CableLabs’ David Bukovinsky and Lisa Lee chaired the conference.
George Bell, President of Excite@Home, delivered the event’s keynote address. Entitled
All Band, All Device, All the Time, Bell’s presentation focused on the expanding market and the technological potential for broadband enterprises.
CableLabs summer conference ‘99 keynote speaker, George W. Bell, President, Excite@Home
Prior to the conference, CableLabs offered several project and technology updates, including an update on Digital Video/HDTV (presented by Bill Warga, CableLabs), with an in-depth, technical look at rate remultiplexing, digital ad insertion, and monitor resolution.
Lisa Lee gave the OpenCable™ project update, which featured a summary of the OpenCable phase I schedule and a look at the project’s vision for next generation set-top boxes.
The PacketCable™ overview, given by David Bukovinsky, featured a discussion of the project’s layered architecture, in addition to highlights, objectives, and schedules for Releases 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2.
A summary and status update for DOCSIS versions 1.0 and 1.1 by Rouzbeh Yassini, executive consultant to CableLabs, followed.
The pre-conference updates concluded with a technical discussion of network reliability improvement by Larry Persons, Rogers Cablesystem.
Dr. Richard R. Green, president and CEO, CableLabs, kicked off the conference with a welcome address, followed by Mike Schwartz, CableLabs, who moderated an Industry Update panel. The panel featured Dan Brenner, NCTA; Steven Guiton, Canadian Cable Television Association; and Gary Shapiro, CEMA.
The day concluded with a financial analysts panel, featuring Tom Wolzien, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.; Ted Henderson, Janco Partners; Simon Flannery, JP Morgan Securities; and Paul Johnson, BancBoston Robertson Stephens. Also moderated by Schwartz, the panel discussed the cable industry’s current financial climate, as well as potential trends for the future.
Conference Day 2
The second day began with a general session panel on broadband content. The panelists included Vincent Grosso, Arepa.com; Ninan Kurien, Carbon 14 Dev/KICK Media Corporation; Richard Rasmus, Comcast Cable Communications; and Alan Yates, Microsoft. Leslie Ellis, Paul Kagan Associates, moderated the panel.
The conference format then shifted to concurrent panel discussions, focusing on interactive services. The panel topics included E-commerce, Enterprise/Network Service Providers, In-Home Networking, Interactive Advertising, and Streaming Video.
The E-commerce panel featured presentations from Kevin Parks, Citibank; Joel Hassell, Electronic Commerce Associates; and Paul Kirchoff, Dell Computer. Donald Dulchinos, CableLabs, moderated.
Running concurrently was a panel on Enterprise/Network Service Providers, moderated by David Scholze, CableLabs. Presenters included Gregg Backemeyer, Cable & Wireless USA; Chris Britton, High Speed Access Corporation; and Jay Rolls from Excite@Home.
Also being offered was a panel on In-Home Networking, moderated by Glenn Edens, AT&T. The panel featured Ken Anderson from MediaOne Labs; Don Appruzzese, ShareWave, Inc.; Keith Crosley, Avio Digital; and Dan Sweeney, Intel.
The Interactive Advertising discussion moderated by Dr. Jerry Bennington, CableLabs, included David Rudnick, AT&T Broadband & Internet Services; Carmi Bogot, NDS Technologies; Allan McLennan, MediaStation; Barry Schliesmann, IBM; and Melinda White, Wink Communications. Panelists offered their respective visions on the development of interactive advertising services for television viewers.
The Streaming Video panel featured James Brailean, Packet Video; Kip Compton, Cisco Systems; and Bill Schiefelbein, Microsoft Windows Media Technologies Group. Terry Shaw, CableLabs, moderated the group.
The afternoon sessions began with a general session CTO panel discussion focusing on the promise of upcoming interactive services, telephony, and cable modems. Moderated by Mark Coblitz, Comcast, the panel included Jim Chiddix, Time Warner Cable; Nick Hamilton-Piercy, Rogers Cablesystems Ltd.; Alex Best, Cox Communications; James Rigas, Adelphia Communications; and Tony Werner, AT&T Broadband & Internet Services.
The day concluded with two concurrent sessions on deployment strategies: Digital Set-top Box Deployment, moderated by James Alexander, MediaOne, and Cable Modem Deployment, moderated by Yassini.
Conference Day 3
The final day of the conference was dedicated to strategic issues. CableLabs strategists presented on a variety of issues, beginning with a presentation on key strategic and competitive issues facing the cable industry, which identified technical attributes that hold the key for successful business strategies in the areas of DOCSIS, OpenCable, and PacketCable.
A session on broadband data access strategies followed with detailed presentations on xDSL rollout issues and the recently adopted G.Lite standard.
The conference concluded with three other presentations on emerging digital video distribution strategies; packet-based service strategies; and a detailed demonstration of streaming video technologies.
Throughout the conference, attendees were able to view product demonstrations in a separate area of the conference. Participating vendors displayed various products and services related to the DOCSIS, PacketCable, and OpenCable projects. Attendees also were able to view conference presentations on several wireless pads provided by Cyrix, a subsidiary of National Semiconductor.
