SCTE•ISBE President Mark Dzuban said his group will move forward with plans to conduct its annual Cable-Tec Expo conference in Denver from October 13-16.

“We understand that there are uncertainties ahead. We are following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control, are in constant contact with Denver and Colorado authorities, and are taking extra precautions together with the Colorado Convention Center and our hotel partners. The bottom line is this: we will do nothing that will jeopardize the safety of our guests,” Dzuban said in a letter to Society of Cable Technology Engineers constituents Friday. 

Also read: Coronavirus Cancellations: From MipTV to FreeWheel to MWC, How the Outbreak Is Impacting the Global Media-Tech Events Business

“We recognize that the decision to attend Expo may be a difficult one this year,” Dzuban added. “In the months ahead, we will keep you abreast of developments so you can manage your scheduling and travel plans. We hope that you, your family and your friends continue to remain safe during these challenging times, and we hope that we have an opportunity to see you at Cable-Tec Expo in October."

Dzuban said the SCTE’s program committee, co-chaired this year by Charter’s Tom Monaghan and Comcast’s Ed Marchetti, is reviewing Fall Technical Forum abstracts that are due May 8. 

Cable-Tec Expo anchors a week that also includes The Cable TV Pioneers Annual Dinner, as well as the CableLabs Envision event. 

Notably, CableLabs this week canceled its inaugural 4Front event, which had been schedule for June. 

“Our goal in the 25 weeks between now and mid-October is to ensure that all of this takes place in an atmosphere that is safe for all involved,” Dzuban added. 

Exton, Pennsylvania-based staffers for the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers cut cake Thursday, celebrating the trade group's 50-year anniversary. 

The group develops standards, educational resources and other programs for use by cable operators of all tiers worldwide. 

The SCTE marked the occasion with a small event, hosted by CEO Mark Dzuban and Pennsylvania State Rep Danielle Friel-Otten, who are pictured below next to the technical services Emmy the group won in 2018.

ATLANTA -- Those weary of the wireless industry’s hype around 5G found a welcome opening general session at the SCTE’s annual Cable-Tec Expo show Tuesday.

The hits started with Cox Communications technology chief Kevin Hart, delivering a mild tongue-in-cheek remark during his general session intro: “You know 5G is going to be great, because it’s got 25% more G,” Hart quipped.

NCTA president and CEO Michael Powell, appearing in the session’s keynote panel, was a little more blunt: “You know what the wireless guys like most? Wireline networks,” he said, remarking on 5G’s need for backhaul and other services typically provided by HFC network operators.

Powell also said, “5G is 25% technology, 75% marketing,” dismissing the technology to little more than the wireless industry’s “latest widget.”

Appearing in the general session panel alongside Powell, CableLabs president and CEO Phil McKinney compared 5G to Teligent, the late-‘90s-era fixed wireless company he formerly served as CIO for before joining HP. He recalled the challenges of trying to establish point-to-point communications technologies in big cities and around phenomena including trees and fog.

“I think 5G is going to have similar issues,” McKinney said.

The cable industry org chiefs made these remarks as wireless industry companies, including Verizon, market 5G fixed wireless services as replacements for cable broadband.

Masters of cable

The featuring of Powell and McKinney, along with Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers President and CEO Mark Dzuban, on Tuesday’s opening panel session was symbolic of the SCTE’s new center-of-gravity juxtaposition in an industry trade-show universe that no longer includes the erstwhile Cable Show.

According to Dzuban, collaboration between the trio’s respective organizations is more robust than ever. “We have a good relationship spanning ideation and deployment,” he said, describing the synergy between CableLabs’ R&D capabilities, SCTE’s real-world application acumen and the NCTA’s policy-making chops.

“You could do a Venn diagram on how we overlap,” added the session's moderator, Comcast technology chief Tony Werner. “And when we get it right, it’s very powerful.”

For his part, Powell used the well-attended morning session at the Georgia World Congress to hammer home lobbying points: the cable industry doesn’t get enough credit from a policy-making perspective. Oh, and California is way out on a limb in terms of net neutrality legislation.

