Moving ahead on plan to trial DOCSIS 3.1 technology in Q4 2015, Comcast announced on its corporate blog Tuesday that it reached a milestone when it installed a D3.1-based modem on a “customer-facing network” in late November in its hometown of Philadelphia, and has since expanded those tests to a set of other markets.

“The next-generation technology that will deliver gigabit Internet speeds moved from the laboratory to the living room late last month when we installed what we believe to be the world’s first DOCSIS 3.1 modem on a customer-facing network,” Tony  Werner, Comcast’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, noted in the blog post. “Since installing the first live DOCSIS 3.1 modem here in Philadelphia, we’ve continued to expand the trials to additional locations in Pennsylvania, Northern California and Atlanta, Georgia,”

DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging CableLabs specification, has been designed to support capacities of up to 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps upstream, but the first wave of D3.1 modems, which will support both DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 3.0 traffic, will be capable of supporting about 5 Gbps down and 1 Gbps upstream when fully loaded. Comcast is currently offering residential gigabit speeds in several markets in a targeted fashion via Gigabit Pro, a symmetrical 2 Gbps service that relies on fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technologies. Comcast will greatly expand the reach of residential gigabit broadband when it rolls out DOCSIS 3.1 via its widely deployed hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) network.

“The test used the standard cable connections that we have in homes across the country,” Werner wrote. “All we needed was a new modem, a software upgrade to the device that serves that neighborhood, and a few good engineers.”

The initial batch of trials, currently being targeted to an undisclosed number of employee homes in the aforementioned markets, is delivering downstream speeds of about 1 Gbps. 

Comcast previewed a D3.1-based “Gigabit Home Gateway” (pictured) in May at the INTX show in Chicago, noting that the new device was expected to go into production sometime this year. Werner’s blog post did not mention whose equipment Comcast is using for the trials. However, Arris and Taiwan’s Compal Electronics were the manufacturing partners involved in the D3.1-based device shown at INTX earlier this year, according to Light Reading.

Werner said Comcast will continue to test DOCSIS 3.1 in the “coming months, as we get ready to start delivering DOCSIS 3.1-powered service to our customers. Before the end of 2016, we will begin offering a new gigabit speed choice that works over the existing connections in our customers’ homes in several parts of the country.”

In the meantime, he said Comcast plans to activate more homes with DOCSIS 3.1 technology so the MSO “can observe how it performs in multiple real-world environments and make whatever minor modifications necessary to get it ready for deployment to our customers…We still have a lot of work to do, but these tests confirm that DOCSIS 3.1 will work over our existing network as currently configured.” 

Taking aim at cable’s next-gen IP platform, Broadcom has introduced a DOCSIS 3.1-based cable set-top box reference design that also supports 4K/Ultra HD video and gigabit WiFi. 

The design, dubbed the BCM93390VMS52, can support IP capacity of 5 Gbps downstream and 2 Gbps upstream, Broadcom said. Broadcom unveiled its first DOCSIS 3.1-based chipset, the BCM93390, in January. Intel and STMicroelectronics are among the known companies that are also developing DOCSIS 3.1 modem silicon. 

DOCSIS 3.1 is being designed to handle up to 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps upstream. 

Notably, Comcast previewed a D3.1-based “Gigabit Home Gateway” at the recent INTX show in Chicago. 

Broadcom, which is in the process of being acquired by Avago for $37 billion said its new  chipset will also feature 10-bit HEVC-enabled Ultra HD video decoding (via Broadcom's BCM7252S), MoCA 2.0 (for in-home networking over coax),  WiFi speeds up to 2.2 Gbps at 5GHz and 1 Gbps at 2.4GHz with support for the 802.11ac Wave 2 specs. 

The BCM3390M DOCSIS 3.1 device and BCM93390VMS52 set-top box reference design with integrated 802.11ac WiFi are currently sampling. Broadcom said it is demonstrating the BCM93390VMS52 at this week’s ANGA COM event in Cologne, Germany. 

"Competition among service providers is driving an increase in Gigabit Internet speeds and 4K IP video around the world. Broadcom is bringing to market an extraordinary set-top box reference design that gives service providers a platform to enable the best connectivity performance available today," said John Gleiter, VP of marketing at Broadcom’s Broadband & Connectivity Group. "With Broadcom's latest platform, service providers and OEMs can immediately begin to leverage the value of DOCSIS 3.1 to provide their customers with market-leading Gigabit broadband data speeds, the highest-speed dual concurrent 4x4 Wi-Fi for streaming Internet content to wireless devices and Ultra HD cable TV experiences."

CHIGAGO — Even as the faithful began to filter into the McCormick Place Convention Center here there was a feeling that this show would be different, and not just by the change of name from now retired “The Cable Show” to the inclusive new INTX: Internet & Television Expo.

Cable TV companies, the original disruptors, are being disrupted.

New “over-the-top” competitors are forcing deep trepidation and profound business strategy shifts for multichannel-TV distributors, who are creating new “skinny” bundles of TV with Internet to respond to the threat. To draw — and retain — customers, cable’s biggest operators are accelerating upgrades to make broadband speeds top out at 1 Gigabit per second and more.

