CableNET® ’02 Issues RFP for 10th Exhibit at BroadbandPlus

BroadbandPlus Announces New Show Organizing Committee

CableLabs® and the California Cable & Telecommunications Association (CCTA), continuing their highly successful partnership for the 10th consecutive year, will help BroadbandPlus show attendees “Turn on the Future” with this year’s 10th anniversary CableNET® demonstration.

The CableNET co-sponsors have issued a request for proposal (RFP) for participation in CableNET® ‘02—for a copy of the RFP, please go to www.cablenet.org. CableNET is an educational forum demonstrating the potential of the cable industry’s sophisticated hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network—and the expanding number of video, telecommunications and entertainment applications it will deliver to cable customers.

CableNET is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and once again will have as its focus interactive demonstrations. CableNET also promises to be a centerpiece of the newly named BroadbandPlus, formerly The Western Show. The show will run December 3–6, 2002, in Anaheim, California. BroadbandPlus is the definitive trade show for cable technology in the digital age, and will focus on such advanced services and technologies as:

Content on Demand (VOD/SVOD)
HDTV
High-speed Modems
Home Networking
Interactive Video
Internet Telephony
Next Generation Networks
On-Line Gaming

In addition, BroadbandPlus has announced a new organizing committee. Named to the committee are: Cox Communications Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Engineering Christopher J. Bowick; Comcast Corporation Senior Vice President, New Media Development, Steven C. Craddock; cable industry author and analyst Leslie Ellis; Starz Encore Group Vice President, Subscription VOD Greg DePrez; AT&T Broadband Chief Technology Officer David Fellows; ESPN Vice President Broadband and Interactive Television Sales Manish Jha; CableLabs President and CEO Dr. Richard R. Green; Cablevision Systems Executive Vice President Engineering and Technology Wilt J. Hildenbrand; AT&T Broadband Senior Vice President, Advanced Services Strategy Susan K. Marshall; Game Show Network Senior Vice President, Interactive and Online Entertainment, John P. Roberts; Time Warner Cable Vice President of Consumer Technology and Standards, Doug Semon; Discovery Networks Vice President New Media, Clint Stinchcomb; and Multichannel News Broadband Editor Matt Stump.

“We will undertake a number of innovative initiatives in this year’s BroadbandPlus,” said CCTA President Spencer Kaitz. “But having CableNET as our show’s centerpiece is not new. With CableLabs, we are firmly committed to profiling the leading-edge technology and services that will drive our industry’s success in an increasingly competitive landscape. We think this showcase of cable’s future once again will afford some terrific insights into where our industry is headed and what new technologies will be harnessed to take us there.”

Green indicated that the interactivity element was a big hit in CableNET ’01 and that with advances in the industry, interactivity should have an even greater profile this year. “Each year our projects attract more companies to help our industry achieve new heights in delivering new services to our customers. And CableNET serves as a very public window on that work. For instance, we have gone from having a dozen modem manufacturers exhibiting in CableNET in 1997 to more than 10 million DOCSIS modems deployed today in North America alone.”

CableLabs manages the key cable industry research and development projects—such as OpenCable™, PacketCable™, and DOCSIS™—that seek to assure interoperability with future telecommunications technologies and services.

CableLabs manages these interoperability projects on behalf of its members, who are cable television system operators throughout the world. CableLabs has undertaken these interoperability projects as a collective effort with its members and participating vendors, many of whom will be featured at CableNET® ’02. Because of its key position in these projects, CableLabs serves as a focal point for the convergence of the cable, computer, consumer electronics, and broadcast industries.

The CCTA, which produces BroadbandPlus, the new Western Show, is the nation’s largest state cable association with over 370 member companies providing services to more than 6.8 million cable television households in California. Information on the show can be accessed through www.broadbandplus.org.