Pipeline Profile: Ed Delaney

SCTE member since 2003 Title: VP Marketing and Business Development, Camiant Broadband Background: Delaney has spent 20-plus years in cable, starting with Digital Equipment Corp. and including SeaChange and now Camiant. During that time, he’s seen cable progress from analog-video-only to today’s converged triple-play networks, and he sees QoS as essential in getting to the next level. Could you tell us a bit more about your background? You first launched cable products while at Digital Equipment Corp.? Prior to joining Camiant, I was a founder and headed up marketing at SeaChange. SeaChange provided me the opportunity to meet with just about every operator around the world. Before SeaChange, I was with Digital Equipment Corp. for more than 10 years. In my last role at DEC, I was the m arketing m anager for the Media Group. I had the opportunity to participate in the earliest high- speed data trials as well as the earliest digital video trials with digital advertising insertion. How has this industry shifted over your 20 (combined) years at DEC and SeaChange? I recall digital advertising insertion systems being among the earliest computers going into cable headends. Today, the headends are essentially data centers. Twenty years ago, the cable infrastructure was strictly used for delivering analog video. Today, the cable companies excel at providing the triple play of voice, video and data. Moving forward, the move toward network convergence through the rapid adoption of standards will enable a plethora of new multimedia applications. Why did you join Camiant? With SeaChange, I was fortunate to participate in the transformation of the industry with on- demand video becoming a mainstream application. When I left the company, I took some time away from my heavy involvement in the cable industry and really had a chance to clear my mind to take a fresh look at the problems and opportunities that were emerging. Operators had begun moving beyond offering basic data services to their subscribers and started taking steps to deliver applications like VoIP, online gaming and tiered data services, just to name a few. However, QoS wasn’t associated with these services, which led to shaky performance. And subscribers didn’t have much control over the amount of bandwidth they had access to at any given time, unless they wanted to have frequent conversations with their cable company to change service plans every few days depending on what they were planning to download. I saw that Camiant was hard at work developing solutions for these problems and giving unprecedented control to operators and subscribers. I believed in what Camiant was doing and very much wanted to be a part of it. The excitement that comes with the pursuit of that goal is why I’m still with Camiant today. Are policy servers going to perform both internal and cross-platform (cable/wireless/etc.) functions? Absolutely, and IMS will play a central role in that. The delivery of multimedia-based services over both fixed and mobile networks will only be possible if a common infrastructure exists that can negotiate a variety of protocols and policies. To facilitate the proliferation of IMS, cable operators will need to start working closely with wireless operators, but this type of collaboration is only beginning to take place within the industry. Once established, however, service providers will be able to deliver a variety of services with unprecedented functionality, cross-platform compatibility and guaranteed QoS. Eventually, the success and flexibility of IMS will lead to broader subscriber control over services, enriching the end-user experience while freeing up resources for service providers. How is Buckeye CableSystem using Camiant’s technology? This is an important deployment not only for Buckeye and Camiant, but also for the industry in general as it is the first announced PacketCable Multimedia rollout. The trend that we are seeing is toward operators working to add a "turbo" button for certain gaming, movie-download and photo-upload applications. In Buckeye’s case, the operator is planning to trial several high-speed data tiers that customers can gain access to simply by visiting an online portal and selecting which speed best meets their needs. Paul Shryock, Buckeye’s vice president of IT, has stated openly that they hope to expand the deployment to provide improved service to commercial customers, particularly new commercial phone customers. Additionally, Buckeye would like to offer SIP-based phone services and other IMS-based applications to subscribers, including video telephony and video-based instant messaging. Camiant is also giving Buckeye the ability to better examine its Internet traffic to determine what bits are coming from gamers, or peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, then tailor new bandwidth on demand packages to those customers. What can you tell us about your work with JacobsRimell? In a nutshell, the work that Camiant is doing with JacobsRimell will enable operators to offer high bandwidth, on-demand services efficiently, reliably and with guaranteed quality that will enhance subscriber experience. Out of the nutshell, this relationship was really forged in response to growing demand for premium IP-based applications. Camiant and JacobsRimell are enabling the seamless delivery of IMS-based applications with guaranteed QoS as well as the ability to ensure that the appropriate amount of bandwidth is allocated for premium applications from online multiplayer video games to VoIP. Operators will also be able to offer "bandwidth boost" services on demand via an online portal, with no service interruptions. Essentially, the customer experience will be significantly enhanced as the result of having access to self-care services. Customer service levels and ARPU will also be increased through the rapid addition of more appealing and innovative services. We’re very excited about this. How will we know when PCMM has "arrived"? What milestones are you expecting to see? Using the many milestones a new technology is measured by, PCMM has already arrived. Today, we have several CableLabs- certified p olicy s ervers and CMTSs. We have deployments of PCMM p olicy s ervers and a pplication m anagers with several domestic and international operators. Over the next 12 months, virtually all major operators will have deployed the PCMM infrastructure. How do cable operators implement policy control when subscribers are accustomed (especially in some international markets) to very high data rates? PCMM is not a substitute for high data rates. I think the "fat pipe/smart pipe" debates are over. What operators need is a smart AND fat pipe. PCMM is about assuring consistent and predictable behavior of premium applications. I think the days of operators competing based solely on price and speed are over. How much bandwidth can you throw at a subscriber before they do not even notice the difference any more? What a subscriber will appreciate is a pristine quality IP v ideo stream, improved latency of an online-game and enhanced voice applications. Operators can provide these services to their subscribers by deploying a policy-based infrastructure that adds intelligence to the network. Which new IP multimedia applications appear most promising for cable operators and other service providers? The IP multimedia applications that appear most promising include those that are based on technology that can ensure service quality, which means all SIP-based applications, including enhanced VoIP and online gaming, as well as a variety of IP video applications. QoS-enabled streaming video and music will also come to prominence. We’ve also been seeing a lot of experimentation with Turbo button on a global basis. The bandwidth has been there for a while to support these applications, but it’s the QoS and policy control that will enable them to take off.