And they are spending furiously — hundreds of millions of dollars, in the case of giant Comcast — to fortify the issue that despite genuine advances, stands today as the Achilles’ Heel of the entire industry: customer service.

Cable networks are seeking new metrics to measure the millennial shift to viewing on new devices, and they’re fretting over a more Darwinian ecosystem that will surely kill off the weaker networks, a certain result if new “slimmer” bundles take hold. Upstart channels won’t have a chance on linear television, and it’ll be harder for entrenched networks to show growth. Welcome to the jungle.

On top of these challenges, there will be little help from Washington, as Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler made clear to the flummoxed crowd in Chicago, who sat, literally and figuratively, in the dark on his intentions. Unlike the last few glory years of the industry, federal regulators’ eyes will be trained hard on Internet distribution, with the ability — if not the intent — to control pricing.

Greater scrutiny was the point of the FCC’s lengthy suffocation of the $67 billion Comcast- Time Warner Cable merger, which was summed up by Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts not with any verbal explanation, but by cutting his speech to a clip of an explosion from the movie Fast & Furious 7 (released, of course, by Universal Studios).

But the convention’s host — National Cable & Telecommunications Association president and CEO Michael Powell, cable’s articulate and admired general — reassured the assembled troops that cable’s long collective history of innovation wouldn’t stop soon.

For readers who couldn’t make to Chicago, following are five takeaways from the staff of Multichannel News.

1.A New Gold Standard for Broadband Speed: 1-Gig Is Here

Despite the specter of Title II hanging over the future of U.S. broadband, regulators aren’t slowing cable’s push to bring speeds of 1 Gigabit-per-second and more to residential customers.

Among MSOs, Cox Communications and Comcast last week trumpeted news of the new gold standard of Internet speed.

Cox said its 1-Gig “G1GABLAST” residential service has been launched in parts of four markets: Phoenix; Orange County, Calif.; Omaha, Neb.; and Las Vegas. Cox, which first launched G1GABLAST in Phoenix in October 2014, is also in the process of extending that fiber-based service to systems serving Arkansas, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Oklahoma and Virginia, and expects to light up service in those markets sometime this summer.

Comcast, meanwhile, said it had begun to roll out “Gigabit Pro,” a 2-Gbps residential service delivered via fiber-to-the-premises technology, in Nashville and other systems in middle Tennessee, as well as the greater Chicago region, including northwest Indiana. All told, Comcast expects to make Gigabit Pro available to 18 million homes that are within “close proximity” (about one-third of a mile) to its fiber network.

Much-smaller Mediacom Communications is preparing a 1-Gig trial in the university town of Columbia, Mo., using DOCSIS 3.0 technology.

While those services are being rolled out on a limited and targeted basis, cable operators aim to bring gigabit broadband to its more broadly deployed hybrid fiber/coax networks using DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging CableLabs-specified platform that will be capable of delivering up to 10 Gbps downstream and at least 1 Gbps in the upstream.

At INTX, Comcast offered a glimpse at its D3.1 strategy, showing off a fancy-looking “Gigabit Home Gateway” slated to go into production later this year and become available to customers in early 2016.

Although competition from Google Fiber and AT&T’s fiber-based “GigaPower” appears to be accelerating cable’s advances, it’s still not clear what apps and services will require such lofty capacities.

“I still think a Gigabit is overkill for some time,” Tony Werner, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Comcast, said on a panel last Tuesday (May 5) covering innovation and the future of media.

For now, it’s about future-proofing the network as apps and services develop that will require gigabit speeds.

“We think 1-Gig is about enabling the next generation of the Internet,” Philip Nutsugah, Cox’s vice president of access product development and management, said Thursday (May 7) on a panel dedicated to the gigabit topic. “As a service provider, we need to stay ahead of the demand curve.”

— Jeff Baumgartner

2. Cable Stops Worrying and Learns to Love OTT

INTX amplified the idea that 2015 will be the year cable learned to stop worrying and love over-the-top video. Instead of fearing OTT and considering it an enemy to the traditional pay TV ecosystem, operators are starting to embrace it.

That became increasingly apparent after a handful of cable operators, including Cablevision Systems and Mediacom Communications, struck distribution deals with Hulu, the OTT subscription video-on-demand service (see “Distribution: Hulu Antes Up” in Next TV).

Mediacom last week also became the latest in a growing group of pay TV providers to sign agreements that enable them to bring Netflix to MSO-leased set-top boxes. In Mediacom’s case, it will offer Netflix as an app on its TiVo-powered platform. But instead of signing on for Open Connect, Netflix’s private content delivery network, Mediacom and Netflix agreed to an interconnection deal under which the MSO will build fiber directly to Netflix’s facilities.

Comcast, meanwhile, is pushing hard on X1, a next-generation, Internet protocol-capable platform. So far, though, Comcast has not been nearly as aggressive with integrations of Internet-fed OTT video apps on the set-top. At this juncture, access has been largely limited to services such as Pandora, Instagram and Facebook. But Comcast’s platform is technically capable of supporting integrations with just about any OTT service.

TiVo has been preaching the value of TV-plus-OTT for years, and the message appears to be getting through, at least among its pay TV partners.

