July 1, 2008

Editor's Letter: Congrats, Time Warner

By Jonathan Tombes

Our search for excellence in engineering and technical operations this year led us to four systems: CoxCommunications, Greater Louisiana; Insight Communications, Kentucky; Suddenlink Communications, West Texas; and Time Warner Cable, Carolina Region.

This month we focus on the Time Warner Carolina, which takes top honors as our System of the Year. Congrats to Regional EVP Carol Hevey and her team, including Regional EVP Engineering Carl Newberry.

In next month's issue, we'll report on why the other three systems also contended for this best practices award.

Were there other systems that merited attention this year? Probably. Are we operating from a perfect knowledge base? No. Will we hear from disgruntled customers or employees at any of these four systems? Maybe. Do these systems nonetheless serve in various ways as benchmarks for technical capability, engineering expertise and service to the consumer? Yes.

As to whether these are systems or division or regions, good question. The answer is yes. For a more metaphysical answer, consider the quote from the Jacobean British poet John Donne that opens the Time Warner story.

Given unique sets of properties and capabilities, each of the industry's MSOs has a differing take on how and what to scale from the local to regional to national levels. But to paraphrase Donne (pronounced "dun," as in Git-R), no system is an island. Or if it has traditionally been an island, or a Time Warner division, fiber optics and corporate strategy are increasingly shifting that isolation to an interconnected regional reality.

Finally, a word about the digital television (DTV) transition essay in this month's Bullpen. Sorry for not naming the authors. They do indeed exist. (This DTV transition exists, too, by the way.) Their proposal for an 8-VSB/QAM simulcast, while perhaps a day late if not a dollar short, merits attention.

Jonathan Tombes
Editor