DENVER – "You take the dreams and whims of others and make it a reality," Cox Communications CTO Chris Bowick told delegates Wednesday during the opening of the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo.
Most of those delegates, of course, are engineers who make the cable systems across North America run. And to do that, they need innovation from manufacturers who create and release new products at Cable-Tec every year.
Here’s a bit of what we saw and heard about on day one:
Growing manufacturer ATX Networks, Ajax, Ont., released several products at the show, such as its end-to-end digital video solutions. It’s offering an end-to-end digital video system that reduces the cost and technical hurdles associated with digital television over HFC and IP networks, says the company. For example, the DMEM2800 is an MPEG-2 DVB eight channel integrated closed-loop encoder multiplexer with ASI outputs and both variable bit rate (VBR) and constant bit rate (CBR) operation. The company is also offering its full line of indoor and outdoor DigiMAX digital phone connect switches. The line consists of several unique switch-based devices for cost-effective and efficient transition from incumbent telco phone service to CATV digital phone service with only one technician visit. The switches accommodate local number portability (LNP) without any customer down time. The company also introduced its QPAIR redundant amplifier system at the show, too. www.atxnetworks.com
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BelAir Networks, distributed in Canada by Capella Telecommunications, is showing three models (50c, 100, 200) of carrier class wide-area wireless broadband units designed for outdoor applications. BelAir’s networking solutions are optimized for large hot zone and high-density metro deployments. Designed specifically for outdoor carrier-class deployments, BelAir’s wide area Wi-Fi networks deliver the high capacity and low cost for data, voice and video services. Harmonic’s new FLXLink HLP 9200 and HLP 9300 systems enable operators to flexibly scale bandwidth needed for backhauling mobile voice, data and, more frequently, video content between the fibre-based access network and the towers at the wireless edge, while providing more efficient use of the often limited physical space at the tower site. www.capella.ca
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BigBand Networks announced that it is demonstrating use of the Nortel Optical Metro 3500 multiservice platform to connect headend and hub functionality for the BigBand switched broadcast solution. The technology is designed to enhance bandwidth efficiency by dynamically delivering digital programs to those areas with real-time demand, instead of providing all programs to all areas at all times. The combination of BigBand Networks and Nortel equipment for switched broadcast is in operational deployment by a major cable operator, which wasn’t named. BigBand Networks and Nortel provide a range of functionality designed to enable switched broadcast. The processing of live programming required for switching can be performed on the BigBand BMR(R) (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router) within primary headends. The Nortel Optical Metro 3500 multiservice platform can deliver content over metropolitan Gigabit Ethernet networks to hub locations while also supporting upstream management signaling from subscribers’ set-top boxes. www.bigbandnet.com
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Vyyo (which is working with TVC Canada north of the border) is aimed at helping cable go after the business market by introducing a high-density platform for the delivery of T1 over hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) networks. The increased spectral efficiency provided by Vyyo’s integration of adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM) lets cable system operators who use the T1 products in conjunction with Vyyo’s Spectrum Overlay solution to deploy a maximum of 360 voice T1s per node. The capacity breakthrough combines the ability of ADPCM technology to double and in some instances triple T1 capacity per channel with the ability of Vyyo’s T1 over HFC solution to utilize 36 new 3.2 MHz upstream channels created by Vyyo’s Spectrum Overlay solution, says the company. www.vyyo.com, www.tvccanada.com
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Nortel announced that international cableco Liberty Global has signed a global purchase agreement with the company to cover purchases through 2007. The GPA gives Liberty Global access to a uniform purchasing process and pricing terms for Nortel’s cable VoIP and optical solutions and services. With the agreement, Nortel is now an approved vendor across Liberty Global’s cable subsidiaries – such as UPC Broadband in Europe, J:COM in Japan and VTR in Chile – that serve 15 million customers in 18 countries around the world. www.nortel.com
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To help wireless service providers add increased reliability and flexibility to their networks, Cox Communications has initiated cellular backhaul service in Oklahoma City, Okla. and Pensacola, Fla. using a Scientific Atlanta Prisma IP platform. In addition to providing support for an increased number of wireless customers growing call volume, the cellular backhaul service delivers further scalability to support an expanding range of new services being introduced by wireless operators. Strong growth is projected for the cellular backhaul market, says S-A. "There is an expanding gap between current backhaul capabilities and future requirements. The increased demands that new wireless services will place on the backhaul capacity of existing networks and the wireless operators’ desire to have access to the reliability and widespread availability of our HFC network creates an attractive business opportunity," said Brian Fairless, chief technologist, Cox Communications, Oklahoma City. "The Prisma IP E-series provided a cost-effective way to extend to wireless operators those carrier- grade services that had been offered to our medium and large enterprise customers and to wireless operators." And, S-A’s Prisma II platform has been upgraded to 1 GHz capabilities. www.sciatl.com
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Surf back here later in the week for more from companies such as Motorola, Sandvine, VCom, RGB, Cedar Point and others.
– Greg O’Brien