But Tom Rogers, TiVo’s president and CEO, said cable operators should be pushing even harder to blend their traditional TV service with increasingly popular over-the-top options.

“The cable guys can own that; they should own it,” Rogers said. “Instead, what is going on is programmers are creating individual streaming services. People are then thinking they can put together their own bundles, and that’s happening outside the integration and single experience that the cable operator can offer.”

The cable industry, he suggested, needs to be even more aggressive.

“It is amazing to me that they aren’t just putting their stamp on it,” Rogers said. “The best possible way to get it all and get it on a great interface … is the integration of traditional and over-the-top TV the way that only cable can do it.”

— Jeff Baumgartner

3. Bundles Are Gettiing ‘Skinnier’

Could 2015 be “the Year of the Skinny Bundle?”

Big multichannel distributors operators are creating “skinny” TV packages with Internet service, an effort to attract millennials and retain subscribers.

Peter Chernin, the former top Fox executive turned producer and online video entrepreneur, told the INTX crowd on Tuesday (May 5) that rather than destroy traditional channel packages, skinny bundles would “rationalize” them. “We’re going to see a tremendous explosion of new alternatives, largely IP-delivered,” he said. “That will ultimately force the bundle to justify itself, which is not the worst thing in the world.”

Later that day, a trio of seasoned execs offered similar predictions that the bundle is officially going on a diet. “I think you’re going to see more experimentation around this from programmers as well as operators. It’s in all of our best interest not to lose customers,” said Kathy Payne, senior vice president and chief programming officer of Suddenlink, during the panel session “Thin to Win: Choice, Change & the Rise of Skinny Bundles.”

Citing company survey findings, she added that market forces, especially OTT offerings, are making “people say, ‘Gosh, why am I paying this much to my cable operator when I have other choices?’ So we have to be nimble.”

Conversation and open diplomatic channels are key, the panelists agreed. Verizon’s bold move was preceded by virtually “no conversation” with programmers, Tonia O’Connor, president of content development and corporate business development for Univision Communications, said. “That was a head-scratcher for us because we’re more than happy to work with our partners to understand what the best option is for the consumer.”

Given the expectation of more OTT services, including some from traditional players (a la CBS All Access or HBO Now), O’Connor added ominously, “The launch of new linear channels as we know them today, there’s probably not a real future there.”

Mike Biard, distribution president for Fox Networks, declined to address his company’s legal fight with Verizon over its skinny bundle when asked by panel moderator Mark Robichaux, editorial director of NewBay Media’s TV Group. Later, though, he took issue with Verizon’s “touting” of a Nielsen study that found pay TV subscribers watch no more than 10 channels. While that notion “gets repeated ad-nauseum,” Biard said, “our research doesn’t back it up. What we hear from third parties doesn’t back it up. The idea that people have different tastes is absolutely true. But those tastes can cross over to a lot of different channels.”

— Dade Hayes, Broadcasting & Cable

4. Cable Ops Spend Big, Will Keep Spending on Customer Service

Comcast made the biggest splash on the customer care front, unveiling plans to spend $300 million on customer service, with several initiatives aimed at what Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit called “productizing the customer experience.”

Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts unleashed a flurry of product and service announcements ranging from voice-activated remotes, 4K-enabled set-tops and sleek high-speed routers to customer-facing initiatives like an “Always on Time” pledge that will take effect in the third quarter, launching modern updates to its retail stores and hiring 5,500 new customer service reps over the next three years to handle calls.

Roberts demonstrated the voice activated remote at the INTX opening session last Tuesday; it finds shows and information intuitively — he found Forrest Gump by merely speaking a line from the movie: “Life is like a box of chocolates.”

In a moment of levity, Roberts aid into the remote, “show me the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger,” into the remote, which brought up a scene in Vin Diesel’s Fast and Furious 7 featuring an exploding house.

A new home gateway router, capable of handling 9-Gigabit WiFi, IP video, phone and Xfinity Home is being trialed this year and will be available across Comcast’s footprint by the end of next year.

In Chicago, Roberts unveiled a prototype Studio Xfinity store complete with virtual-reality stations and video games for the kids alongside set-top boxes, modems and other equipment for subscribers. In introducing the store — which he said will be Comcast’s flagship retail operation and will officially open in June — Roberts said the intention was more toward education rather than the hard sell.

Comcast has had to weather several high-profile and embarrassing customer-care glitches in the past, and Roberts said that it has served as a “rallying cry” for employees to rethink how it does business.

He added that the initiatives have been more than two years in the making.

“We’re going to use that negative energy and turn it into positive energy,” Roberts said.

Leading the initiative is Comcast executive vice president of customer experience Charlie Herrin, who has a $300 million budget to make Comcast’s customer care vision a reality. He added that products and services aren’t the only part of the plan — at some point, all of Comcast’s 84,000 employees, from front-line workers to top executives, will go through hospitality training to improve the customer experience.

Comcast customers will soon be able to track technicians via their mobile phones with an Uber-like app that display’s the tech’s name, how far away he is and when he is expected to arrive. The app also has a ratings system for after the tech completes the job — anything less than a four-star rating will prompt a phone call from Comcast to find out how it can do better. With the “Always on Time” initiative, customer accounts will be automatically credited $20 if a tech shows up one minute late.

