CableLabs® Summer Conference Focused on Digital Technologies

pproximately 240 people attended the 10th annual CableLabs® summer conference, entitled Today's Digital Technologies: Tomorrow's Business Success, which was held in Vail, Colorado, July 20­22.

Time Warner Cable chairman and CEO, Joseph Collins, delivered the keynote address on the importance of digital technology to his company's plans.

Included on the first day's agenda were two pre-conference tutorial tracks. Track A included sessions on Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)/engineering issues. Track B included sessions on the PacketCable and OpenCable initiatives.

CableLabs President and CEO, Dr. Richard R. Green, kicked off the conference with a welcome address. He was followed by NCTA's June Travis who briefed attendees on the progress of digital technology issues in Congress and at the FCC. Canadian Cable Television Association President, Richard Stursberg, provided insight on similar issues that are before Canadian regulatory bodies in Ottawa.

The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to a panel on high definition television (HDTV) moderated by Dr. Jerry Bennington of CableLabs. Speakers were Chris Cookson of Warner Brothers Studios; Bob Zitter of HBO; Mike Hayashi of Time Warner Cable; Neil Tinggard of TCI; and Ed Milbourn of Thomson Consumer Electronics.

The following day began with a joint presentation by CableLabs' Tom Moore and Andrew Sundelin on quality of service issues. Collins' keynote followed.

PacketCable was next on the agenda. Mark Coblitz of Comcast Corporation presented a PacketCable progress report, followed by a market research report by Jim Johnson of TCI.NET. Mike LaJoie of Time Warner gave a presentation on new directions in service concepts, and CableLabs' David Reed discussed a PacketCable business model construction.

A second PacketCable panel, moderated by Reed, followed. Panelists were CableLabs PacketCable staff members Ed Miller, David Bukovinsky, Frank Christofferson, and Dr. Terry Shaw. Shaw conducted a live demo of voice over IP that involved using, as the transmission network, the public Internet, the RoadRunner network, and the @Home facilities. The live call was placed using a DOCSIS modem and a traditional telephone handset from the Vail conference room to a Time Warner facility in Portland, Maine.

A series of sessions on OpenCable followed, moderated by Don Dulchinos of CableLabs. Jim Chiddix of Time Warner Cable, David Beddow of TCI Ventures Group, and Meredith Flynn-Ripley of MediaOne offered perspectives on content/applications partners. Paul Salzinger of @Home and Julie Smith, a consultant to OpenCable, offered perspectives on retail equipment.

The day's presentations ended with Bob Cruickshank of CableLabs who gave an update of the DOCSIS project.

The final day of the conference began with a briefing on video on demand by Tom Moore of CableLabs and by Dr. Pete Gatseos of TCI Cable Management Group. There followed a series of presentations on early adoption of technology.

The conference's last session was devoted to entrepreneurial reports by Jerry Partch, director of strategic planning and technology with Bend Cable; William Bauer, CEO of WinDBreak Cable; Yvette Gordon, director of interactive technologies with SeaChange International; Adam Grosser, vice president of product development with @Home Network; Paul Dawes, vice president of business development with Network Computers Inc.; Alan Bushell, president of Diva Systems Corp.; and Tom Sweeney, Level 3 senior vice president of marketing.