators.

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Under the deal, they’ll make opXL’s Safety and HFC Technician courses available to SCTE/ISBE’s 25,000 members via the Society’s “learning infrastructure.” They’ll begin to offer opXL's courses, which are interactive and distributed online, later this year.

RELATED: NCTI, opXL Make a Course Connection

opXL's Safety Series includes refresher training for Ladder Safety, Driving, Bucket Truck Safety, Electrical Safety (two courses) and Slips, Trips and Falls. Its HFC Technician programs include Cable Math, RF Theory & Troubleshooting and AC Power.  All courses are interactive, are offered online, and include rich animations and graphics.

The partnership will also open the door for opXL and SCTE/ISBE to collaborate on new training content, with opXL positioned as the sales channel for coursework covered by the partnership.

They announced the deal on the eve of Cable-Tec Expo 2016, set to run through Thursday (September 29) in Philadelphia.

“opXL’s strong technical knowledge base, its engaging curricula and its results-oriented methodologies all have established it as a ‘go-to’ resource for training expertise,” Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE/ISBE, said in a statement. “By collaborating on both course creation and distribution through both SCTE and ISBE, we can accelerate the global availability of customized, personalized training that can have a direct and meaningful impact on operators’ bottom lines.”

“With its vast membership base, its deep relationships with operators and technology partners and its role as the industry’s only ANSI-accredited standards body, SCTE/ISBE is able to expand both the footprint of opXL training as well as the portfolio of course offerings,” added Tom Gorman, president of opXL and industry vet who is late of several MSOs, including Charter Communications, Prime Cable, Comcast, and Jones Intercable. “We look forward to building a relationship that will achieve the goals of both of our organizations—a better-trained, more valuable workforce for our industry.”

As you might have noticed, our annual CTO roundtable in this week's issue of Multichannel News (subscription required) covered a lot of ground as engineers and execs head to Philadelphia for this week's SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo. We discussed next-gen WiFi strategies, DOCSIS 3.1 rollout initiatives, remote PHY architectures, virtualization and even a bit about what kind of impact MSOs should expect as 4K and High Dynamic Range enter the video picture.

Get complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2016

And, because there was only so much room to work with, some of our discussion didn’t get covered there, so I’m using this space to include a brief passage on an oldie-but-goody question we posed to our esteemed panel: When will your available digital capacity be “all IP?”

That’s a tricky one for even the best crystal balls. After all, there are still millions of QAM/MPEG transport-only boxes choking the network, including a bunch of Digital Transport Adapters (that's a Cisco-made DTA pictured above), and operators are far from united in how they will push ahead with these migrations. Comcast is eyeing an all-IP future as it accelerates the rollout of X1, while Charter Communications shoots for a different strategy in which it can deliver a next-gen UI to IP-capable and QAM-locked boxes using the ActiveVideo’s platform now jointly owned by Charter and Arris.

While it’s probably impossible to know exactly when cable video will go all IP and join its broadband and voice brethren, our esteemed panelists were at least willing to noodle on it a bit.

“From a video standpoint, we're in position to enable that,” Kevin Hart, EVP and CTO of Cox, said. “The conversion from the QAM video distribution to only all-IP is still, I think, many years out into the future for most of us. It's going to take time, just based on CPE and everything else. We're in a good position to deliver all-IP, but it's going to take time, particularly on the QAM video infrastructure.”

Balan Nair, CTO and EVP of Liberty Global, had a more targeted answer, though one with seemingly plenty of runway: “Umm. 2025? Sure – 2025.”

To be continued...

Espial has introduced “Elevate,” a cloud-based, “turnkey” video platform that is underpinned by the company’s recent acquisition of the Arris Whole Home Solution.

Ottawa-based Espial also identified three new customers: Easton Utilities of Easton, Md.; HBC (Hiawatha Broadband Communications of Minnesota);  and Ritter Communications, an operator that serves more than 45,000 business and residential customers in parts of Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri.