— Mike Farrell

5. Cable Is a Regulated Industry — and the FCC Is Watching

Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler received a frosty welcome from the congregation at INTX last week, who were stingy with applause for a man who had just branded them “gatekeepers” and rocked their world with new regulations that the NCTA has dubbed “a disaster.”

The Title II regulations recently passed by the FCC will ensure there’s no discrimination against competitors, but MVPDs are concerned that other restrictive parts of the new rules — including price regulation, which the FCC is “forebearing” — could come to life in this or future administrations.

“I thought we operate in a different environment than he [Wheeler] seems to live in,” Time Warner Cable chairman and CEO Rob Marcus said at the start of the general session panel that immediately followed Wheeler’s speech. “In my world, broadband is very competitive. Competition has, in fact, fueled a tremendous amount of investment, and it’s investment we continue to make to make our broadband better. I wonder what the problem is.”

Wheeler defended his recent decisions and assured the crowd Title II would be the law of the land. He said the broadband industry was not competitive enough, and the FCC would be working to change that.

“[It] is important to understand that the tipping point from cable to broadband came while the transaction was under review,” Wheeler said of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal the FCC helped quash. “We recognized that the industry had changed and we saw concrete evidence of the new competition and business models made possible by high-speed Internet access. You don’t have a lot of competition, especially at the higher speeds that are increasingly important to the consumer of online video,” he said.

“By bringing competitive alternatives to television viewers, this industry did just that — and the video business was changed forever. Then, your industry went on to upgrade, compete with the telcos, and dominate broadband. Now the question is whether consumers will have competitive alternatives for broadband.”

— John Eggerton

CHICAGO – A+E Networks president and CEO Nancy Dubuc said the key to success in the linear and non-linear content landscape is providing branded content where and when the viewer wants it. At the closing General Session at INTX: The Internet & Television Expo here Thursday she added that can be a mixture of both short-form and long-form shows.

“We believe in our brands and the service we provide to consumers,” Dubuc said. “We are constantly reiterating our brands, constantly reacting to consumer tastes.”

Dubuc said that surprisingly, there is very little overlap between A+E’s non-linear and linear programming, adding that its online content isn’t necessarily geared toward driving viewers back to the traditional cable channel.

“We’re marketers,” Dubuc said. “We are going to go to the platform where we can create a branded platform for our viewers.”

Dubuc wouldn’t comment on plans to give online pioneer Vice its own A+E channel. She said that A+E is an investor in the content provider, but wouldn’t comment further.

“I hope Shane [Smith, Vice founder] gets his own channel,” she said.

Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor said his company approaches online video differently, selling individual content to users in long and short-form chunks for varying prices. Vimeo is launching a subscription VOD offering soon but it will be only for individual channels.

“We’re seeing the viewer diet evolve in real time,” Trainor said. “We see people are consuming longer form pieces of content, and with the launch of Vimeo on Demand, feature length films, documentaries, episodics; everything from single minutes to close to a half hour.”

Leading up to INTX 2015, visitors to Multichannel.com are also invited to read digital editions of the May 5 issue of Multichannel News and of the INTX: Focus on Tech supplement to the magazine, editions usually available only to active subscribers of the magazine.

The May 4 issue contains extensive lead-up reporting ahead of the convention in Chicago, including Vanguard Award, Cable TV Pioneers, NAMIC and Cable Hall of Fame honorees. The issue also contains the debut of Next TV, the new weekly section in MCN and Broadcasting & Cable that chronicles the intersecting worlds of online video and pay television.

Use this link to view the Nxtbook digital version of the May 4, 2015, edition of Multichannel News:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/mcn_20150504/index.php

And use this link to view the Nxtbook digital version of the May 4, 2015, INTX: Focus on Tech supplement (contained in the magazine):

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/mcn_20150504_v2/index.php

It’ll be hard to miss this year’s Imagine Park stage — it’s smack-dab in the center of the INTX “cityscape” show floor. As this year’s co-chairs, we can attest to the volume of goodness in store.

Refresher: Imagine Park turns five this year, and (as always) aims for a live-television, The Tonight Show–style treatment of the hot tickets in this industry we used to call “cable.” It’s three days of “show-don’t-tell,” programmed around the wheel with fresh info and demonstrations you may not have seen before.

Plus! Bountiful WiFi, on its own channel, so you won’t be competing for signal. Plenty of comfy seats and tables, to rest the feet and catch up on your stuff. A food/snack bar, to refuel. All in a park-like environment, with great music, occasional birdsong and a 5 p.m. to 6.m. happy hour on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. As we like to say: It’s always a happy hour in the Park! (Stop gagging!)

Here’s the short list of what’s hot:

Tuesday, May 5

11:35 a.m. – We’re sworn to secrecy on the particulars, but here’s a tip: The opening general session ends at 11:25, which gives you 10 minutes to get to Imagine Park. It’s a short walk. Bring a camera.