From a national policy-making perspective, Powell said he’s concerned that the cable industry is getting “left behind in the nation’s optimistic narrative of the future,” the fixation overly applied to tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple.

“No other industry has been as reliably consistent in doing what it says it’s going to do, deploying what it says it’s going to deploy, as this one,” Powell said, drawing applause.

Powell wondered aloud if the cable industry is perhaps too humble in not more loudly tub thumping its own innovations, like the emerging Full Duplex DOCSIS standard that will ultimately deliver 10 Gbps symmetrical broadband.

Perhaps offering cable engineers with marketing responsibilities an idea, Powell referred to this new tech as the cable industry’s “10G” standard.

He also described the NCTA as “at war” with California over its recently enacted state net neutrality legislation.

Tuesday’s session was closed by Cox president Pat Esser, who said his privately owned cable company will spend $10 billion over the next five years on network infrastructure investments. 

SCTE/ISBE announced Friday that president and CEO Mark Dzuban underwent an "important heart procedure" this week that will prevent him from attending the organization’s Cable-Tec Expo, set to take place next week in Philadelphia.

SCTE/ISBE said it expects Dzuban to be out of the office through much of October, but also expects him to resume many of his SCTE/ISBE duties remotely well before his return.

In the meantime, Chris Bastian, SCTE/ISBE senior vice president and CTO, and Lindsay Johnston, the organization’s senior vice president, operations, will work with the rest of the SCTE/ISBE senior team “to ensure seamless execution on SCTE/ISBE’s mission – implementation of new capabilities that are delivering value by preparing workforces to anticipate, drive and operationalize new technologies," the organization said. 

Bastian, Johnston and other industry leaders will also assume Dzuban’s duties at next week’s show, SCTE/ISBE said.

“The Expo train is already moving at full speed, so I’m certain that we’ll achieve our goal of delivering a best-ever event for the industry,” Dzuban said, in a statement. “I also have every confidence that the SCTE/ISBE team we have assembled over the past few years will continue to bring value to our corporate and individual members during my absence.  In the meantime, I will be only a few miles – or a phone call – away from SCTE/ISBE headquarters, and will be eagerly anticipating my return to the office.”

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. 

Daniel Howard, the CTO of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers since 2010, has been appointed to the new staff position of SCTE Fellow.

In his new role, Howard will focus on the organization’s recently introduced International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE) training brand, and corporate and individual members to “operationalize forward-looking new technologies.” Howard will also look to drive alignment between SCTE/ISBE and CableLabs in areas such as wireless, cybersecurity, DOCSIS 3.1,  and the SCTE Energy 2020 program.

Exton, Pa.-based SCTE said it has begun a search for a new CTO. Howard will continue to oversee SCTE Standards, the SCTE Engineering Committee, and Professional Development, until a successor is selected.

“Daniel’s tireless commitment has been essential in increasing the value of SCTE and ISBE around the world,” said Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE and ISBE, in a statement. “As cable paves the road to future success with new technologies, our ability to focus Daniel’s unparalleled engineering expertise on key needs will continue to drive success for SCTE, ISBE and the industry at large.”

“When it comes to scope and impact, we’re in a ‘Golden Era’ of television and telecommunications innovation,” added Howard, an industry vet and DOCSIS engineering pioneer who was also a co-founder of Digital Furnace, a company acquired by Broadcom in 2000 that focused on enhancing cable’s upstream broadband capabilities. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work more closely with my peers in the industry to spur mass adoption of the technologies that can transform the cable landscape.”

Another SCTE Cable-Tec Expo is in the books, and there was plenty to see and do in Denver, and there’s more to think about as the dust continues to settle, but here are five quick takeaways:

DOCSIS 3.1 is making big progress:  If it wasn’t clear enough heading into the show, it’s now crystal clear – cable’s pushing hard on DOCSIS 3.1. With interoperability plugfests slated for later this year and official certification/qualification testing anticipated to get underway as early as mid-2015, the industry is pushing the ball forward on a platform that will put cable operators in position to offer multi-gigabit services on a wide scale.

