ET Awards:

Three industry pacesetters — Michael Emmendorfer, Donald Gall, and Keith Hayes — graced the stage at SCTE’s Emerging Technologies Conference as 2005 recipients of the esteemed SCTE ET Awards. Emmendorfer received the IP Innovator Award, sponsored by Cisco Systems. Cisco’s Jeff Zanardi presented the award to Emmendorfer. The IP Innovator Award recognizes an SCTE member who has displayed innovative achievement and creativity in the advancement and development of IP networking. Gall received the Polaris Award, sponsored by CommScope. CommScope’s Jim Hughes presented Gall with his award. The Polaris Award recognizes a member of SCTE who, as an engineering manager, displays exceptional achievement in the development and use of optical fiber. Hayes received the Star of Integrity Award, sponsored by C-COR. Dave Woodle of C-COR presented the award to Hayes. The Star of Integrity Award recognizes a member of SCTE who, as an engineer or manager, has contributed to the efficiency and effectiveness of advanced services through creative solutions supporting network integrity. Emmendorfer serves as corporate director of Advanced Network Technologies at Charter Communications, where he is responsible for leading IP/data engineering initiatives within the department of engineering operations, corporate engineering. Joining Charter in 1999, he has been a key contributor and leader in providing engineering solutions for advanced services to include Charter High-Speed, Charter Telephone, and Charter Business. He designed, engineered, tested, and launched an end-to-end VoIP network, making Charter the nation’s first telecommunication provider or MSO provider of residential primary line telephone service using VoIP technology. Gall, an SCTE Senior Member, is the CTO of Pangrac & Associates. Prior to joining Pangrac, Gall spent 15 years with Time Warner Cable. He was a principal in HFC architectures to the current version used in all Time Warner upgrades. In 1994, Time Warner Cable received an Emmy for development of AM Fiber Optic Technology. The team lead by Dave Pangrac was given direct credit for the accomplishment. Gall was listed as a key member of the team. Hayes is vice president, HFC technical operations and engineering, for Adelphia. Prior to his current role at Adelphia, Keith was vice president of network planning and construction at Adelphia, where he worked with the regional Adelphia teams to upgrade more than 30,000 miles in less than two years, representing more than 20 percent of Adelphia’s network footprint. Hayes leads an operational improvement initiative, Operation Turning Point, which is focused on improving the customer experiences in Adelphia’s networks. He is a past chairman of the board of SCTE, and he served two terms as director of SCTE Region 9, representing Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and the Caribbean.