11:45 a.m. – If fresh data about over-the-top (OTT) video consumption is your thing, drop in to hear the latest from Amdocs and IE Market Research. It’s based on a 2015 poll of 4,000 domestic and international consumers, about OTT — what’s desirable, whether rights matter, how inclined we are to purchase content.

It’s part of the “Changing Face of the Interface” segment, which runs right after “the big reveal,” mentioned above. Bonus: Mari Silbey, independent tech writer and gifted tech conversationalist, hosts the session, which also features a segment on better (read: spoken) content discovery, from Rovi. Also: A look at enhanced navigation from Espial, a leader in the HTML-5 and RDK (Reference Design Kit) communities.

4 p.m. – Along the road to this year’s Imagine Park, we caught wind of a private moment during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, where a vendor showed an (unnamed) cable CTO how to hack a “connected lock” -- to which the CTO replied, “Crap, I have that lock at home!”

See the hack during this jam-packed Internet of Things session, which features IOT aficionado Don Dulchinos, co-hosting with Parks Associates’s Tom Kerber. Plus, in terms of tech-side favs, this session features Alticast President and CTO John Carlucci, plus a double-duty demo from Comcast fellow Mark Francisco and Arris’s (always entertaining) Charles Cheevers about the how the IoT intersects with RDK.

Wednesday, May 6

12:45-1:30 p.m. –Joan Gillman, EVP and COO of Media Services for Time Warner Cable, makes her Imagine Park debut this year, as host to “The Money Cloud” -- which, as you might imagine, examines the intersections of advanced TV advertising, and cloud-based technologies. Bonus: The session debuts a “web speed” cloud technique only seen before in a CES “whisper suite.”

2:45-3:45 p.m. – The two of us co-host the first part of this session, where we’ll run through the hit list of what’s hot, both at INTX and within Comcast’s nearby booth. That’s followed by a deep-dive into the latest in “immersive engagement,” led by the talented and lively Rebecca Rusk, new head of BexUx.

4-5 p.m. – Definitely don’t miss the INTXHACK finals, hosted by Mike Hayashi, who left Time Warner Cable at the end of March to head up Jinsei 2.0 Consulting. The finals conclude a live, 24-hour developer challenge involving six Chicago-based startups, competing for accolades and cash money. As if Hayashi isn’t enough — Comcast chief software architect Sree Kotay will be on-hand as an INTX judge. And, when it ends, the second Imagine Park Happy Hour begins!

Thursday, May 7

9:45-10:30 a.m. – If Wi-Fi is in your crosshairs, drop in for “The Wireless Frontier” to see a live demonstration of Comcast’s new “Xfinity Share” service, powered by webRTC. Also: Fresh data about how Wi-Fi calling (also known as “Wi-Fi First”) is faring amongst service providers, and more.

10:45-11:30 a.m. – This is our favorite part of Imagine Park, every year: Lab Week. Here’s the background: A few years ago, in pursuit of the “agile workforce” culture that’s foundational to broadband-natives like Facebook, Google, Etsy, and Spotify, some MSOs opted to dive into the world of regularly occurring “lab weeks.”

That’s where developers are encouraged to develop a solution to a problem — internal or consumer-facing — then to demonstrate their work at a one-day “science fair.” Liberty Global, Time Warner Cable and Comcast return to the stage this year to show the latest from their respective lab weeks. Drop in to see a webRTC-based virtual truck roll, a Siri-like desktop problem solver, and (lots!) more.

Note: This is but a short list of Imagine Park fare. Be sure to check out the full slate here: https://intx15.ncta.com/show-floor/imagine-park/

See you at the park!

Leslie Ellis is technology analyst for Multichannel News and Next TV. Tony Werner is Comcast’s chief technology officer.

As a rechristened and recast Cable Show, this week’s INTX confab will still offer a variety of tech panels and sessions for the hard core engineer as well as the operations exec who’s looking to get a technology edge.

While it’s impossible to hit every session (please see Leslie Ellis and Tony Werner's preview of  what will be cooking at Imagine Park), here’s a list of sessions that will be on our don't miss list and plunge into key topics and areas that are important today, as well as a few that are expected to factor into the future shape of the broadband and TV industry.

The Broad Strokes

If you seek a multi-faceted, bigger-picture view and a CTO-level discussion on the biggest tech trends, you’d do right by putting this panel on your dance card:

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: Technology, Innovation & The Future Of Media

-Tuesday, May 5 at 3 p.m. ; Room W470

-On tap: Phil McKinney, CableLabs (moderator); David Dibble (Cablevision Systems); Kevin Hart (Cox Communications); Yvette Kanouff (Cisco Systems); Jeremy Legg (Turner Broadcasting System); and Tony Werner (Comcast).

Gaga for Gigabit

If you’re a cable operator and you aren’t launching gigabit (or even 2-Gig) speeds to residential customers, or have it on your docket, then you just aren’t trying hard enough.  While Google Fiber gets much (too much?) credit for putting 1-Gig on the map and accelerating the deployment of those speeds, it’s clear that gigabit is now a priority for ISPs of all shapes and sizes, whether that’s delivered via fiber-to-the-premises or emerging DOCSIS 3.1 technologies. Pick your poison – all options will be covered this week.

