Expo Workshops

At the core of Expo are the technical workshops. They’re the place to get the skinny on current hot tech topics for folks who’ve been there and done that. Here follow short summaries of a few of them. Big Bang or More Pragmatic Evolution? Practical Migration Strategies to PacketCable 2.0 Mark Tubinis, CTO, Cedar Point Communications, will offer a way for operators to migrate to PacketCable 2.0 using a "stepwise" approach so as not to disrupt existing customer services, particularly VoIP.

Kevin C. Johns, director, PacketCable Architecture, CableLabs, will provide an overview of PacketCable 2.0, its architecture and network design, and highlight PacketCable Applications Lab events, past and future. Broadcast Digital TV Transition: Delivering Analog Channels After the 2/09 DTV Deadline Matthew Goldman, vice president of technology, Tandberg Television, will address successfully creating a replacement analog signal from an ATSC/DTV signal, taking into account a myriad of format transformations. He will explain how to avoid the letterbox, pillarbox, and even the "dreaded postage stamp."

Co-presenter David Donovan, president, Association for Maximum Television Service, will discuss coordinating with broadcasters during the transition, sharing information, for example, about the location of headends and receive sites. Bringing the Back Office Front and Center Interested in creating a self-service portal that allows customers to "manage all aspects of their account?" Peter Brown, senior director, OSS and IP Development, Mediacom Communications, will tell you how to provide them access to all "key" data.

Brian Cappellani, CTO, Sigma Systems, will explain how operators can "protect and grow" advertising share in the face of competition for ad dollars from satellite providers and the Internet. The key, he says, is advanced advertising that leverages subscriber information. Defining, Evaluating and Troubleshooting Digital Video Quality James Welch, senior consulting engineer, IneoQuest Technologies, will detail "divide and conquer" strategies for isolating transient impairments by using continuous per-program measurements at multiple strategic locations.

Rich Chernock, CTO, Triveni Digital, will explain SCTE 142, which "provides a common methodology for describing bit-stream non-compliance." He will discuss how to utilize the distributed monitoring capabilities described in the new recommended practice.

Click here to see the full workshop listing.

– Monta Monaco Hernon

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