Top Execs Take Cable-Tec Stage
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 6/16/2008
A bevy of cable chieftains will be in the spotlight at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ annual Cable-Tec Expo conference in Philadelphia next week.
SCTE expects more than 10,000 attendees at this year’s confab, which has the theme “Engineering History In the Making.” The group said it sold out 138,000 square feet of space in the Pennsylvania Convention Center to more than 400 exhibitors.
The Expo officially kicks off Wednesday, June 25, with opening remarks by SCTE president and CEO John Clark and Charter Communications chief technology officer Marwan Fawaz, who is the program committee chair for the show’s 25th anniversary.
Next a panel of four top cable-industry executives will provide “strategic insight on the direction, opportunities and products that their organizations will embrace to deliver marketplace success,” according to SCTE’s pre-show guide.
The panelists are to include Comcast chief operating officer Steve Burke; Charter president and CEO Neil Smit; Showtime Networks chairman and CEO Matt Blank; and Nortel Networks president and CEO Mike Zafirovski.
The following chief technical officer panel, moderated by Multichannel News columnist Leslie Ellis, is scheduled to include Cox Communications senior vice president of engineering and CTO Chris Bowick; Comcast executive vice president and CTO Tony Werner; HBO executive vice president and CTO Bob Zitter; and SCTE Europe president Roger Blakeway.
Among the 20 technical Expo sessions scheduled to run Thursday and Friday are:
• “Flipping the [Video] Switch: Turning on SDV and Gearing up for a Rapid Migration to a Unicast Universe,” with Comcast distinguished engineer Phillip Gabler and Time Warner Cable principal engineer Charles Hasek;
• “Interactive Television and Advanced Advertising: The Best Is Yet to Come,” with Time Warner Cable principal architect Steven Riedl and Motorola customer solutions architect Roy Hasson; and
• “DOCSIS 3.0 Deployment Strategies,” with Motorola senior director of engineering for broadband solutions Chris Kohler and Midcontinent Communications lead engineer David Haigh.