Don’t miss:

Getting The Gig: Realizing the Potential of DOCSIS 3.1

-Wednesday, May 6 at 11:30 a.m.; Room W474

-On tap: Ralph Brown, CableLabs (moderator); Ayham Al-Banna, Mike Emmendorfer, and Carol Ansley, Arris; Scott Helms, Zcorum; Maxwell Huang; Cisco; and Niki Pantelias, Broadcom

Dude, You’re Getting a Gig: The Perils & Promise of Ultra-Fast Access Networks

-Wednesday, May 6 at 4:30 p.m.; Room W474

-On tap: Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable (moderator); Philip Nutsugah, Cox; Eric Small, AT&T; and JR Walden, Mediacom Communications.

The Network: Going Soft…and Remote

A hot topic across the telecom sector is the shift from single-purpose hardware to off-the-shelf gear that can be managed and optimized by software – represented by the move toward software-defined networking (SDN) and networks-function virtualization (NFV). With the potential operational benefits they can provide, cable is keying on this trend as it pursues next-gen access architectures such as the “virtual” Converged Cable Access Platform.  While still an arena best suited for the engineering crew, it will play a big role in the future of how cable builds its networks of the future. Tied in, cable’s also looking at access network architectures that are less centralized and monolithic, and instead move some key functionality deeper into the network and closer to the subscriber edge.

Don’t miss:

Software Vs. Silicon: Understanding and Advancing the SDN Revolution

-Tuesday, May 5 at 11:30 a.m.; Room W474

-On tap: John Chapman, Cisco (moderator); Jeff DeMent, Arris; Brian Field and Nagesh Nandiraju, Comcast; Glen Griffith, Ericsson; and James Kim and Karthik Sundaresan, CableLabs.

Remote PHY, When and Why: Approaches for Physical Layer Migration

-Wednesday, May 6 at 8:30 a.m. ; Room W474

-On tap:  Daniel Howard, SCTE  (moderator); Alon Bernstein, Pawel Sowinski, John Chapman and Hang Jin, Cisco; and Dan Lavender and Karthik Sundaresan, CableLabs.

Whipping Up More Wireless

In the U.S., cable’s the king of wired broadband, but the future is mobile and wireless – an area that is becoming a huge focus for cable operators. While access to WiFi in public and business locations is being used primarily as a perk for cable modem subs, operators are expected to look at “WiFi-First” mobile strategies that use cellular as a fallback connection, while others, such as Cablevision Systems’ new Freewheel service, are going with WiFi-only pursuits. Liberty Global, meanwhile, has been using a mixture of WiFi, MVNO deals, and even mobile acquisitions formulate its plan. Expect the next chapter in cable’s wireless and mobile future to begin to take shape this week.

Don’t miss:

Across the Spectrum: Strategies for a Changing Wireless Marketplace

-Tuesday, May 5 at 4:30 p.m.; Room W475

-On tap: Rob Pegararo, USA Today and Yahoo! Tech (moderator); Timothy Burke, Liberty Global; Charles Cheevers, Arris; Dave Mayo, T-Mobile USA; and Tom Nagel, Comcast.

The 411 on OTT

Is over-the-top video friend or foe to the pay TV industry? It’s clearly both, as operators continue to push authenticated TV Everywhere offerings, while others develop and roll out new direct-to-consumer offerings that are causing a rift in the status quo.

Don’t miss:

Why OTT is Their Best Friend: Strategies for Online Video

-Wednesday, May 6 at 9 a.m.; Room W470

-On tap: Colin Dixon, nScreen Media (moderator); Tim Connolly, Hulu; Braxton Jarratt, Clearleap; and Roger Lynch, Sling TV. 

Attendees at the INTX 2015 convention in Chicago next week will receive a bonus: a free paperback copy of a new history of the cable-TV industry, written by Cable Center CEO Larry Satkowiak (pictured). The book also will be given to attendees of the Cable TV Pioneers dinner Monday night in Chicago.

The Cable Industry: A Short History Through Three Generations, underwritten by Carlsen Resources Inc., fills a need often expressed to the Cable Center for a concise history of the business, the center said in a release. In the three generations that frame the book, cable television grew from community antennas retransmitting broadcast stations into a telecommunications power and the nation's leading provider of high-speed Internet service in addition to telephone and hundreds of channels of linear and on-demand television.

INTX 2015: The Internet & Television Expo is taking place at McCormick Place West in Chicago, May 5-7. Multichannel News will be publishing a show daily at the convention, and hosting a breakfast session Wednesday around the topic of multicultural TV. For more information about the May 6 #multiculturaltv event, please visit http://multichannelevents.com/multiculturaltv/.

More than 220 companies, including a group of 25 made up of cable operators, telcos and satellite TV service providers, have licensed the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the preintegrated software stack for IP-capable set-top boxes, video gateways and, soon, broadband devices.

RDK Management, the joint venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, announced the updated figures Monday (April 27) ahead of next week’s INTX: The Internet & Television Expo in Chicago.

RDK Management said community membership and operator licensees have grown about 60% over the past 12 months. More than 5 million devices with RDK have been deployed so far. The bulk of that total has come way of Comcast and its X1 platform .

