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What the Industry Reads First

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What the Industry Reads First Volume 24 / No. SPECIAL

8 Pages Today

Monday — October 21, 2013

Looking at SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo and BeyondThis year marks the 30th anniversary of SCTE’s Ca-ble-Tec Expo, but don’t expect the program to spend a lot of time dwelling on the past three decades. With technology moving at a break-neck pace, it’s all about what’s ahead. “I’m going to mark this as a benchmark, and look forward,” SCTE pres/CEO Mark Dzuban told us. “It’s important to look back to a point, but I want to focus on the problems we need to solve while being fair to the recognition of the past. And we’ve changed. It was kind of a social organization to some extent and now it’s much more focused on … the relation-ship building between folks with common knowledge and it’s also providing much more content for training, education, tools around applied science.”

One example of this is the relationship SCTE has built with CableLabs. Despite similar disciplines, the two didn’t always work that close together. That’s changed dramatically over the years, as can be seen by the DOCSIS 3.1 engineering pre-conference symposium produced jointly by the two groups. The day-long program (separate registration required) delves into the overall requirements and business goals as well as the technical details of DOCSIS 3.1. “We’re going to work with CableLabs to prepare the industry in lieu of launching something and then have to train people while we’re launching,” Dzuban said, pointing to an agreement that will let SCTE start running training and education while DOCSIS 3.1 is being packaged.

“CableLabs has had a long and productive relation-ship with SCTE that has only been strengthened through the new leadership at both organizations,” said CableLabs CTO Ralph Brown, who is on the board of SCTE. The closer alignment of the two orga-nizations helps speed deployment of tech developed through CableLabs. “This is best shown through our collaboration on DOCSIS 3.1 technology to make sure that the field technicians are aware of the coming

INSIDE: Check out our interview on page 4 with Stephanie Mitchko-Beale, the receipient of this year’s Women in Technology Award, bestowed by WICT, SCTE and CableFAX. She talks about her interest in technology and what can be done to help bring more women into the field.

technology and are prepared for its rapid deployment,” Brown said.

Other changes reflected in Expo are just the constant changes in the industry itself. “The science went from cycles of 5-7 years, sometimes even longer, to cycles of a year to 18 months. Our change rate is much more rapid than it was earlier so therefore the characteriza-tion of what is interesting and valuable has to change,” Dzuban said. But even amid all the change, the cus-tomer is at the forefront.

“While it is intriguing and exciting to talk about the technical advances we are making to keep pace with

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo Preview Issue

The Women in Technology Award is a joint effort of WICT, SCTE and CableFAX.

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The 2013 Award is sponsored by Bright House Networks

www.cablefax.com

Recipient of the 2013 Women in Technology Award

Stephanie Mitchko-Beale

22885 CFAX WIT Congrats Ad_2013.indd 1 10/8/13 5:22 PM

Monday, October 21, 2013 ● Page 3CableFAX Daily TM CABLEFAX DAILY (ISSN 1069-6644) is published daily by Access Intelligence, LLC ● www.cablefax.com ● 301.354.2101 ● Editor-in-Chief: Amy Maclean, 301.354.1760, amaclean@accessintel.com ● Exec Editor: Michael Grebb, 323.380.6263, mgrebb@accessintel.com ● Editor: Joyce Wang, 301.354.1828, jwang@accessintel.com ● Community Editor: Kaylee Hultgren, 212.621.4200, khultgren@accessintel.com ● Advisor: Seth Arenstein ● Assoc Publisher: Amy Abbey, 301.354.1629, aabbey@accessintel.com ● Sales Mgr, Susan Kim, 301.354.2010, skim@accessintel.com ● Dir of Market Dev: Laurie Hofmann, 301.354.1796, lhofmann@accessintel.com ● Prod:Jo Fato, jfato@accessintel.com ● Diane Schwartz, SVP Media Comms Group ● Scott Gentry, Dir of Bus Dev, sgentry@accessintel.com ● Group Subs: Amy Russell, 301.354.1599,arussell@accessintel.com ● Sub Questions, Client Services: 301.354.2101, clientservices@accessintel.com

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the exponential change in the industry, understand-ing and exceeding the needs of our customers must continue to be the beacon that guides us,” said Expo cmte chair Kevin Hart, evp, CTO for Cox. “I expect and hope this will be top of mind this year as person-alization, intuitive interfaces, multiplatform, mobility, network performance improvements, among other tech advances, are discussed at the show.”