With those additions, Espial said its newly-branded Elevate platform is now deployed to more than 40 operators around the world. Other known partners include Shaw Communications, WideOpenWest, Buckeye CableSystem, EastLink, Comporium, Consolidated Communications and Service Electric Cable TV.

The new product branding and set of new customers come about a month after Espial closed its acquisition of Arris’s Whole Home Solution, a software, apps and video navigation platform for set-top boxes that was spawned by Arris’s $20 million purchase of Digeo in 2009. At the time, Espial estimated that the deal would add $7.7 million in annual revenues amid a plan to push forward with new “video-as-a-service” offerings.

RELATED: Espial Swings Deal for Arris’s Whole Home Solution

Espial is billing Elevate as a turnkey, IP video transition offering backed by a Network Operations Center and “geo-redundant” cloud data centers, multiscreen user interfaces, and associated apps platforms. Arris is now Espial’s preferred partner for gateways, but Espial is free to work with other hardware partners.

RELATED: Espial ‘G4’ STB Client Targets RDK & More

“We felt that the best path to get more scale with that software solution was to combine it with somebody that's just laser focused on that part of the market. It will be the best thing for our customers and ultimately the best thing for employees,” Bruce McClelland, the new CEO of Arris, said in a recent interview with Multichannel News, said of the reasoning behind the deal (Multichannel News will be running that full interview later this week.).

Espial’s acquisition of Arris’s WHS and launch of Elevate pits Espial against others that are pitching IP transition platforms to operators, including Evolution Digital, Adara Technologies, as well as Comcast, which is now licensing/syndicating its X1 platform to other MSOs, with Cox Communications and Shaw Communications already on board. TiVo, freshly merged with Rovi and a partner with Evolution Digital, is also enabling MVPD partners to pursue next-gen video products.

RELATED: Shaw To Start X1 Set-Top Rollout in 2016

Espial said it will be showing off Elevate at the Arris booth (#1074) at this week’s SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia.

Get complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2016

In the weeks heading into the show, Cable-Tec Expo was in line to draw about 400 exhibitors, including 55 that are new to the confab.

Despite the ongoing consolidation of the industry, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) said attendance this year is “on plan” as registration activity started to accelerate around the Labor Day weekend.  Last year’s event in New Orleans drew more than8,600 attendees, thanks in part to growing international attendance, which surpassed about 1,100, and about 66 exhibitors that were new to Expo.

Multichannel News technology editor recently checked in with Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE and ISBE, its international arm, to discuss what’s new at this year’s show and what he believes will be the hot topics in Philadelphia. An edited transcript follows.

Multichannel News: What's going to be new and different at this year's show? 

Mark Dzuban: Under the premise of "Innovation Meets Here," there's been a lot of thinking by this team. The Innovation Theater is going to kind of twist on some of the things we've done.

We'll also be making an announcement on a next-generation educational system that is very high tech using the most current science of the transfer of knowledge.

We brought on Reni Gorman [as vice president, learning and development]. Her background is from Columbia University on cognitive studies -- how the brain thinks. If you look at military avionics, aerospace and how they develop senior folks that are responsible for not just very expensive but also very critical weapon systems and network reliabilities from a military perspective -- using very similar science in this new program that we're going to be announcing. 

MCN: What is the Innovation Theater going to be about? 

MD: Innovation Theater [at 4,500 square feet] is for industry trends, announcements and new technologies discussion. You're going to see a constant set of presentations around key initiatives in our industry. It's a focal point for new thinking in the Innovation Theater. 

RELATED: New Cable Tec- Expo Exhibits Key on ‘Innovation’

MCN: Topic-wise, what do you see as the big drivers this year? It seems like DOCSIS 3.1 and wireless technologies are two big ones that come to mind. 

MD: There's a load of workshops. Certainly, the early  DOCSIS 3.1 deployments around what was learned...that's a big deal. We have some good presentations by the senior folks deploying it. 

