CableLabs Summer Conference '07
Sets Another Attendance Record

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CableLabs Summer Conference 2007 once again established a new record, showing more than 15% increase in members in attendance, compared with Summer Conference 2006. The conference was held at Keystone Resort and Conference Center in Colorado from August 5–8.

The conference included a half day of sessions on August 8 that were open to representatives from supplying companies. Overall the event had 21 track sessions and five general sessions. This conference also included the second Innovation Showcase session, which is designed to provide presentation opportunities for new companies as well as established companies with innovative technologies.

The showcase features a lightning round format with 10 minutes set aside for each supplier to demonstrate and present a technology concept that is selected by a committee of cable operators focusing on innovative new ideas. In informal polling of the audience during the Showcase, Harmonic's broadband video demo incorporating DOCSIS 3.0 was voted best new idea.

Conference sessions began August 6 with the Showcase which was moderated by David Reed, CableLabs Chief Strategy Officer and an executive vice president. The companies that demonstrated over the course of that morning were 4HomeMedia, ADZILLA, Ambit, ARRIS, Digeo, Harmonic, Nortel, Oberon/PixelPlay, pureNetworks, Scopus, Sereniti and tZero.

Resuming in the afternoon with track sessions, the conference featured a panel entitled “It's Not About the Cable—How OpenCable Home Networking Enables New Revenue-Generating Services,” moderated by Clarke Stevens, Sr. Architect, Advanced Platforms & Services, CableLabs. Speakers: Raj Bopardikar, Senior Architect, Intel; Mark Francisco, a fellow, Comcast; and Anton Monk, a Vice President of Technology for Entropic who also is the Chief Technology Officer of the Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) Alliance.

The other concurrent panel was “Preparing for DOCSIS 3.0 Deployment,” and was moderated by Lakshmi Raman, Director, Advance Technology, Broadband Access, CableLabs. Speakers: Chris Bastian, Senior Director, Technology Development, Comcast; Doug Semon, Vice President, Strategic Technology Development, Time Warner Cable; and Mourad Veeneman, Vice President, Design & Architecture, UPC.

Following was a block of concurrent sessions including one entitled “Business Services—Show Me The Money,” moderated by Jerry Bennington, Executive Consultant to CableLabs. Speakers: Joe Delotto, Director Product Management-Optimum Voice For Business, Cablevision; Kevin O'Toole, Vice President, Commercial Services Sales, Comcast, and Brian Rose, Product Development Manager, Cox Communications.

The other session in this time slow was titled “Identity Management,” and was moderated by Oscar Marcia, CableLabs Vice President for Security. Speakers: Greg Ayre, Distinguished Engineer, Comcast; Stuart Cassell, Director, Data Product Management, Cox Communications; Stephanie Kesler, Senior Technologist, GCI; and Rob Martell, Vice President, eMedia Development, Cablevision.

Next was a set of sessions including one entitled “OpenCable Platform Application Development—The Real World,” moderated by David Hooley, Senior Software Engineer, CableLabs. Speakers: Tony Istvan, Senior Director, Advanced Development, Comcast Cable; Al Straub, Principal Engineer, Time Warner Cable; and Darren Wetzel, Vice President of Engineering, Navic Networks.

The other concurrent session in this time slot of the afternoon was “Cross Platform Applications” and was moderated by Glenn Russell, Director, Business Services, Strategic Assessment, CableLabs. Speakers: Michael Chen, Director, Cross Platform Applications & Services, Comcast; Maura Fox, VP Product Management, Devices and Convergence, Time Warner Cable; and Mark Kaish, VP, Voice Strategy and Product Management, Cox Communications.

The day concluded with concurrent sessions, including one entitled “CablePC—What It Is, What It Could Be,” and moderated by Tim Dodd, Vice President, Technology Policy, Time Warner Cable. Speakers: Jason Gaedtke, Chief Architect, Comcast Interactive Media; Ron Pessner, General Manager in Microsoft's eHome Division; and Craig Smithpeters, Director, Interactive Services Engineering, Cox Communications.