Network reliability, the migration to IP and advanced services will dominate discussions. But the talk doesn’t have to be limited to the hardcore techies. For the first time, Expo will feature a pre-conference sym-posium called, “Creating the Cable Generalist” (also a joint effort with CableLabs). “It’s to close the gap of the workforce that may be untraditionally technical, but yet has to understand the acronyms and other things so that as a team, they can work in a collaborative way,” Dzuban said. This group could include administra-tors, legal counsel, training staff—a whole spectrum of folks. The symposium will feature MSOs’ plans and strategies for DOCSIS 3.1 as well as the nuts and bolts of the standard, including the use of chan-nel bonding and a look at work by the SCTE Special Working Group on HFC Readiness for DOCSIS 3.1.

Speaking of the world outside of engineering, Expo will feature a keynote by NCTA pres/CEO Michael Powell. He’ll be joined on stage with Cox’s Hart in a

conversation about prominent tech and policy issues facing the industry. “You can have technology and technologists that do not have the same impact if they are not led by leaders who understand what it really takes to execute in a grand way and do it as part of a team,” Dzuban said. Powell “really is a role model for our business around leadership and what it takes in character… Michael ran the FCC. He’s very knowl-edgeable about these issues.”

WICT also will be part of Expo with the Tech It Out Conference on Wed from 1-4pm. The initiative, launched in ’09, is aimed at creating strong women leaders in the tech space. “We need more women in technology. It’s a huge void and we want to go out of our way to make sure that we’re helping wherever we can,” Dzuban said. This year’s Tech It Out features a keynote by Kim Perdikou, Juniper Networks inde-pendent dir, innovation fund portfolio companies, as well as a panel with Bright House’s Nomi Bergman, Comcast’s Sherita Ceasar and Cablevision’s Steph-anie Mitchko-Beale, this year’s Women in Technology Award honoree.

You can rest assured that this won’t be the last Expo, with SCTE already hard at work on the 31st show, set to take place in Denver, Sept 23-26. Look for next year’s conference to emphasize the execution of en-ergy management strategies.

Monday, October 21, 2013 ● Page 4CableFAX Daily TM

2013 WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY WINNER

Stephanie Mitchko-Beale Jennifer Yohe Wagner congratulates

as the winner of the 2013 WICT Women In Technology Award!

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How have rising consumer expectations affected your ability to do that consistently?

We do listen to what the customers are saying. And we try to keep morphing our technology to stay ahead of the [technology trends] and to keep it fresh so that we can deliver the products and services that our competition is delivering as well… I like to use the technology as the enabler to bring great customer service. The customer doesn’t care about the technology; they care about the experience they have with the product.

Women are historically under-represented in engi-neering and technology, although this is starting to change. What hurdles remain, and what should companies do to attract more women into their tech-nology ranks?

I am a huge advocate of women in technology, and women in engineering and science, as well as the whole idea that we should have more young people in general in the STEM areas—Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. There’s still a bit of a misconception about what it means to be a woman in technology… It’s a perception that it’s a male-dominated field. I think

A Conversation with WIT Winner Stephanie Mitchko-BealeAs svp, video infrastructure software at Cablevision, Stephanie Mitchko-Beale has spent years helping the cable industry overcome challenges as it evolves for the multiplatform world. And it’s those stellar efforts—along with her industry involvement and personal career success—that prompted WICT, CableFAX and SCTE to name Mitchko-Beale as the winner of the 2013 Women in Technology award. We caught up with this savvy technologist to get her take on satisfying customers, overall challenges facing the industry and of course the importance of encouraging more women to pursue their tech passions.

What originally got you interested in engineering and technology?

Well, I come from an engineering family. My dad was an engineer. I remember things like having the first color television on the block, and playing around with the guts of radios and things like that. It was very prevalent in the family. But I just had this tendency. I enjoyed math and sciences when I was younger. I just liked the technol-ogy, so when I went to engineering it just felt like a very natural thing to do. It attracted me because it’s all about problem solving, and that’s something that I love to do.

What are the biggest tech challenges you face in your job and why?

The biggest challenge with technology these days is really the pace of change of new things. The focus has always been the customer experience and how the cus-tomers really experience our products. So it’s been very challenging with all of the new products and services to really make sure that we’re delivering excellent customer service and excellent product delivery.

Mitchko-Beale at the spotlight i2e (invention, innovation and entrepreneurship) series talk she gave to young engineers at NYU-Poly.

Monday, October 21, 2013 ● Page 5CableFAX Daily TM

seems to surprise them is that I’m very much interested in art and creating art. And so my hobbies are around creating mosaic art, and I make all my family and friends these giant mosaics… So I find it very therapeutic to take small pieces of things and turn them into three-dimensional things as opposed to the process I have in my job a lot of the time, which is very much virtual.

that women just need more role models to show them that it’s possible, that there are a lot of smart technolo-gists who are women, and they’re successful. They’ve pursued their interest in science and technology. They use that background to be successful in a lot of differ-ent kinds of companies. So when I do presentations to young people about engineering at some of the engi-neering schools, I’m just amazed... They know that it’s a male-dominated world, and they find it very helpful to have someone speak who has been there and can encourage them. And that’s what I think companies and the industry and the country overall need to do in our school systems, to really just get young people to have access to women who have been there and can share their stories and make them feel comfortable that it is a great path to pursue.