Another is fiber access architecture strategies, which are driving fiber deeper. That's terribly important as we continue to reduce fiber node sizes and improve customer experience. Fiber deployment considerations -- that's driven by the competitive environment and how we have a leadership edge on our science in the field. 

IoT [Internet of Things] and IoT services, that's interesting because you see a lot of new applications. And the power of color – a lot of enhancements to video we're doing to [improve] the experience. 

Maintenance and testing in an SDN world -- think of the software-defined networks and how they evolve with the current physical plant...into a software domain that is going to be much more agile.

And SDN and NFV (network functions virtualization) -- continuing to look at elements within the network and what that looks like from an access perspective. Access is the largest component of our plant, so how software-defined networks virtualize some of the outside facilities will be a big deal.

And there’s also the access technology around energy. There are a lot of benefits about energy that people don't realize. As you manage your energy efficiently, the core temperatures get reduced and you generally improve your network reliability and mean time between failures. There are all kinds of economic benefits and network reliability benefits that come from energy management. 

MCN: If you had to boil it down, what's the biggest challenge that your constituents fact today? Is it about competition or enabling the workforce for the future? 

MD: Every year, it's about: What do we need to tackle? It may not be the same topics as the previous year. But it's about being agile -- how do we support our industry in a dynamic market where the threats change, how do we invest our capital? Five year plans get modified. How do we adopt the way that we do business to constantly compete in a very agile and focused way?

The value of SCTE and what we do, I think, is becoming crisper. We're working hard to show the value [such as] some of the things we're doing around training. Training component has a direct correlation with my CTO and CFO discussions -- how do you correlate all the work you do to get business results. We're driving both workforce and technology from an applied science perspective. 

As the cable industry gears up for another Cable-Tec Expo, there will be plenty to see and do next week in Philadelphia, and offer just about something for everybody in the sector’s engineering ranks.

Get complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2016

Since it’s impossible for one to get to all the workshops and to see everything on the floor, here’s a look at some of the sessions and doings that will be on our dance cards (view the  full show schedule here, and a detailed listing of workshops that will be on tap):

The Big Picture

A big can’t miss is Tuesday’s general session at 8:30 a.m. in the Terrace Ballroom. That will kick off with opening remarks from Tony Werner, president, technology and product for Comcast Cable and chairman of the SCTE/ISBE board of directors, and follow with a keynote from Marcus Weldon, CTO of Nokia and president of Nokia Labs.

Stick around for a panel led by Bob Stanzione, executive chairman and chairman of the board at Arris; Jim Blackley, executive VP, engineering and IT at Charter Communications; Balan Nair, EVP and CTO of Liberty Global; and Zoran Stakic, EVP and CTO of Shaw Communications.

Energized for The Future

Energy conservation power reduction have been on cable’s front burner since the industry outlined the goals of the ambitions Energy 2020 program in 2014. This year’s show will offer some opportunities to get caught up on the progress of that initiative.

Don’t miss:

-Access Technology Energy: Changing the Equation: Monday at 2 p.m. (100 level Rooms)

This track will address energy consumption in headends, hubs and access networks, and will feature Charter’s Dan Cooper (moderator), along with John Ulm of Arris; and Samir Parikh, of Gainspeed, the virtual CCAP startup acquired earlier this year by Nokia.

-Energy Saving Strategies: Monday at 3:15 p.m. (100 level rooms)

This session will lay out the energy blueprint for a typical cable system, from the side of the house all the way to the headend. Led by Comcast’s Theresa Hennesy (moderator), and speakers Charles Carroll of Coppervale Enterprises and Gary Mitchinson of Virgin Media.

-SCTE/ISBE Energy 2020 Session:Tuesday at 11 a.m. (Room 121 B-C)

This 90-minute session will offer an expanded update on the initiative, promising fresh insight from Comcast, Liberty Global and suppliers such as Alpha Technologies, Arris, EnerNOC and VMware. Also to be unveiled: a new Energy Chapter Engagement Program for SCTE/ISBE chapters, and present an update on new energy management standards.