U.S. cable will play WiFi to the hilt: With a half-day dedicated to the topic, consider WiFi a front-burner project for the industry. While WiFi will continue to be used as a way to extend the reach of cable’s high-speed infrastructure inside and outside the home, there’s a subtle drumbeat that cable will indeed use WiFi as a voice platform, perhaps following the “WiFi First” cellular-fallback approach that Scratch Wireless is advocating.

Layer3 TV is the industry’s new cool kid:  DOCSIS 3.1 and WiFi were the talk of the show, but Layer3 TV dominated the chatter – everyone seemed to be talking about this Denver-based startup, which is billing itself as a next-generation cable operator, but is still being coy about its overall strategy. Multichannel News caught up with the company in Denver and will be posting an update on its progress shortly.

Cable’s getting energized about energy conservation: A keynote from Comcast’s John Schanz and the follow up panel on the industry’s Energy 2020 plan to reduce power consumption by 20%, energy costs by 25% and grid dependency by 10% shows that the industry is pretty darn serious about this initiative.  The goals are set. Now comes the hard part: Executing on them.

Signs Of consolidation were all around us: Despite a fantastic showing at the DOCSIS 3.1/WiFi pre-show Symposium and a nice boost in terms of vendor support and a jump in international attendance, overall attendance, at about 9,100, was down from the 9,800 who were on hand at last year’s gathering in Atlanta. Private conversations with MSOs and suppliers indicated that there’s much wariness on how the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable will affect the industry.

No one (who we talked to, anyway) at Cable-Tec Expo was jazzed about the new name of The Cable Show:  Or at least I couldn’t find anyone who had a positive reaction to the decision to shift the name of The Cable Show to The Internet and Television Expo (INTX) starting with next year’s confab in Chicago. In fact, many of the private responses relayed to me can’t be printed here, as some cable people were downright peeved that the new show will include “Expo” in the name, and concerned that it will dilute the brand of the SCTE gathering. At the same time, most also realize that the decision wasn’t made in a vacuum, and that the industry’s higher-ups obviously saw a good reason to make the change and to broaden the scope of the annual confab. And it's going to take some time before the new name and moniker sinks in...a number of showgoers I talked to couldn't recall the call letters of the newly-named event, but did toss out that it reminded them of this once-popular band.

And the public comments about the change in The Cable Show’s name were about as diplomatic as one might expect.  In comments made at this week’s Chairman’s reception at Cable-Tec Expo, Terry Cordova, the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Suddenlink Communications and the recently re-elected chairman of the SCTE board, offered assurances to those gathered that there are absolutely no plans underway to combine the two shows.

In an interview heading into the show, Mark Dzuban, SCTE’s president and CEO, said he had no issue with the new show using “Expo” in its name, noting that it’s a generic enough term that is used for a lot of trade shows, and that the goals and the scopes of the two annual events are so distinct that it shouldn’t be a problem.

While INTX places a focus on legal, regulatory and policy, with new technology and services mixed in, Cable-Tec Expo  differentiates with its education and training slate and its focus on applied sciences, or “where the rubber meets the road,” as Dzuban puts it.

“They show some of the cool, front end forward-looking stuff and we show what it takes to actually execute and operate. It’s actually very complementary once you think about it,” Dzuban said.

I’d counter that Expo, when uttered in cable circles, has always meant Cable-Tec Expo. Now it could mean something else and be open to market confusion. But it’s early…we’ll have to how the market reacts to the change next year and if some of the knee-jerk reactions are unwarranted.

So, that’s a boiled down view of the big topics and what else was buzzing this week in Denver. But there was lots more going on. Please visit our SCTE Cable-Tec Expo micro-site for an in-depth rundown of what made news this week.

This week’s Cable-Tec Expo in Denver is shaping up to be an engineer’s delight as sessions and workshops place a fi ne technical focus on DOCSIS 3.1, energy management, software-defined networking, the proverbial “cloud,” the evolution of cable’s WiFi strategy, and 4K/Ultra HD and other next-gen video services.

While that offers a patchwork of key topics and trends, a common, thematic thread will hold them all together — improving the customer experience, Mark Dzuban, the president and CEO of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, said.

