New Orleans, Louisiana, March 17, 1997—Digital video bitstreams produced by encoders from Scientific-Atlanta have been found to conform to all the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG-2) system and video syntax checks currently implemented in the Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs) digital video conformance test suite. The testing was part of an established program that uses CableLabs' world class digital video test facilities at its Louisville, Colorado, headquarters.

"CableLabs has been proactive in bringing MPEG-2 technology to the cable industry. We have participated in the definition, evaluation, and intellectual property rights availability for this new technology which will foster many innovative applications and services," said CableLabs Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer Dr. Richard Prodan.

"We are pleased to announce that the Scientific-Atlanta encoders have demonstrated conformance to all our checked compliance requirements to the MPEG-2 video and system layer specifications by successfully completing our first battery of tests evaluating more than 200 parameters and functions," Prodan said.

Dr. Richard R. Green, CableLabs president and CEO, said the Scientific-Atlanta success was critical to the cable television industry: "The industry appreciates the effort and refinements that Scientific-Atlanta has made in their products."

The testing currently involves verifying some 104 system transport stream elements and 73 video stream elements. Verification of bitstream syntax and semantics, program multiplexing information, buffering, timing, synchronization, as well as system and video valid parameter ranges is performed. These elements are checked to comply with the MPEG-2 Main Profile at Main Level video and transport stream system definitions. Final, detailed results of the testing will be made available to CableLabs members shortly. This is the third set of MPEG encoders that CableLabs has approved.

CableLabs is a research and development consortium of cable television system operators representing more than 85% of the cable subscribers in the United States, 75% of the subscribers in Canada, and between five and 12% of cable subscribers in Mexico. CableLabs plans and funds research and development projects that will help cable companies take advantage of future opportunities and meet future challenges in the telecommunications industry. It also transfers relevant technologies to member companies and to the industry. In addition, CableLabs acts as a clearinghouse to provide information on current and prospective technological developments that are of interest to the cable industry.

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org and www.ebif.tv.

CableLabs® is a registered trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Other CableLabs marks are listed at http://www.cablelabs.com/certqual/trademarks. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.