December 2005 Issue Got news, quotes or photos of people in the broadband cable engineering community? Send it to [email protected] for possible inclusion on this page in future issues. John E. Walson talks about his father, whose image is on the wall, during John Walson Sr.’s induction into the Cable Television Hall of Fame Ceremonies at The Cable Center in Denver while grandson John M. Walson looks on. John Walson Sr. was the founder of Service Electric Cable TV & Communications and was credited by many for developing the nation’s first cable system. 10 Years with CT Congratulations to CT Telephony Editor and monthly columnist Jay Junkus. This month marks Jay’s 10th anniversary with us. He writes the column “Telephony” and keeps us up to speed on telephony trends, developments, deployments, etc. Jay is also president of KnowledgeLink, author of the Digipoints series of books and a widely consulted industry expert and trainer. Cox Promotes Boesl Cox Communications recently promoted Chris Boesl to director of geospatial information systems technology. In his new position, Boesl will head up the planning, development and implementation of Cox’s Geospatial Network Information System (GNIS) program, which will use GIS technology to monitor, map and document the MSO’s broadband network. Boesl came to Cox in 1996 as manager of GIS Technology. Xtend Hires Santamaria Xtend Networks announced that veteran cable executive Steve Santamaria has been hired as senior VP and general manager, Commercial Services. In addition, Al Johnson, VP of Technology and Advanced Architectures for the company, has taken on day-to-day responsibility for Xtend’s 3 GHz “Spectrum Overlay” products for the residential market. Xtend also announced that Bill Keating has resigned as CEO. Keating will continue to work in a consulting capacity with Xtend, with a focus on key customers in the cable industry. Davidi Gilo, currently chairman and CEO of Vyyo, assumes CEO duties for Xtend. NeuStar Names Barber Cable VP NeuStar, a provider of neutral interoperability services to the global communications industry, named Mark Barber vice president, Cable Market Group. Barber brings 25 years of cable and operations experience to NeuStar. He will be responsible for NeuStar’s sales and business development efforts geared toward the cable industry. (See related story on page 10.) Thomason-Hope Named Sales Manager Audrey Thomason-Hope has been named to the post of dB-tronics Southeastern regional sales manager. The former proprietor of Thomason Broadband Supply, she joined dB-tronics in 1996. Thomason-Hope has held numerous positions within the company. Think Safety! Safety has been a topic of discussion among readers of CT’s Pipeline, including the letter that follows from an anonymous outside plant contractor: As a whole, the OSP contractors building CATV plant operate in a very safe manner, compared to the thousands of miles of messenger and coax/fiber cables being installed vs. the accidents where workers come into contact with electrical lines. Falling from a pole during climbing is far greater in regards to accidents. I’ve been an OSP fiber-coax-copper aerial and underground contractor for some 40 years now. Safety really starts in the field with the crew leader (foreman). However, if his/her supervisor is slack on safety, he/she will also react in same manner. I’m 110 percent for safety in the field. I provide each crew with voltage detector and hot gloves—inspected daily with hard hats being mandatory. Time off is given for repeat offenders, which leads to termination. In many cases, they just go to other contractors on site to be hired. Safety is costly and does reduce production. Therefore, it is my view that the MSO must play a major role in seeing that all contractors adhere to the same safety standards, in the same manner that MSOs enforce drug issues. Production and meeting numbers should never be more important than having your employee make it home at night, after working in a safe environment all day. Thanks for keeping the field updated, as more than just techs read this! Ed Harter, chief technician at Mid-Hudson Cablevision since 1972, passed away in early September. “He will be dearly missed by everyone. He was the hub of the Technical Department and always had a friendly smile no mater what the challenge. We will always remember you,” said Mid-Hudson Chief Engineer Dave Fingar.

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