Tuned to Next-Gen Video

Though MPEG/QAM video transport will be will us for years to come, the industry’s IP video transition is in full swing, opening up opportunities for richer, more visually-pleasing formats and expansion to new types of devices.

-Advanced Encoding Meets IP Video Delivery: Monday at 2 p.m. (100 level rooms)

This session will take a deep dive on new formats such as 4K/Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range (HDR) and illustrate why distribution of those signals require more than just new encoders and now predictive analysis and adaptive bit rate technologies can get a fix on bandwidth utilization. Features Niem Dang of SCTE/ISBE (moderator), Jeremy Morrison of Deluxe OnDemand Sridhar Kunisetty of Arris.

-Delivering Video Services to Customer-Owned Devices: Monday at 3:15 p.m. (100 level rooms)

The cable industry isn’t wild about the FCC’s proposed set-top box rules, but the industry has already been extending apps to retail devices. This session will explore the feasibility (and business and technology constraints) of a customer owned and managed (COAM) device as the primary screen for video consumption.  Led by Matt Zelesko of Comcast, joined by Matt Kalman, Principal of IBB Consulting, and Raj Nair of Ericsson.

-Immersive Video Experiences:Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. (100 level rooms)

Virtual reality is still in its early days, but it’s not too early to be noodling on the bandwidth and  infrastructure impact of VR games and 360-degree video and apps. Led by Ralph Brown of CableLabs, along with Charles Cheevers, and Thierry Fautier of Harmonic.

-To Multicast or Not to Multicast: It’s No Longer the Question! (Or Is It?): Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. (100 level rooms),

Moderated by Jatin Desai of Cognizant Technology Solutions, along with Tushar Mathur of Arris, and Erica Robinson of IBB Consulting

-The Power of Color: Thursday at 12:45 p.m. (100 level rooms)

This session will delve into HDR and wide color gamut and explain what they mean MSO infrastructure and distribution. Moderated by Bill Warga, and joined by Jaclyn Pytlarz of Dolby Laboratories and Sean McCarthy of Arris.

SCTE/ISBE has also teed up two sessions dedicated to 4K/Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range on Wednesday:

-11:15 a.m. (Expo’s Innovation Theater): This “TV of the Near Future” to be moderated by Mark Francisco of Comcast and joined by Craig Todd of Dolby, Thierry Fautier of Harmonic, Jim Morrison of Rogers Communications, Alan Stein of Technicolor, and Skip Pizzi of the NAB.

-1:45 p.m. (Room 121 BC) :  A two-hour session, “The Ecosystem Landscape for HDR,” will be led by Craig Cuttner of HBO and chair of the SCTE/ISBE standard’s program’s Digital Video Subcommittee HDR Working Group, and feature a “master class” taught by Matthew Goldman of Ericsson. Also on tap: presentations by Fautier, Todd, Pizzi, and Arris’s Sean McCarthy. 

Broadband’s Next Wave

DOCSIS 3.1 is setting the stage for multi-gigabit broadband over HFC. While D3.1 is in the early deployment stages, out on the horizon are advanced wireless platforms, fiber-deeper and distributed architectures, as well as  and  Full Duplex (FDX) DOCSIS, an emerging extension that will enable symmetrical services that are usually the domain of FTTP architectures.

Don’t Miss:

-Beyond DOCSIS 3.1: FDX and More:  Monday at 3:15 p.m. (100 level rooms)

This workshop will explore Remote PHY architectures, FDX, and extended frequency ranges for DOCSIS. Led by Ken Wright of Wright Solutions (moderator), and joined by John Chapman of Cisco Systems; and Tao Ouyang of Huawei Technologies.

