CCSA AGM: Attendance rises, trade show reveals and other notes

GRAVENHURST, Ont. – As the only cable gathering in the country now, the 13th annual Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual general meeting has this year attracted over 250 delegates, up from 180 last year.

Kicking off Sunday at the Taboo Resort with a relaxed, well-attended president’s reception, the AGM continued Monday morning with a four-hour table top trade show. Some of the vendors used the trade show to reveal a few new products aimed at the small cable system market (even though a couple of folks from Rogers and Cogeco also made the trip north).

TVC Canada unveiled its Telephony Quick Start Rack, the focal point of which consists of a Cedar Point Safari C3 soft switch. The setup is affordable for cable operators with as few as 2,500 voice over IP customers, or for those looking to start a voice service. The cableco can take control of their telephony system, no longer needing a third party to handle their phone numbers and switching capacity, said vice-president, sales, Luc Morissette. "The revenue opportunity is greater if you have control over your own switch," he added.

TVC was also showing the C-Cor VOD system made specifically for the small cable market. That means affordability, of course. It can handle 800 hours of content and up to 480 streams. www.tvccanada.com
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Prestige Telecom was pushing its new TeraSpan fibre deployment system which lets operators bury fibre with a single saw cut (otherwise known as micro-trenching) just a few inches below the surface of the concrete or asphalt. www.prestige-tel.com
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Telesat used its tabletop to push the developments to VisionPoint. Originally created as a way to feed electronic signs across North America their video and data, the BCE-owned satellite company (which filed a prospectus for its $400 million IPO Monday) is now selling it as a video on demand content delivery option for MSOs. Assuming the VOD gear is already in place, all that’s required is a new IRD. www.telesat.com
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Among the products on the Power & Tel table were its "wireless fibre" solution, GigaBeam, and a wallplate intercom VOIP interface from Sittelle. The GigaBeam WiFibre links to the existing wired network as a solution to serve the small and medium-sized business market, extending the reach of cable companies into business areas where they may not have any plant. The Sittelle intercom interface solves the problem of providing VOIP service in apartment buildings and integrating the buildings’ intercoms. www.ptsupply.ca
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EPG company Aptiv Digital introduced its Video Mosaic virtual channel to the delegates. The channel lets cable companies compile multiple streams of selected channels onto a single screen. For example, a customer could turn to channel X and see all of a package’s news channels, scaled down to up to 12 small screens. Navigating and highlighting any particular stream would activate the channel’s audio. The cable operator picks what channels will appear in the mosaic slots. www.aptivdigital.com
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Cancom is no more. Monday’s keynote speaker, the Telephone Doctor, Nancy Friedman, a customer service expert, was sponsored by Shaw Broadcast Services, Cancom’s new name. The rebranding, said SBS’s Don Fletcher, means the parent company, Shaw Communications, is investing more resources into the commercial satellite portion of the business and that it wants to be "the leading satellite company in Canada."
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"Life is a series of sales presentations," Friedman told delegates during her lunchtime keynote address. She ran through five forbidden phrases that customer-focused companies should never utter (and if her own employees utter them, it’s potentially a fireable offense, she said. They are: 1. I don’t know (Better to say: "That’s a good question, let me find the answer for you"). 2. We can’t do that (Better: "Let’s see what we can do for you."). 3. Hold on (Better: "Are you able to hold?"). 4. You have to do this (Better: Ask what they need.). 5. No. (Never answer any question with a "No" – no matter what. Make it a positive. For example: Q: "Have you ever been to Antarctica?" A: "I love winter and I’d like to go.").
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Conspicuous by its absence here in cottage country? Astral Media. Astral, owners of The Movie Network, among numerous other channels (Family, Vrak.tv, Super Ecran, etc.) has been a sponsor amd frequent attendee in the past but in 2006 there is no mention of Astral at all and nary an Astral employee or executive has attended this year. Rumors of contract difficulties between the CCSA and Astral is the chatter on the floor at the AGM.
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We didn’t get to see all of the companies on the trade show floor, who were: