If you’ve had some time to look through your notes from EXPO, you might find it interesting to compare against my impressions.  Here’s what I saw as the “take-homes:”

Hottest new technology item:  Handheld electronic tools with potential for multiple applications.   I’m not talking about voltmeters and even QAM analyzers.  These are multipurpose devices with the common denominators of video display, a windows or windows-compatible operating system, and internet access.  The initial applications vary.  For example, at the Broadband Learning Conference, Pam Nobles demonstrated Comcast’s work management tool which has been introduced to the majority of Comcast regions to automate personnel tracking and dispatch.  However, because the device can access the internet and display web content like any other browser, it can be used to also download documentation and training.  Sunrise has different tool, which is used for digital measurement and communication with management and tracking systems, but could also be used to access web content.  With a workforce that is accustomed to iPODs for personal use, this is a natural evolution for information transfer of all types to the field, whenever needed.

Business telephony:  There’s lots of ways to skin a cat, but this many choices has to be confusing to our SMB market.  The basic choice is whether the intelligence for business telephony should reside in equipment at the customer’s premises (e.g.:  Whaleback Systems, Cisco, and others), or in a service provider network (eg:  Call server/feature server functionality such as provided by Cedar Point, Cisco, and others).  We can be heroes by offering and supporting one-choice branded solutions that fit particular business types and sizes, eliminating the need for the SMB customer to become a telephony guru.

Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) standards:  Here’s a good example of how to make it easy for the customer.  The MEF certifications for both equipment and services do the groundwork for business customers to ensure the carrier Ethernet solutions they choose meet MEF performance criteria.  Now, the MEF is going on the road to carry the message to Enterprise customers:  operators offering carrier Ethernet solutions need to be MEF 9 and 14 certified for private line, virtual private line, and switched multipoint services, and (soon) MEF 18 certified for circuit emulation.

Switched Digital Video:  Early implementers say that 90 days is all it takes to be up and  running.  However, it’s important to consider changes in set top control, power and HVAC for a larger number of edge devices, and traffic monitoring as the number of offerings increase.    Some program choices such as sports events that seem natural fits can cause problems with support if waves of impulse customers ignore setup procedures for digital boxes.

Multi-room PVR:  Slowly emerging.  MoCA is the winner for networking the boxes.   Lots of talk about storing and accessing  photos, and, of course, entertainment content.   Personally, I think these applications need more HDTV set penetration before taking off, and all-digital broadcasting may be the stimulus that drives consumer purchases to the point where second room  viewing experience is good enough to move people off the couch to another venue to finish the movie.

Interactivity:  For now, this is dominated by interactive guide applications, not web browsing, games, or even surveys.  The CEO panel seemed to agree that TV will not replace the PC as a browsing tool, and the most likely scenario is for consumers to be using a mobile device while watching TV.   As for moving applications to OCAP, Aptiv’s Dan LaJoie summarized it best:  “When our customers ask for it, we will migrate our applications to OCAP.  For now, we are concentrating on the base of legacy set top boxes.”

–Jay Junkus

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  If the cable industry is sincere about tapping into the commercial business space, and there are many who say it isn’t, it surely is going about it in the wrong fashion for an old friend of mine. 

Several years ago my friend told me that he wanted to upgrade from dial-up to cable modem service and asked Comcast to help out. The local operator said sure–for $10,000–which my friend thought was a little outlandish since their properties abut. During a round of golf the other day he updated me on his situation.

“They’re going to do it now for $300,” he said with the emphasis on going to. Four years after he first asked, nothing’s yet been finalized, but he’s hopeful that a wire can be strung maybe 50 feet between the Comcast headend and his business.

I couldn’t help thinking—aloud, alas for Comcast—that my friend should probably ask for more than just a connection and a bigger bill. If Comcast is serious about commercial customers, a business within arm’s length should be a great test bed. Comcast could install equipment to monitor the service and, while I’d never suggest that a cable operator actually pay for something, could perhaps work a trade-off deal with my friend.

