Big Three Deliver Big at Expo

By Mark Dzuban

• The challenge: Getting three guys who are passionate about their individual businesses to talk about how they can collectively create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.
• The audience: A packed room of thousands of members of the cable telecommunications workforce on hand for four days of knowledge sharing and thought leadership.
• The venue: The largest cable telecommunications trade event in the Americas, SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2018.

When three presidents and CEOs — NCTA’s Michael Powell, CableLabs’ Phil McKinney and I — got together during the Opening General Session of Cable-Tec Expo in October, the conversation understandably zigged and zagged from policy discussions to next-generation innovation to the applied science that delivers ROI for the industry. But — spoiler alert! — under the skilled guidance of Comcast’s Tony Werner, the moderator, we accomplished our mission of zeroing in on the collective benefit of our three organizations.

Michael talked about the need to have every single oar in the water pulling in the same direction if we want our industry to be on the “medal podium” of success. Phil talked about CableLabs’ three- to eight-year innovation timeline and the need to avoid overlap of our efforts and duplicate spending. I focused on what our operator, vendor and individual members know to be a core benefit of collaboration: the ability to develop training programs and standards that speed the transformation of CableLabs innovation into products that benefit bottom lines.

What came through loud and clear throughout was the energy that all of our organizations bring to our industry: The messaging to policy makers that year in and year out, our industry has consistently delivered on the promises it has made. The robust new R&D funnel at CableLabs that is ushering in availability of full duplex DOCSIS and coherent optics, as well as addressing the need for advanced security as Internet of Things devices proliferate. And discussion led by Tony about how Cable-Tec Expo’s wealth of educational sessions and expansive exhibit floor have made it the “crown jewel” of events for cable telecommunications.

To be sure, we face policy, technology and operational challenges that can impact our ability to compete in the market. NCTA does battle with state and federal governments when regulations written decades ago are applied to technology that today is changing in the blink of an eye, creating what Michael called an “unsustainable” environment pitting unregulated new technologies against highly regulated incumbents. Phil cited the need to avoid “blind spots” that could lead to missed opportunities and the importance of not letting down the industry’s guard against third parties that would compromise security. I’m constantly challenging our SCTE•ISBE team to keep all of our core resources — including our CORTEX Expert Development System learning and development curriculum, our ANSI-accredited standards and Cable-Tec Expo — at a heightened degree of relevance so that the workforce has the tools needed to drive industry success.

As we move into the future, it’s important that we remember that cable — bringing gigabit Ethernet to nearly 60 million homes today — is the most significant infrastructure industry in the U.S. Our role in the future is huge: While 5G services and wireless connectivity have gained marketing visibility, many of those services will be using our ubiquitous networks for backhaul carriage of wireless traffic. And as CableLabs’ Kyrio subsidiary works with Silicon Valley and other innovators to bring new products to our customers, SCTE•ISBE will be working hand in hand with Kyrio to ensure seamless deployments and rapid time-to-market.

By working together, NCTA, CableLabs and SCTE•ISBE will continue to fuel the engines of technology transformation and cable success. Perhaps no one said it better at Cable-Tec Expo than our Opening General Session keynote speaker, Cox Communications president Pat Esser: “In the blink of an eye, 5G could be 10 Gig and we’ll be the ones delivering that in the future.”

I can’t wait to be a part of that.

Mark L. Dzuban
President/CEO, SCTE
mdzuban@scte.org

As President and CEO of SCTE•ISBE, Mark Dzuban is continuing a lengthy career of telecommunications leadership. Mark has been instrumental in positioning SCTE•ISBE as a leader in energy management and technical education, driving creation of the Energy 2020 program, the CORTEX Expert Development System™ and other programs and services that build value for the cable system operators, technology partners and individual members. Mark was honored with the prestigious NCTA Vanguard Award in 2011.

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