RDK licensees include a mix of CE manufacturers, chipmakers, software developers, system integrators and pay TV operators. Of the latter group, Comcast, TWC, Liberty Global, Rogers Communications, Kabel Deutschland, and J:COM are among the known MSOs to license the RDK. RDK Management said providers from North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia have all inked licenses.

Expanding beyond the initial video-centric set-top box solution (RDK-V), companies backing RDK are developing a version for broadband devices called RDK-B.  RDK-B is currently being developed by “key” operators, SoC companies and OEM companies, with an anticipated release in the second half of 2015, RDK Management said

“The RDK provides a modern software platform on which pay TV providers worldwide can provide new video services to customers,” Steve Heeb, president and GM of RDK Management, said in a statement. “he community is starting to take advantage of the benefits of having source code access for their STB software, and the RDK continues to gain traction around the globe – as will be showcased prominently at INTX 2015.”

Multichannel News will feature a Q&A with Heeb in the April 4 issue, along with a snapshot of RDK-powered demos expected to appear on the INTX show floor.  

Some of the RDK member companies exhibiting at next week’s show include:

• ActiveVideo (soon to be part of an Arris/Charter Communications joint venture)
• Arris Group
• Alticast
• Cisco
• Cognizant
• Comcast
• Ericsson
• Espial Group
• Humax Americas
• Intel
• Metrological
• Pace  (in the process of merging with Arris)
• Samsung
• S3 Group
• SeaChange International
• Symphony Teleca
• Technicolor
• ThinkAnalytics
• UXP Systems
• ValueLabs
• Visible World
• Wipro

About a year after the cable industry unveiled “Gigasphere” as the consumer-facing brand of the emerging DOCSIS 3.1 platform, it has followed up this week the launch of a microsite dedicated to the initiative.

The Gigasphere moniker was announced in tandem with the 2014 Cable Show in Los Angeles last April by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, in collaboration with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, CableLabs and Cable Europe. The Gigasphere logo showed up last fall.

The new microsite -- launched a few weeks before INTX: The Internet & Television Expo  (formerly known as The Cable Show) gets underway in Chicago -- offers high-level details about DOCSIS 3.1, a CableLabs-specified platform that will be capable of capacities of up to 10 Gbps downstream and as much as 2 Gbps upstream, focusing on how it will support new bandwidth-intensive apps and service such as 4K/Ultra HD and the smart home.

“Streaming video, online gaming, telemedicine, and the Internet of Things have transformed how we see the Internet and have challenged how we deliver it,” NCTA explained in this blog post about the Gigasphere site launch. “With Gigasphere technology, the same cable that we now use for broadband can be re-engineered to deliver multi-gig speeds and expansive capacities capable of catapulting us well into the future. Though Gigasphere is still in development, ISPs are already adopting the technology and plan on deploying soon.”

For those who are looking for a more technical readout of D3.1, the microsite’s  “peek under the hood” links over to this CableLabs page, which offers some nuts and bolts about the platform and access to the DOCSIS 3.1 specs themselves.  

But will Gigsasphere be used as a brand name or a product name? According to the FAQ, Gigasphere “is a category name, used to encompass the DOCSIS 3.1 platform itself as well as the many products and services the technical specification will enable. While it may be used in combination with specific products and services sold and marketed by cable companies, it’s not expected to be used as a brand name for any specific cable product line.”

Cox Communications, which will use a mix of fiber-to-the-home and D3.1 to deliver gigabit speeds, is using the “G1GABLAST” brand where it’s initially offering 1-gig over fiber. Comcast is using the Gigabit Pro brand for a residential 2-Gbps service that will be offered to millions of homes via fiber, though the MSO also intends to offer residential gigabit speeds on an even broader basis using DOCSIS 3.1. Comcast has begun to test DOCSIS 3.1-based traffic in the field ahead of expected broad scale rollouts next year.

Ready to get your hands into digital apps development? The Internet & Television Expo Show (INTX), in partnership with Comcast/NBCUniversal and Gracenote/Tribune Media, is hosting the first ever INTXHACK, a 24-hour hackathon competition for technologists and developers, in Chicago in May.

Teams of developers, designers and content creators are challenged "to rethink the future of digital entertainment," INTX said. They must create, from scratch, apps that sit at the intersection of the Internet and entertainment, and dovetail with the rebranded cable show's themes: TV Everywhere, online video, gaming, connected life, advanced user interfaces and navigation.

Competitors will have access to the latest APIs, tools, data and content from a long list of leading tech, media and entertainment companies, including the sponsoring partners, INTX said.

The live competition kicks off on May 2 at Chicago's digital start-ups hub, 1871. The hackers will have 24 hours to complete their entries. Judges will be looking for apps that innovate new ways to produce, present and experience TV, movies, games and other digital entertainment, INTX said.

The selected top teams will move on to the expo for the INTXHACK Finals, where they'll compete for cash prizes on May 6 during a one-hour live segment in Imagine Park — the "innovation events" stage located in the INTX Marketplace.