-Early DOCSIS 3.1 Deployments: Wednesday at 10: 15 a.m. (100 level rooms),

Led by Jay Rolls of Charter (moderator) along with Jorge Salinger of Comcast, and Jason Miller of Cisco

-Remote Architectures and Performance: Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. (100 level rooms),

Featuring Ayham Al-Banna of Arris (moderator), and Jeff Finkelstein of Cox, and Fernando Villarruel if Cisco.

-Fiber Access Architecture Strategies: Wednesday at 9 a.m.  (100 level rooms),

Featuring Jay Rolls of Charter (moderator), Dr. L. Alberto Campos of CableLabs and John Ulm of Arris.

-Wireless: Going Beyond Wi-Fi: Wednesday at 9 a.m.  (100 level rooms),

This session will examine the evolution of WiFi, concerns about coexistence of licensed and unlicensed technologies and 5G.  Led by Zoran Stakic of Shaw (moderator), and featuring  David Wright of Ruckus Wireless (now part of Brocade) and Chris Richards of Ericsson.

The network goes soft…and virtual

A big focus for cable (and this event) is the move toward software-defined networks and virtualization, a strategy that includes much less emphasis on purpose-built hardware and more cloud-powered network smarts. Here’s a representative view of what’s on tap:

-As a Service with SDN/NFV: Monday at 2 p.m. (100 level rooms),

 Rajat Ghai of Benu Networks (moderator), with Ben Bekele of Cisco, and Scott Robinson of Cox Communications.

-Virtualizing Content Delivery and CPE: Monday at 3:15 p.m. (100 level rooms),

Jeff Finkelstein of Cox (moderator), with Toerless Eckert of Cisco, and Bill Coward of Cox.

-Deploying SDN/NFV : Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. (100 level rooms),

Led by John Dickinson of Charter (moderator), and joined by Karthik Sundaresan of CableLabs and Tom Zanylo of Cisco. 

Arris has followed up its first retail-focused DOCSIS 3.1 product with a set of D3.1-powered gateway products for service providers.

New to the company’s D3.1 family are:

-The TG3442, a gigabit gateway with whole-home WiFi at an “entry-level price point.”

-The TG3452, a “performance-tier” telephony gateway with “carrier-grade video” over WiFi capabilities.

-The TG3462, a premium-tier telephony gateway that tacks on multiple IoT radios and 8x8 WiFi.

Arris did not disclose if the silicon supplier underpinning those products is Broadcom or Intel.  Arris said it plans to submit its new line of D3.1 products for certification testing at CableLabs.

Arris’s first retail-facing D3.1 product, the SB8200, achieved certification earlier this year. Vendors with products that have also been certified for D3.1 include Humax, Sagemcom, Askey, CastleNet, Netgear, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive.

Get complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2016

Arris (booth 1074) will show off its new wares at next week’s SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia

Arris also announced the launch of the Touchstone Development Partner Program, which opens up the platform to software development partners. Initial partners include embedUR Systems and SamKnows. Arris will also provide services for testing, certifying, and deploying applications in service provider networks under that program. 

SCTE/ISBE said engineering and operations pros from Cable ONE, Charter Communications and Comcast will head to Philadelphia next week to compete in the “IP Challenge” finals, which will test their knowledge of Internet Protocol technologies, including IPv6.  

Get complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2016

The final, sponsored by Cisco Systems, is set for Monday, Sept. 26 at 6 p.m. ET, and will feature three rounds of Jeopardy-style questions, and one found of equipment configuration and troubleshooting.  

Here are this year’s finalists:

-Robert Peiers, Cable ONE (Defending Champion)

-Viktor Bialou, Comcast

-James Guidry, Charter Communications

-Cody Hall, Cable ONE

-John Holt, Charter Communications

-Alexander Morong, Cable ONE

-Zack Stricker, Cable ONE

-Kevin Troub, Cable ONE

-Douglas VanGessel, Cable ONE

Each finalist is getting a full conference pass for the show. The IP Challenge winner will receive one full conference pass to Cisco Live and one full conference pass to next year’s Cable-Tec Expo and a chance to defend the title.