Pipeline Profile:

Ron Mesavage

By CT Staff

SCTE member since 2005

Title: Electrical Engineer, Bresnan Communications

Broadband Background: In the 17 years Mesavage has worked in the broadband industry, he has held engineering positions at companies including C-COR, General Instrument and Motorola BCS. He also wrote a well-received feature on CPD in CT's June issue.

What's your background in cable?

I started my career as an installer, which sparked my fascination with the CATV industry. I attended college and earned three technical degrees, including my BSEE. Upon graduation, I worked primarily for major CATV equipment vendors and provided on-site technical services at hundreds of operator sites.

Working for manufacturers also gave me experience working in RF and optical labs on equipment R&D, system design, and environmental and anechoic chamber testing. This, along with working within a number of elite engineering teams, and my enormous amount of field experience, gave me a well-rounded practical and technical knowledge of the industry.

How did you get involved in the training end of the business?

About 50 percent of my time spent on-site involved product application training. I incorporated into my training not just how to do things, but also why things are done and gained a reputation of being very effective. This eventually led to a position providing paid hands-on and theoretical training services. I've stayed current with technology and refined my methods to cover systems end-to-end, including the most difficult concepts in simplified terms.

In what ways has training changed over the past five to 10 years?

Technology advancements and new services have necessitated the addition of many new subject areas. I foresee that this will continue at an accelerated rate well into the future. To keep up has become a tremendous challenge for our industry's training personnel. In order to be effective, every detail of a subject must be put in understandable terms. Taking experienced technicians through these changes has proven to be challenging.

Also, in the past, new hires could traditionally be given minimal training accompanied with OJT to perform their work effectively. Now, much more training is initially required before they can perform quality work.

There still remain basics, correct? Such as common path distortion?

Absolutely. Too often, not enough basic training is provided. A solid foundation must be built, and the foundation must support more weight than ever before. Humans are very adaptive. Inadequate training leads to "shortcuts" and an inability to deal with the ever-increasing complex issues. Today's world demands a high level of customer satisfaction that only highly skilled technicians can provide.

How did this become an area of expertise for you?

I gained experience in the design and operations of high-split broadband LAN systems and was involved in the return path design of the equipment and systems long before cable operators conducted mass deployments. I knew of CPD, but had almost no experience with it in the lab or indoor broadband LAN environments.

I remember the incident that started my interest in CPD. A particular operator was experiencing massive CPD issues in nearly every node of its system and essentially blamed the manufacturer's equipment. (As it turned out, the problem was traced to a simple problem with a particular manufacturer's line terminator design.) I spent three weeks on-site trying to isolate the cause. At the time, little was written on the subject. It was bewildering and very difficult to isolate due to the multiple sources. Using the operator's equipment, I was able to reproduce the effect in the lab, which finally led to the solution and my comprehensive understanding of the cause.

What's the biggest misconception about CPD?

Wow. I've heard too many to list and that is one of the reasons I selected the topic to write about. I'd say two of the most common are that "It's a reflection of the forward signals from a corroded connection," and "It's a diode effect" with no true comprehension of what that actually means.

What's the most efficient way to manage the problem?

Nothing new, really: quality equipment, good splicing practices and minimizing the equipment's exposure to moisture. Return spectra monitoring and qualified technicians that can track and repair the problem are essential. One good aspect is that the manufacturers are now well aware of the CPD issue and have taken steps in their designs to minimize the occurrence. Some recommend or offer chemical cleaners. True or not, I've heard rumors that salt and oils from human contact can start the process.

From your experience, do smaller operators differ in terms of in plant maintenance from the larger MSOs?

In smaller systems, the technicians tend to perform a greater variety of duties, regardless of their technical level. They generally are exposed to more, which lends itself to a better-rounded technician. As systems become larger, technicians tend to be more specialized and become very good at what they do. However, I have rarely encountered a system where there wasn't a certain amount of cross training necessitated by on-call duties.

How many Expos have you attended? Any special plans for this one?

This will be my second. Last minute emergencies or deadlines have caused me to miss quite a few I planned to attend.

Expo is truly an important event. This is the gathering of some of the industry's top talent and representatives from many of the best companies. Besides the knowledge I will gain at special events, I plan on leaving with better insight into technologies, applications and test equipment.