Concurrently there was “IPv6 and Opportunities for Home Networking,”, moderated by Deepak Kharbanda, Senior Engineer - IP Networking, CableLabs. Speakers: Ralph Droms, Principal Engineer, Cisco Systems; Alain Durand, Director, IPv6 Architecture, Comcast Cable; and John McQueen, Senior Principal Software Engineer, Broadcom.

August 7 began with concurrent sessions. One was entitled “The National Advertising Infrastructure,” and was moderated by Arthur Orduña, Senior Vice President, Policy and Product, Advance Newhouse Communications. Speakers: John Collins, Vice President Advanced Advertising Technologies, Time Warner Cable; Barry Frey, Senior Vice President Advanced Platform Sales, Cablevision; and Michael McCarthy, Director Technical Operations, Advanced Media, Cox Media. The other session was “Broadband Home Security, Monitoring, and Automation Solutions for Cable,” and was moderated by Roy Perry, Director, Technology Integration, CableLabs. Speakers: Reza Raji, Founder and CEO, iControl; Louis Stilp, CEO, InGrid; and Steve Trundle, President and CEO, Alarm.com.

A general session on Video In Transition followed, moderated by David Reed of CableLabs. Speakers: Dallas Clement, SVP, Strategy & Product Management, Cox Communications; Mark Coblitz, Senior Vice President Strategic Planning, Comcast; Kevin Leddy, SVP, Strategy & Development, Time Warner Cable; and Mike Lee, Chief Strategy Officer, Rogers Communications. Another general session followed, involving financial analysts. Moderator was Mark Greenberg, Senior Portfolio Manager, AIM Funds. Speakers: Donna Jaegers, Director of Research, Janco Partners; Martin Pyykkonen, Senior Executive Director, Internet and Digital Media Research, Global Crown; and James Ratcliffe, Vice President in equity research, Lehman Brothers.

The afternoon concurrent sessions included “HFC Monitoring Strategies Enabling Advanced Services,” moderated by Alberto Campos, Principal Architect, Broadband Technologies, CableLabs. Speakers: Ben Bekele, Principal Architect, Cox Communications; Claude Bou-Abboud, Capacity Planning Director, Comcast; and Nick Segura, Manager of Quality Assurance, Charter Communications. Paired with this session was another entitled “Cable Goes Mobile,” which was moderated by Kevin Johns, Project Director, PacketCable Communications Protocols, CableLabs. Speakers: Bernard McKibben, Senior Architect, Cellular Systems, CableLabs; and Michael Poffenberger, Director of Product Management - Wireless, Cox Communications.

The next set of sessions included “Service Management for Business Ethernet,” moderated by Chris Donley, Project Director, Network Protocols, CableLabs. Speakers: Glenn Calafati, Director of Product Development, Optimum Lightpath, Cablevision Systems; Brian Rose of Cox and Darren Wolner, Senior Product Manager, Time Warner Cable. The concurrent panel was “Distribution of Video Content: A Very Competitive Landscape,” moderated by Jud Cary, Vice President/Deputy General Counsel, CableLabs. Speakers: Chris Cookson, Chief Technology Officer, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.; Tim Dodd of Time Warner Cable; and Paul Glist, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine.

The final set of sessions for August 7 featured one entitled “Web 2.0 and Cable TV Service,” moderated by CableLabs CTO Ralph Brown. Speakers: Jean-Pierre Abello, Director Product Management - Yahoo Digital Home, Yahoo; John Callahan, SVP, Software Development, Time Warner Cable; and Vincent Dureau, Head of TV Technology, Google.

August 8 began with a general session of top technology executives from cable companies. Moderated by Leslie Ellis, an industry analyst, the panel had as speakers Chris Bowick, Senior Vice President, Engineering and CTO, Cox Communications; Steve Craddock, Senior Vice President of New Technology in the Office of the CTO Comcast Cable; Marwan Fawaz, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Charter Communications; and Mike LaJoie, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Time Warner Cable.