“If we look at last year’s Expo being about IP networking and going to all-IP networks and what that technical evolution looks like, this year it’s really about how do we use science and technology to improve the customer experience in a market that is very competitive, but so are we,” Dzuban said, noting that the event will play host to 48 workshops.

And expect a look into the cloud that doesn’t just skim along the surface of what’s evolved into a catch-all buzzword. “We’re not talking about Wikipedia: What is the cloud?” Dzuban said. “This is about how to apply dos and don’ts and best practices.”

This year’s event will also take on more global proportions, mirroring a broader trend that is seeing the cable industry coalesce around standards and technologies on a worldwide scale.

That broader focus should help this year’s Cable-Tec Expo match (or come close to matching) the attendance at last year’s event in Atlanta. Yes, fl at is indeed the new growth.

And it helps that Denver, despite no longer being the Cable Capital of the World, is still a cable town.

“Historically, Denver has had strong on-site registrations,” Dzuban said. “We expect to be where we were last year. But some of that is factored into the on-site registrations we’re expecting.”

For those keeping score, last year’s Expo in Atlanta drew about 9,800, a 6% increase from the 2012 event in steamy Orlando, Fla.

Outside of attendance, Cable-Tec Expo is seeing growth in other areas. Dzuban said the number of new, fi rst-time exhibitors is up 64% for the Denver event, while total exhibitors are up roughly 16%. SCTE, he said, is also seeing a surge in international attendance, which was up 10% heading into this week’s event.

That growth comes against the backdrop of SCTE’s broader global focus. Earlier this month, for example, the SCTE launched the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), a brand and education division that will supply training and certification resources around the world. It’s also there to “eliminate existing brand confusion” with the Society for Broadband Professionals, a U.K.-based group founded in 1945 that also goes by “SCTE.”

SCTE, like other cable-focused organizations, has been tasked with stoking growth strategies in an that is contracting.

“If you look at our mission, the mission doesn’t change” in the face of consolidation, Dzuban said. “It’s expanding our footprint and our relationship with existing MSOs to include — just as CableLabs is absorbing Europe CableLabs and the NCTA [National Cable & Telecommunications Association] having a larger international contingent — the global community.”

But don’t expect Cable Tec-Expo to set up its tent overseas, at least not yet. SCTE has already locked in New Orleans for the site of its 2015 cable tech-fest, set for Oct. 13-16.

What’s on Your Expo Dance Card?

Cable-Tec Expo will again offer a broad mix of bigpicture sessions and nuts-and-bolts workshops that will cover the most important technologies, topics and trends that the industry is facing now and those on the horizon but approaching fast.

With a lot to see and a lot to cover, it will be impossible not to miss some of the important technology beats unless you have a time machine tucked away in your back pocket. By category, here some sessions and workshops that will be on our hit list:

DOCSIS 3.1

Mon., Sept. 22, 1 p.m. (Symposium): “DOCSIS 3.1 Current Status and Schedule,” with Jorge Salinger of Comcast Cable and Belal Hamzeh of CableLabs.

Weds., Sept. 24, 10:45 a.m. (Room 108): “DOCSIS 3.1: Making It Real,” moderated by Jorge Salinger of Comcast, with Dan Torbet of Arris, and Patricio Latini of Intraway.

WiFi

Mon., Sept. 22, 9:15 a.m. (Symposium): “Carrier Grade WiFi,” with Mark Polett i, CableLabs.

Thurs., Sept. 25, 12:45 p.m. (Room 102): “WiFi: The Quest for Quality,” moderated by Raymond Celona of Comcast, with Todd Smith of Comcast and Charles Cheevers of Arris.

Thurs., Sept. 25, 2 p.m. (Room 102): “WiFi in the Connected Home,” moderated by Chris Albano of Comcast, with Chris Cholas of Time Warner Cable and John Anderson of Fluke Networks.

SDN, NFV, RDK and the Internet of Things

Mon., Sept. 22, 2 p.m. (Room 201): “Application of SDN and NFV in the Service Provider Delivery Network,” moderated by Bruce McClelland of Arris, with Adam Dunstan of Active Broadband Networks and Alon Bernstein of Cisco Systems.