Who mentored you as you were coming up the ranks—and were they mostly women or men?

Early in my career, mostly men. More recently in my career, lots of women, including [Cablevision evp, corporate engineering and technology] Yvette Kanouff and other women in the industry. Once I got involved in more of these industry consortiums and events, I had more of an insight into the various stuff that women were doing and things that they experienced that were very similar to what I had experienced. But if we go way back to when I was an electrical engineer in my first years, there were no women there, and I did not have any encouragement other than from my own family. They were very supportive. It really didn’t bother them that I was a woman, or that I wasn’t my brother or whatever. In school, it was a major challenge. My teachers were not very encouraging a lot of the time. My first class, electri-cal engineering, I actually failed and was discouraged by my professor. It wasn’t until I took the class over and had a younger professor who was a little more in the present time and who was more encouraging—that really drove me. I got an “A” in the summer class. I felt better about it. And then I pursued the rest of my degree. I think if I didn’t have that encouragement, it would have been very difficult for me to get past those early years of engineer-ing school.

Sometimes it just takes one person.

And I see that a lot, especially from young women look-ing for that mentor or that person who can kind of push them along and when they get discouraged can encour-age them to continue.

Let’s get personal. What would surprise people to know about you?

One of the things that people don’t know about me and

One of the pieces of mosaic art created by Mitchko-Beale.

Do you view art and science as intertwined—or do they each work completely different muscles of your brain?

That’s a very interesting question. I find it very much the same, and in fact when people ask me about how I feel about software development and electrical engineering and creating products, systems and services, I feel like that’s a very creative process as well. So both of them to me have very similar attributes. You’re creative, but you’re also creating something that’s very definite.

What would be your advice to women interested in pursuing a career in the technology side of cable?

It’s really important that you do something that you’re passionate about… When I talk to young people who have a passion for solving problems, creating things, analyzing things… Young people just need to follow those passions… Every industry these days requires people who have some type of technology background or understand technology… So my advice to anyone is that if you’re thinking about it and you enjoy the scientific type of activities, really just follow it and don’t be too con-cerned about the stigma of being a woman and going into what is perceived as a man’s world. Seek out those people who can be a great role models, ask questions and go forward.

Monday, October 21, 2013 ● Page 6CableFAX Daily TM

30 Years of Cable-Tec ExpoBy Mark Dzuban

As a long-time cable guy, there’s prob-ably not a day that has gone by when I have not been impressed by the intel-ligence, resourcefulness and the innova-tive thinking of our industry’s engineering community. Our ability to build state-of-the-art networks, to deploy services and

to improve entertainment and telecommunications options for our customers has been second to none.

There are any number of reasons for that success: The entrepreneurial culture that led to the creation of the earliest cable systems; the vision of thought leaders who grew cable beyond its video roots; and the nurturing of technology partners who would develop the products and services that would fuel future growth.

But I think one of the most important factors has been this: the willingness of the industry to invest in programs and events that promote learning at all levels of the tech-nology workforce has significantly increased the skills of cable engineering and operations professionals and led to the creation of better, faster, smarter ways of bringing technology to market.

All of this comes to mind as we gather this week on the 30-year anniversary of the first SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, an event that has grown into cable’s “Engineering Show of the Year.” Like the industry that it serves, Expo has grown from its early roots into a showplace for engineer-ing excellence and new thinking that exceeds the imagi-nations of its founders. And again, like cable, this year’s event has something for everyone:

• Acan’t-missopeningsessionthatbeginswitha keynote dialogue between Michael Powell, president and CEO of NCTA and former chairman of the FCC, and Kevin Hart, executive vice president and CTO of Cox and our Expo program chair, and continues with a pair of high-powered panels: A discussion among Dave Watson, executive vice president and COO of Com-cast, Bob Stanzione, chairman and CEO of ARRIS and moderator Pat Esser, president of Cox Communica-tions; as well as a network operations panel moderated by John Schanz, chief network officer and executive vice president of Comcast.

• Acornucopiaofworkshopsonthecornerstonesthat are underpinning today’s services and more impor-tantly are enabling the next generation of cable offer-ings, namely: The Physical Layer; IP Networking; Quality

GUEST COLUMNIST

Assurance; and Advanced Services. We’ve corralled a who’s who of the smartest minds in the industry to address such topics as TV Everywhere, IPv6, DOCSIS 3.1®, Big Data and Energy Management, and have scheduled sessions twice to ensure optimal availability.

