Backtalk

NCTI recently expanded its college program through an agreement with DeVry University. For the first time, NCTI students can apply virtually all of their NCTI and Arapahoe Community College (ACC) courses to DeVry University to earn a number of bachelor’s degrees. Shown here are (left to right) ACC President Dr. Bert Glandon, NCTI President/CEO Tom Brooksher and DeVry Dean of Academic Affairs Don McLaughlin. Here Comes the Sun Outage Here’s a letter we received recently at sister publication, “CT’s Pipeline.” “I read with great interest your article in the July 29 issue on sun outages, but was surprised that it didn’t cover a remedy explained to me by Rob Austin, Comcast’s highly regarded headend engineering executive in Michigan. “With TVROs spaced far enough apart on the earth’s surface but connected by scores of miles of fiber, sun outages could be eliminated by simply—and automatically—switching satellite reception to the TVRO not eclipsed. According to Rob, he is very close to having the fiber connected to do this since the Comcast systems in lower Michigan span the state. “I am always amazed at the distances and technologies implemented by my customers to overcome old limitations. In hindsight, connecting two TVROs spaced far enough apart to eliminate a simultaneous satellite eclipse seems like a no-brainer.”—Thomas N. Tetreault, President, Cable System Survey Co. “Pipeline” is an exclusive SCTE member benefit. If you’re not receiving it, visit http://www.scte.org/membership/index.cfm?pID=27. Career Move Advance/Newhouse Communications, which owns and operates Bright House Networks, named Sergio Gambro director of operational support systems (OSS). He’ll manage the ongoing refinement of OSS strategy and architecture, based on new service launch requirements including IP telephony and interactive services. Previously, Gambro was a consultant with Imagine Broadband for three years, where he worked for a variety of North American and European cable companies, including Comcast, Rogers, Cablevision, Adelphia and NTL. Most recently, he assisted Comcast in integrating the AT&T Broadband systems with its IP Services organization. Previously, he played a major role in helping Comcast transition from Excite@Home to its own high-speed service. Quotables “This book is written at a moment when there is considerable confusion and controversy about some of the issues surrounding these two sets of specifications (DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0)…It turns out that, where conflicting views are found, the issue isn’t so much that people aren’t telling true stories, it’s that they’re not telling the whole story.”
—Fred Dawson, in his book, Optimizing the Future with Next-Generation DOCSIS: Mechanics, Options and Issues on the Road to 2.0. (Copies of this book can be ordered online ($55 for Society members and $68.75 for nonmembers) from the SCTE Bookstore (www.scte.org) or by calling the SCTE customer care center at 800-542-5040 or 610 363-6888. “[Bundling services] is not something you can just go out and do. [SBC and EchoStar] don’t have integrated platforms to put these things together.”
—Cox’s Executive Vice President of Operations Pat Esser “What they’ve done now in the OpenCable industry, and I believe you’ll see it in the CEA two-way agreement, is everybody has said we’re going to a DOCSIS-based
out of band, so that now there’s a standard for set-tops to talk back to the headend that will be widespread: Same standard across all headends.”
—John Hildebrand, Vice President of Multimedia, Cox