Tues., Sept. 23, 9:45 a.m. (Room 102): “Cable’s Internet of Everything,” moderated by Mark Francisco of Comcast, with Mark Tubinis of Savant Systems.

Weds., Sept. 24, 10:45 a.m. (Room 201): “Putt ing DevOps Into Practice: The RDK Model,” moderated by Leslie Ellis of Ellis Edits, a Multichannel News contributor, with Labeeb Ismail of Comcast, Bill Warga of Liberty Global and Matt Zelesko of Time Warner Cable.

Cable’s Power Play

Wed., Sept. 24, 1 p.m. (Room 103): “Energy 2020,” with Comcast’s John Schanz (keynoter), session moderator Theresa Hennesy of Comcast, and Ivan Lamoureux of Suddenlink Communications, Simpson Cumba of Comcast, Derek DiGiacomo of SCTE, John Dolan of Rogers Communications and Dan Cooper of Time Warner Cable.

It’s been a hectic last few days wherever convention vectors intersect in Denver.  Denver International Airport has been alive with the bustle of inbound MSO and vendor executives. Conversations among old friends have been struck up in lines at hotel registration desks. Admins have been jostling to put together the best dinner meetings at Acorn, Sugarmill and points in between.

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo is back in town.

At the Colorado Convention Center, vendors selling everything from crimping tools to CCAPs [converged cable access platforms] have been putting the finishing touches on their exhibits. Audio-visual systems have been tested one last time. Speakers have been adding that final polish to keynote presentations and workshops.

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo is back in Denver.

When Tony Werner and I are delivering our opening remarks this week, you can bet the significance of holding the cable industry’s premier technology event in the Mile High City won’t escape us.  While Denver may no longer be “The Capital of Cable,” it retains a revered position in the industry’s history.

BACK TO THE ‘CAPITAL’

Denver was the focal point for the cable revolution that freed television viewers from the shackles of handfuls of VHF and UHF channels. Giants of our industry — Bill Daniels, John Malone, Bob Magness and others — used Denver as a base to bring vast menus of sports, entertainment, news and other content to America, and ultimately to the world. And in Denver, a new generation of technologists turned cable pioneers’ dreams of new communications platforms into the realities of broadband and voice services.

The good news is that the same spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that drove the growth of cable in Denver’s heyday is alive and well today. As SCTE itself celebrates its 45th anniversary, our organization has evolved from a handful of forward-thinking engineers to an increasingly agile organization that is the hub of technology learning, certification and standards for more than 18,000 members. 

With the creation of our Corporate Alliance Program, our relationships with organizations such as CableLabs, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and Women In Cable Telecommunications (WICT), as well as our increasingly global reach, SCTE is both creating solutions for the worldwide cable market, and demonstrating the business impact of those solutions well beyond the technology community.

MUCH TO SEE

At Cable-Tec Expo this year, the agenda is jammed with keynotes, panels, workshops and exhibits that are pointing the way to a new Golden Age for our industry. We’ll showcase strategies for increasing operational efficiency, reducing costs and boosting customer satisfaction. Among them: cloud-based services; agile software development; IP video delivery; and standards for next-generation equipment and facilities design, to name a few.

When you have a record 48 workshops and more than 96 educational sessions, as well as multiple keynotes and opening general sessions and countless other events, there’s no way for a preview to do justice to all of them in several hundred words.  We’ll do our best here to shine a spotlight on the highlights that will make SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2014 a memorable show.  Here are a few:

• We’ve brought together two global thought leaders — Rob Lloyd, president, sales and development for Cisco Systems, and Mike Fries, president and CEO of Liberty Global — for a twin helping of keynote remarks.  Rob will talk on Tuesday (Sept. 23) about the evolution of the customer experience and the role of the cloud in the emerging model. On Wednesday (Sept. 24), Tony will engage Mike, to give attendees a global view of the opportunities that are ahead for the industry.

• Tony will follow Rob Lloyd’s lead during Tuesday’s opening general session when he moderates a panel entitled, “Cable’s Cloud Forecast: More Apps and Infrastructure.”  Among the panelists who will provide glimpses into a cloud-based future: Dan Hennessy, chief architect of Liberty Global, and Mark Muehl, senior vice president, product engineering for Comcast.