Of course my friend isn’t Brian Roberts—although he might actually have as much money, believe it or not–so it’s not extraordinarily likely that the same cable system that shut me off and sicced a collection agency on me for an overdue $20 bill at a summer home while it continued to collect over $150 a month for my year-round home service in the same state—will be obliging. In fact, someone there might read this, put two and two together and yell fore as they drive golf balls through my friend’s windows.

The awful thing is that this kind of cynicism is still running rampant about the cable industry no matter how many quality awards are handed out. In the same county where the system shut me down, refused to bend on service for my friend and generally has a television monopoly because it’s too far from the Philadelphia TV market, the local weekly paper runs a column called “Spout Off.” Comcast, of course, is a frequent target of these anonymous gems, such as this week’s missive from North Cape May: “Regarding the complaint that Comcast took the game show called Lingo that was on free TV originally and put it on pay TV: the woman said that Comcast told her that nobody was watching Lingo, that’s why they put it on pay TV. The opposite is true. Lingo became very popular. Everybody I know was watching it and told me about it. Comcast stood to lose money if they left it on free TV. Comcast is in the business to make money and they stood to lose money if they left it on free TV. Goodbye Comcast, Hello Verizon.”

I kid you not. And it’s not the only negative comment about Comcast as you can see at www.capemaycountyherald.com.

Maybe it’s an anomaly; maybe it’s the fact that Verizon is cherrypicking New Jersey and won’t reach Cape May County any time soon so there’s no true competitive threat other than the plethora of satellite dishes dotting the county; or maybe it’s something else, but there’s surely something fishy about the whole situation.

– Jim Barthold

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Funny - as I walk away from Expo and read everyones blogs, I look forward to ET. I love the technology and am happy to see so many new applications, software platforms, and hardware. But I see the need for so much collaboration, standards, and partnership. With so many technology directions, isn’t that collaboration key? How are we going to deal with advanced advertising and even the more short term consolidation of platforms in switched digital, broadcast, and on demand? There is a lot of work to be done with interfaces before we have an industry solution. Then there’s the whole future of trafficking in a targeted, maybe even unicast world. That’s one hot topic. Backend software unification is another good topic. There are so many. I haven’t seen a call for papers for ET yet, but just as we wrap up ‘today’ with Expo - I guess it’s natural to look for ‘tomorrow’ with ET.

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My absolutely hectic Cable-Tec Expo schedule meant that I didn’t get to see the entire exhibit hall, but I did manage to find time in between meetings to wander most of the show floor looking for interesting technology, goodies and gadgets. Here, in no particular order, are my Expo ’07 picks.

Have you ever tried to find your way through a maze of data cabling, or trace a cable from one device to another? Sort out opens, shorts, or reversed pairs? Tone active circuits? Figure out if an RJ-45 jack is for data, phone, or is even working? Fluke’s IntelliTone 200 Toner and Probe Kit (p/n MT-8200-60A) may be the answer to these questions and more. The handheld tester comes with the toner and probe, coax F connector adapter, RJ-11 and RJ-45 patch cables, test leads with alligator clips, and even batteries. www.flukenetworks.com

If your headend has a bunch of General Instrument (now Motorola) IRT-1000 or IRT-2000 integrated receiver/transcoders, their internal batteries have probably seen better days. WooshCom was showing a clever battery replacement kit that can be installed in a live IRT that is still authorized and passing signals to customers. The company’s BK-1000 is expected to ship in the third quarter of this year, and sell for $99 each. Forget replacing the IRT or sending it to a repair center for new batteries. This kit is designed to be field-installable by a headend technician. www.wooshcom.com

Those of us who have done duty as bench techs have made plenty of insertion loss, frequency response and return loss measurements with a bench sweep or perhaps even a network analyzer. But what to do if you can’t afford this kind of test equipment, or simply just need to make some quick measurements and don’t want to pack the bench gear out in the field? One solution is ViewTeq’s VNSB-1000, a 5-1100 MHz broadband noise generator and return loss bridge, all built in a compact handheld instrument. Using any modern signal level meter that has spectrum or scan mode in conjunction with the VNSB-1000, one can measure gain, loss, frequency response and return loss. This $500 gadget is scheduled to be available this summer, and will come with a calibrated mismatch. www.viewteq.com