Finalists will also be featured in a special INTX showcase exhibit, gaining visibility among media, entertainment and investment executives to whom they can pitch their ideas. That, in turn, underscores the goal of the hackathon: to showcase the latest in interactive design and development, providing hackers access to top Internet and television companies at INTX and inside 1871, INTX said.

For more information on the competition and to register, visit the INTXHACK website (which also includes details for companies interested in becoming partners). On Twitter, follow the hashtag #INTXhack.

INTX, billed as "The Cable Show -- reimagined" by sponsor the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, runs May 5-7 at the Windy City's McCormick Place West.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association announced Wednesday that it, along with a group of partners, will host a 24-hour hackathon just prior to INTX: The Internet & Television Expo (formerly known as The Cable Show) in Chicago.

The new event, called INTXHACK, will kick off May 2, the Saturday before the show, which is set to run from May 5-7.

NCTA said INTXHACK is being produced in partnership with Comcast/NBCUniversal, Gracenote, Tribune Media and 1871, the Chicago-based entrepreneurial hub that will also host the event.

Finalists will advance to the INTXHACK Finals live at the show’s Imagine Park area on Wednesday, May 6, and will be featured at an INTX showcase exhibit.

NCTA said hackathon contestants are being encouraged to develop apps related to themes of the show, including areas such as TV Everywhere, online video, and gaming.

Sixteen new members will be inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers during its induction banquet to be held Monday, May 4, at the Palmer House in Chicago.Cable TV Pioneer chair Susan Bitter Smith said in a release: "This outstanding class represents a plethora of talent that has and will continue to contribute to the cable industry’s success." The Cable Pioneer celebration will be held on Monday, May 4, the night before INTX: The Internet & Television Expo (a gathering formerly known as The Cable Show) kicks off at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago.

Here are the newest Cable TV Pioneers, by name and company affiliation, according to the Pioneers organization:

Patricia Jo Boyers, Boyers Cablevision.

John Dahlquist, Aurora Networks.

Larry Eby, Vast Broadband.

Thomas Gorman, opXL LLC.

Andrew T. Heller, Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc.

Kenneth L. Klaer, Comcast Corp.

Mary “Sam" Klosterman, SNL Kagan.

David Lorenzi Jr., Comcast Corp.

Andrew McCarthy, Comcast Corp.

Douglas W. McCormick, Rho Capital Partners.

Bob Ryan, Comcast Corp.

Josh Sapan, AMC Networks.

Mark Stephan, Mediacom Communications.

Joseph Schramm, Schramm Marketing Group.

Alex Swan, Arris.

Steven E. Wilkerson, Florida Cable Telecommunications Association.

This banquet will mark the group’s 49th class induction. Dinner chair Ben Hooks Jr. said in the release: “The banquet is one of the biggest events of the cable year providing guests and sponsors with a unique opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of the men and women who have affected positive change for our industry.”

Sponsorship and early ticket details are available at www.cabletvpioneers.org.

The National Cable & Television Association has issued its call for proposed case studies in the area of information technology (IT) that, if selected, will be presented at the Internet & Television Expo (INTX) – formerly known as The Cable Show -- in Chicago on May 6, 2015.

Co-sponsored by CableLabs, the May 6 session at McCormick Place  West will feature up to four individuals or partner teams offering case studies in areas that could include operational analytics, business services, customer experience, and the accelerating evolution in the data ecosystem.

INTX said proposoal abstracts are not to exceed 500 words and has set a submission deadline of  end of business on Feb. 27, 2015. More details about the IT case study program for INTX can be found here.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, CableLabs and the Society of  Cable Telecommunications Engineers have issued their annual call for technical papers for the 2015 Spring Technical Forum, which will run in tandem next year with INTX: The Internet  & Television Expo – the convention formerly known as The Cable Show.

The organizations said the 2015 Spring Technical Forum targets a broad cross section of senior-level technologists and those with engineering management, operational, and financial responsibilities, with a specific focus on innovation, R&D and the business of technology in the rapidly evolving digital marketplace.

Topics of particular interest include the proverbial cloud (including big data, software defined networks and network functions virtualization); wireless (including WiFi access and voice-over-WiFi); security; streaming and OTT services; advanced cable architectures, including DOCSIS 3.1 and RF Over Glass, among others); reaching gigabit capacities; spectrum allocation and efficiencies; all-IP networks, and 4K/8K video compression and the impact on bandwidth requirements.

Prospective authors interested in preparing and presenting a paper at the 2015 Spring Technical Forum should submit a proposal using the online submission tool available at intx.ncta.com/stf2015 no later than December 12, 2014. Authors who have been selected to present their papers will be notified by the end of January and will be invited to present the highlights of their written work during the Forum. The technical papers proceedings will be available for free download during the event and thereafter online.

"Cable networks continue to evolve at exponential rates to deliver more digital media and entertainment to consumers than any other platform in the country,” said Dan Pike, GCI’s chief technical officer and chair of the 2015 Spring Technical Forum Committee. “This Forum brings together the innovative minds that advance the underlying science and technology of the cable industry.” 

Admission to the 2015 Spring Technical Forum is included with an INTX full-program registration, though separate sign-up is required. INTX registration opens November 3 at intx.ncta.com.

INTX is slated to run 5-7 at McCormick Place in Chicago.