• Two of our most important activities, Standards and Energy Management, often go hand in hand. If you’re designing, building, buying or deploying new equipment, you can’t afford to miss the “Energy 2020” session at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. John Schanz, executive vice president and chief network officer of Comcast, will keynote the session, which will provide the vendor and operator communities with further visibility into how the “Energy 2020” campaign is shaping standards and requirements for new equipment, training and other resources.   Also on tap:  presentations on Energy Efficiency; Energy Integration into Operations; Drive Density and Performance; and Performance and Reliability Tiering.

• Our workshops will address the technology innovations that are essential to the future of our industry: Next-Generation Customer Experiences (Improving Operations, Defining/Redefining the Connected Home, and the role of the “Silicon Technician”); Next-Generation Video (All-IP Video, Ultra HD/HEVC/HDR, Video Portability, Next-Gen User Interfaces); and Next-Generation Networks (Architectures and Virtualized-, Cloud- and Software-Defined Networks for Gigabit Services and Beyond). 

• When you’re not listening to our speakers, the best place to learn about where the industry is headed is the show floor. The Cloud, HEVC, IP Video, CCAP, DOCSIS 3.1 — our vendors are the innovators who are turning those technologies and others into products that are ready for deployment by the cable operator community.

• And, of course, there will be the International Cable Games, the IP Challenge and the other events and networking opportunities that make Cable-Tec Expo a magnet for cable engineering and operations professionals in the U.S. and, increasingly, worldwide.

SOARING IN THE ROCKIES

Denver will be alive with cable activity this week and make no mistake about it:  the city is still an important part of our industry’s landscape. Denver is many things — the headquarters city for the hub of international cable, Liberty Global; the location of The Cable Center; the jumping-off point for CableLabs; and the home to so many other companies and individuals who have contributed to our industry’s growth.

As one who spent many years here with my family, I hope you enjoy every minute of your time in the city. But most of all I hope that you make the most of everything we have to offer at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2014.

Mark Dzuban is president and CEO of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers.

In a blurb describing technical sessions at next week's SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, a few words jump out. They emphasize how the presentations will examine technologies that generate "both CapEx and OpEx savings" for cable operators.  

Nothing wrong with that: it's a strong value proposition that technology is being developed and deployed to serve the sacred financial bottom line.

With this year's introduction and expansion of its "Corporate Alliance" program,  the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers is escalating its intent to use "the science and technology of engineering  to support a business case," as SCTE President/CEO Mark Dzuban told me during our annual pre-Expo conversation.  Many of Dzuban's remarks about SCTE's direction reflect the growing business-centric approach that he has brought to the technology association.

Again there's nothing wrong about engineering management focused on business objectives.  But it is a notable shift from SCTE's slogan under Dzuban's predecessor: "All engineering, all the time." To be fair, John Clark, the previous SCTE chief, was a marketing guy, and his nifty incantation did not ignore the business requirements of good engineering.

Dzuban said, "My mantra is 'the business of engineering,' bringing in the skills that improve the bottom line."  That sounds like the kiss of Comcast, which is always about the bottom line. Comcast is a major supporter of the SCTE Corporate Alliance, which, Dzuban notes, "is focused on education and far greater scale."

"It [the Alliance] is a collaboration between the MSOs [who face] common problems," he added, pointing to the increased integration of technology and business decisions.  For validation, finance-focused Dzuban reminded me that engineering and operations are responsible for two-thirds of cable operators' capital budgets.  

Creation of the Alliance brings more corporate presence into SCTE, which for more than four decades has been a "society" of individual engineers and technologists who worked for cable operators or suppliers.  Before joining SCTE, Dzuban spent eight years in top management posts at Cedar Point Communications, a voice technology vendor focused on the cable industry. Prior to that, he worked for AT&T, Bell Labs and AT&T Broadband for more than 20 years.  Those old Bell System management training programs certainly drummed ideas about engineering management into technologists' brains.   