Global positioning system (GPS) technology has without a doubt enhanced the performance of signal leakage detection technology. VGI Solutions’ CPAT leakage monitoring system is designed to be an install-and-forget solution. Not forget to use it, but forget it’s there. The GPS-equipped RF receivers are installed in cable company vehicles, and they begin monitoring the plant whenever the vehicles are started. No on/off switch to deal with, no intervention by the driver to do leakage monitoring. Data is stored as installers and techs drive around doing their normal work. That same data is automatically uploaded to a WiFi hot spot installed at the cable company warehouse or other site where vehicles return at the end of the day. The captured data is then processed by the CPAT server, allowing leaks to be located and mapped, management reports and work orders generated (and even e-mailed to techs). The system ties in with cumulative leakage index calculation, too. www.vgisolutions.com

Did you know that one of the biggest problems affecting the performance of optical transmission gear is dirty or improperly cleaned connectors? MicroCare had a booth display with all kinds of fiber cleaning solutions. Some of the products I looked at included Fiber Care Fiber Wipes (lint-free wipes in a handy dispenser), pump dispenser based fiber connector cleaner, fiber preparation fluid (a high purity solvent), and a pre-packaged lint-free fiber connector cleaner called FiberAide 1. To use the latter, simply open the pocket-size package, put the back of the cleaning pad on, say, the palm of your hand, and wipe the connector end faces on the pad. One testament about Microcare’s products was seeing some of them in several nonaffiliated fiber equipment manufacturers’ booths. www.microcare.com

When I saw Trimble’s booth, the first thought that came to mind was Trimble GPS receivers. Cool—more toys! A closer look revealed this to be Tripod Data Systems, which is owned by Trimble. On display were Trimble’s Recon and Ranger handheld computers (these things meet mil spec). Of particular interest was the TraxFast MC2 asset tracking for utilities, which combines asset identification using bar codes or RFID tags, maintenance scheduling, GPS-based mapping, and data storage. All of this can be tied together with software from eTeklogics. www.tdsway.com and www.eteklogics.com

And my Expo 2007 show favorite? Well, you’ll just have to wait for my column in the August issue of Communications Technology!

Ron Hranac

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I just mailed out the pins and certificates to our 2007 class members of the Loyal Order of the 704.   The pins didn’t arrive in time for the induction ceremony and I know some members asked me for a new pin.  I have a few extra and will send them to anyone who emails me their address and request.  I also have extra membership certificates if you older members would like one.  Just let me know and I’ll send them out to you.  You’ll have to email me the addresses because the sign-in sheets from previous meetings look like doctors and pharmacists attended and signed (scribbled) in………   TVRex

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Among the fun events at Cable-Tec Expo are the closing night receptions, which provide some time to relax and wind down after a hectic week of customer & vendor meetings, workshops, sessions, wandering the exhibit hall, and other activities.

Since the late 1980s one of the Expo receptions has been a get-together for amateur (”ham”) radio operators, emceed by your humble correspondent. In addition to eats and beverages, plus a chance to catch up with fellow ham operators, the ham radio reception has included a drawing for ham radio-related door prizes. I’d like to take a moment to thank the following Expo 2007 door prize sponsors, who were kind enough to contribute to this year’s collection of goodies. These same folks had to put up with our “beg-a-thon committee” that pesters folks for door prizes.

Alpha Technologies, American Radio Relay League, ARRIS, Aurora Networks, Belden, BigBand Networks, Broadband Media Engineering, C-COR, Charter Communications, Cisco Systems, Coaxial Analysts, CommScope, ComSonics, Communications Technology magazine, Digicomm International, Ham Radio Outlet (Denver store), Harmonic, Inc., Jones/NCTI, MCE Associates & SEE Telecom, Monroe Electronics, Motorola, PCT International, Scientific Atlanta, SCTE, Thomas & Betts, Times Fiber Communications, Trilithic, and Wegener.