• Asharpfocusondisasterrecoveryandbusinesscontinuity that reflects the industry’s evolution from video to a full-service telecommunications provider. At our an-nual luncheon Tuesday, Brian Allen, Chief of Security of Time Warner Cable, will outline steps the MSO took to prepare for and restore service after Superstorm Sandy, as well as lessons learned for future events. In addition, Expo will feature a special session on network availabil-ity standards and an exhibit of disaster recovery vehicles in SCTE Central, the gateway to the show floor.

• Finally,we’llhavethemainstaysthathavemadeExpo a must-attend event for the technology commu-nity: A bustling exhibit floor where the design innovation and product thought leadership of cable’s technology partners come to life; friendly competitions—the Inter-national Cable Games and the IP Challenge—that test and reward excellence; and the International Breakfast, Expo Evening and a variety of other events that create an environment that promotes knowledge sharing.

As I noted at the start of this column, cable’s engineer-ing professionals have demonstrated again and again their ability to bring intelligent, imaginative, innovative solutions to the industry. But one of the smartest things the engineering community did, in my opinion, is to cre-ate SCTE Cable-Tec Expo as a nexus for the education that drives future success.

- Mark Dzuban is president and CEO of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE).

A look at Time Warner Cable’s Fuel Delivery Platform, which it activates during disaster recovery situations, such as Hurricane Sandy. SCTE Cable-Tec Expo’s SCTE Central will showcase interactive exhibits, including disaster recovery units from TWC, Cox and Alpha Technologies .

Monday, October 21, 2013 ● Page 7CableFAX Daily TM

THINGS TO DO IN ATLANTA

Antico Pizza, 1093 Hemphill Ave (Closed Sundays): A Cox staffer assured us that this is the best pizza he’s ever had in the US. Yelp reviewers tend to agree. You can’t go wrong with a classic Margherita pizza, but if you want something with some spice, opt for the Diavola.

Philips Arena, One Philips Dr: Even if you don’t take in an event, it’s worth noting what’s going on here given the venue’s proximity to the Georgia World Congress Center. On Tuesday night, NBA preseason play tips off at 7:30pm between the Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers. Sticking around through Thursday night? Nine Inch Nails has a show as part of the band’s “Tension 2013” tour.

Centennial Olympic Park, 7am-11pm: An easy walk or you can take a Georgia World Congress Center courtesy shuttle. There is an audio walking tour for visi-tors to learn about Atlanta, the park and the continued legacy of the ’96 Olympic Games (you’ll find shout-outs to Atlanta’s time as a host city all over the place). The park includes gardens and the Fountain of Rings. Take a look at the nearly 500K bricks making up the side-walks. They were sold, each with a special message or name, to help with the construction of the park.

Going Out GuideWhile in town for SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, you may want to take a break from the latest in cable technology. We’ve got you covered. Here are our picks for attrac-tions and dining all relatively close to the Georgia World Congress Center.

World of Coca-Cola, 121 Baker St. NW: There’s a reason that no matter what soda you’re drinking—root beer, Sprite, Pepsi—it’s called a “Coke” in Georgia. The soft drink company has played a vital role in Atlanta’s development into a global city. It’s a short 10-minute walk from the convention center, and of course, there is a gift shop if you need to bring back some swag for the family. Visitors can learn about the legend of the secret formula for Coca-Cola and see the vault where it’s stored. The highlight of any trip is always the “Taste It” lounge, which lets you try out more than 100 different flavors of soda from all over the world. Here’s a tip: stay away from the vegetable soft drink.

Cardamom Hill Restaurant, 1700 Northside Dr. NW: Here’s a restaurant that is easily worth the 10-minute cab ride. Southern Living magazine recently placed it on its list of “100 Restaurants You Need to Eat at Now,” calling the Kerala Railways Beef Curry a must-order. “For her Kerala-style Indian restaurant, chef Asha Gomez takes the ingredients and flavors she found in her mother’s southern Indian kitchen (okra, green beans, beef, pork, curry leaves) and applies them to her current home in the American South,” the magazine says.

Georgia Aquarium, 225 Baker St. NW: The aquarium celebrates its eighth birthday next month, but the crowds will make you think it’s a much younger attrac-tion. This is a good one to hit if you have an extra day in town before or after Expo (weekday mornings are quieter). Skip the line by booking your tickets online and printing. A short walk from the convention center, the aquarium has eight million gallons of water and a little bit of everything—dolphins, penguins and beluga whales.

The World of Coca-Cola

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