Philly Bound: Let's Get Ready to Expo

With SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo underway this week, we chatted up SCTE pres/CEO John Clark about what to look out for in the City of Brotherly Love. Obviously, everyone’s talking about HD, tru2way and a host of other tech issues. What will be the hot topic at the 25th Cable-Tec Expo? The broadcast digital transition. This is the last major cable event until that occurs. We’re doing our workshops on preparing for the broadcast digital transition twice. We think they will be particularly crowded. Our CTO panel kind of ties into that, with PBS CTO John McCoskey on the panel. We’ve not had a broadcast CTO on there before. And we also have Dr Roger Blakeway, SCTE Europe pres, on the panel to talk about surprises, do’s and don’ts from when they went through the digital transition. With DOCSIS 3.0 rolling out, what are some of the engineering challenges that will be discussed at the show. Or is this a done deal on the tech side and now more of a marketing issue for MSOs? I think it’s still an open issue. Tru2way, OpenCable, however you want to phrase it, that’s always going to be a work in progress. One thing that is particularly unique now, both here at Expo and in our standard work, is the interest on targeted advertising. How’s attendance looking? We’re running slightly ahead of last year’s 10,700 attendees. We have over 400 total exhibitors and 80 first-time exhibitors. Even with consolidation, we’re running slightly ahead. Another significant difference this year, there is clearly an influx of Asian exhibitors. How will the move to the fall under the Cable Connects consolidation plan impact the show next year? Will there be any collaboration with CTAM Summit? We think with change comes opportunity. The buzzword I’ve heard the most is “linkage.” We’ll be linking the marketers and the technology people who need to work together, but we’re on an identical 3-day schedule in Denver as we are in Philly. Have you got into specifics? If you register for 1 Cable Connects event, will you have access to others? That is all—in very large letters—a work in progress. We’re 16 months out. Our focus is on getting through Expo this year. July 1, when there’s a new dawn, will shift into that.