I think I got everyone, but if I left any door prize sponsor out, my apology in advance (and be sure to let me know!). If you were among the door prize winners, be sure to contact the sponsor of your prize and pass along a big thanks. And if you were a door prize sponsor, a special thanks to you for supporting our Cable-Tec Expo ham radio get-together.

73, Ron Hranac, N0IVN

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Graham Stubbs sent me the following information.  Any 704 owners interested in putting new straps on their meters?….TVRex

“At long last I’ve found a source for webbing straps for the 704. As you know, many of these straps are missing from surviving meters. The strap that I found is cotton, it has a plated steel cinch-buckle, and it has a plated steel end cap on the other end of the webbing, just like the original. The strap is olive color, which is what I think the original ones were before they aged to a darker shade, and is available in lengths from two feet and up. The original was six and a half feet. This new strap is made from lighter weight cotton webbing than the original, but to me it looks just fine.

I bought one to check it out; it cost me $9.29 plus $4.00 for shipping. I selected a seven feet length, but six feet would have been just as fine.

The source is McMaster-Carr, on the web at www.mcmaster.com

If you go to their web site, search for “cinching straps.” The part number of the one I bought is 3706 T158

If he’s interested, Pinky could order one to check it out for himself, or I could send you the one I just got.

A lot of guys have asked about these and I think that the members of the Loyal Order of the 704 would be delighted to know about a source.”

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Now all of the members of the Loyal Order of The 704 have their own seat at The Cable Center.  Although it carrys my name, every member of the Loyal Order is responsible for our reaching the $130,000+ mark with our pledge of $25,000 to The Center.  I have asked the staff at The Cable Center to somehow make our seat illustrate our membership and the associated mascot, Pinky.  I understand they will border the back or the arm rests with pink and perhaps put Pinky’s name onto the metal plaque along side mine.  When you visit Denver, be sure and visit The Cable Center and see the new seat.  It’s all of our’s! …..TVRex

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Thanks to everyone for the CTO panel suggestions - I squeezed in as many topics and suggested questions as I could. I especially liked that John Schanz suggested to everyone that they go to the workshops. The final workshops on Friday afternoon (after the show floor closed even) were still packed, it was really a good show with a lot of participation. I heard from several attendees that they thought the innovation on the floor was excellent.

Kyle McSlarrow (CEO of NCTA) gave a nice keynote. There’s so much going on, it’s nice to see the synergy with SCTE, even though we have a lot to do. If you weren’t able to attend, it’s worth reading a summary of both his keynote and the CEO panel. Johnathan, maybe you could point us to a link?

Congratulations to Tom Gorman, Ronald Brunt, Caroyln Terry, and Sally Kinsman. I want to know if any of those glass awards broke on the way home…

See you next year!
Yvette

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Every time I go to Expo I am amazed at the wide variety of technology on display - everything from monstrous bucket trucks and DC battery strings to pads, equalizers, and the latest drop cable attachment widget (no staples, please)! In fact this year for the first time ever I left Expo with a new item for my company, one of Alpha Technologies Disaster Recovery Generator Trailers equipped with more than two-dozen generators for power supplies (DC-only, thank you very much, thieves need not apply), one of two that Charter is purchasing to ensure we are ready for the next hurricane or ice storm. (All you other MSO’s with these trailers, let me know if you are interested in a mutual aid pact). 150 gallons of diesel later (this thing is heavy and has more drag than a battleship) it is now sfely esconced in the center of our footprint in St. Louis, and somewhat of a mechanical hobbyist I have to acknowledge the thought that Alpha has put into this thing: electric hoist, ceiling hoist transport cradle, locking generator restraints, solar power battery charging, vents, the list goes on and on.

I also left with lots of small samples (and a jump-drive or two), and some big ideas (who’d a thunk you could put a OCAP settop in the footprint of a paperback book).

The best result was all the best-practice learnings from peers at other MSO’s - thanks to all of you for being open to sharing your challenges and successes.

Keith

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