The evolution of Cable-Tec Expo from a geek-fest into a tech management event matches the industry's maturation.  For several years (especially since Dzuban took the SCTE helm in 2009), the conference has increasingly heard from corporate "suits." This year's keynoters include Liberty Global President /CEO Mike Fries, who is unlikely to offer tips on network virtualization, software-defined networks, adaptive bit rates, HEVC, EPON, GPON or RFoG (all topics on Expo's agenda).  

But Fries doesn't have to discuss those topics. He and other non-technical cable executives will be at the Denver conference, in part, to remind the technical troops about why they're doing what they do.  

Under Dzuban, SCTE has beefed up its management initiatives, including its Executive Leadership Program with Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business, which debuted in 2011.  SCTE's business-focus is also emerging on many fronts, especially on Cable-Tec Expo's agenda.  For example, its "Energy 2020" project pushes for standards and best practices through use of advanced technology.  Dzuban adds a financial spin to the energy reduction goal, noting that "energy needs will grow along with broadband usage."

"Think of it as a significant incremental cost that is always increasing," he said.

 The message is clear: all engineering is ultimately about the money all the time.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  

In a blurb describing technical sessions at next week's  SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, a few words jump out. They emphasize how the presentations will examine technologies that generate "both CapEx and OpEx savings" for cable operators. 

Nothing wrong with that: it's a strong value proposition that technology is being developed and deployed to serve the sacred financial bottom line.

With this year's introduction and expansion of its "Corporate Alliance" program,  the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers is escalating its intent to use "the science and technology of engineering  to support a business case," as SCTE president and CEO Mark Dzuban told me during our annual pre-Expo conversation.  Many of Dzuban's remarks about SCTE's direction reflect the growing business-centric approach that he has brought to the technology association.

Again there's nothing wrong about engineering management focused on business objectives.  But it is a notable shift from SCTE's slogan under Dzuban's predecessor: "All engineering, all the time." To be fair, John Clark, the previous SCTE chief, was a marketing guy, and his nifty incantation did not ignore the business requirements of good engineering.

Dzuban said, "My mantra is 'the business of engineering,' bringing in the skills that improve the bottom line." 

That sounds like the kiss of Comcast, which is always about the bottom line. Comcast is a major supporter of the SCTE Corporate Alliance, which, Dzuban said, "is focused on education and far greater scale."

"It [the Alliance] is a collaboration between the MSOs [who face] common problems," he adds, pointing to the increased integration of technology and business decisions.  For validation, finance-focused Dzuban reminded me that engineering and operations are responsible for two-thirds of cable operators' capital budgets.  

Creation of the Alliance brings more corporate presence into SCTE, which for more than four decades has been a "society" of individual engineers and technologists who worked for cable operators or suppliers.  Before joining SCTE, Dzuban spent eight years in top management posts at Cedar Point Communications, a voice technology vendor focused on the cable industry. Prior to that, he worked for AT&T, Bell Labs and AT&T Broadband for more than 20 years.  Those old Bell System management training programs certainly drummed ideas about engineering management into technologists' brains.   

The evolution of Cable-Tec Expo from a geek-fest into a tech management event matches the industry's maturation.  For several years (especially since Dzuban took the SCTE helm in 2009), the conference has increasingly heard from corporate "suits." This year's keynoters include Liberty Global president and CEO Mike Fries, who is unlikely to offer tips on network virtualization, software-defined networks, adaptive bit rates, HEVC, EPON, GPON or RFoG (all topics on Expo's agenda).  

But Fries doesn't have to discuss those topics. He and other non-technical cable executives will be at the Denver conference, in part, to remind the technical troops about why they're doing what they do.  

Under Dzuban, SCTE has beefed up its management initiatives, including its Executive Leadership Program with Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business, which debuted in 2011.  SCTE's business-focus is also emerging on many fronts, especially on Cable-Tec Expo's agenda.  For example, its "Energy 2020" project pushes for standards and best practices through use of advanced technology.  Dzuban adds a financial spin to the energy reduction goal, noting that "energy needs will grow along with broadband usage."

"Think of it as a significant incremental cost that is always increasing," he said.     

The message is clear: all engineering is ultimately about the money all the time.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.