Pictured from left, moderator Leslie Ellis, an industry analyst. Others on the panel: Marwan Fawaz, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Charter Communications; Chris Bowick, Senior Vice President, Engineering and CTO, Cox Communications; Steve Craddock, Senior Vice President of New Technology in the Office of the CTO for Comcast Corporation; and Mike LaJoie, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Time Warner Cable.

The session was followed by a plenary that had an international perspective on cable operations and also was moderated by Ellis. Speakers: Paul Berriman, Chief Technology Officer, PCCW; Terry Clontz, President & CEO, StarHub; and Peter Michiels, SVP Networks and System Engineering, Telenet.

The conference concluded with three concurrent sessions that had cable operators as moderators and supplier companies as speakers. They were:

Business Services, moderated by Jay Rolls, Vice President of Technology, Cox Communications. Speakers: David Bukovsky, Vice President, Products, BroadSoft; David Cullerot, Senior Director - Cable Solutions, Acme Packet; Solomon Israel, Senior Director Systems Integration and Multimedia Solutions, Ericsson; and Bob Mandeville, President, Iometrix.

PacketCable 2.0-3GPP/IMS, moderated by Craddock of Comcast. Speakers: Felipe Alvarez Del Pino, Head Sales Director, Nokia Siemens Networks; Shashi Kavi, Chief Technology Officer for Cable, Internet & Media, Ericsson; Vikram Saksena, CTO, Sonus Networks; and Gary Testa, Vice President Worldwide Sales, Ditech Communications.

Switched Digital Video Architecture, moderated by Cox's Chris Bowick. Speakers: Greg Hardy, Vice President, Business Development, Scientific Atlanta; Joe Matarese, Senior Vice President of Global Advanced Technology, C-COR; Ran Oz, Chief Technology Officer, BigBand Networks; John Ulm, Fellow of the Technical Staff, Home & Networks Mobility, Motorola.

The conference was accompanied by an exhibit floor that featured the following demonstrating companies:

ADB; Affinegy; Alarm.com; Alcatel-Lucent; Alticast; Ambit Microsystems; Apertio Inc.; ARRIS; AudioCodes; Auspice Corporation; BigBand Networks; Broadcom Corporation; BroadLogic; Camiant / Arris / Acme Packet / BroadSoft / Sigma Systems / pureIntegration; C-COR; CGI; Cisco Systems; Clique Communications; CommScope; Digeo, Inc.; Digital Multimedia Technology (DMT) Co.; Ditech Networks, Inc.; Eaton Electrical, Inc.; EMPIRIX; Ensequence; Ericsson; Front Porch; F-Secure; Gallery IP Telephony; GE Security; Harmonic Inc; IBM; ICTV Inc.; Imagine Communications; Incognito Software; Infinera Inc; Integra5; JacobsRimell; Juniper Networks and Intelliden; Level 3 Communications, Inc. and New Global Telecom; MetaSwitch; Mixed Signals, Inc.; Motorola Home & Networks Mobility; Mu Security, Inc.; Nagravision; Netgear Inc; NetNumber, Inc.; NexTone Communications, Inc.; Nokia Siemens Networks; Nominum; Nortel; OpVista, Inc.; Oversi; Pace Micro Technology; Panache; Panasonic; PerfTech, Inc.; PhyFlex Networks; RADCOM Equipment; Samsung Electronics; Sandvine; Scopus Video Networks; Sigma Systems Inc.; Solekai Systems Corp.; Sonus Networks; SPATIALinfo; STMicroelectronics, Inc.; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Synchronoss Technologies; TANDBERG Television, Part of the Ericsson Group; Tellabs; Ubiquity Software / Avaya; uControl, Inc.; UniSoft Corporation / Strategy & Technology, Ltd.; VectorMAX; VeriSign; Vidiom Systems, Inc.; Vyyo; and Xanboo, Inc.

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