SCTE & CableLabs: We’re Better Together!
By Mark Dzuban
Collaboration is the cable industry’s secret weapon.
Most industries are exclusive, and competitors do not share as much information with one another as we do in the cable telecommunications space. However, it is that unmatched level of collaboration that ensures our industry not only meets the current pace of change — but is also in a position to accelerate innovation, ultimately benefitting everyone.
Consider the COVID-19 pandemic as an example. When cases began rising and stay-at-home orders were implemented, the global cable industry worked diligently to ensure that its broadband networks continued to provide the reliable infrastructure needed to work, learn and stay connected safely from home. Without the shared knowledge and ideation — as well as the billions of dollars the industry continually invests in improving infrastructure — networks would have struggled to handle the biggest surge of Internet traffic in history and providers would have failed to remain ahead of demand.
We began 2021 by uniting the industry’s two largest technology-based organizations — SCTE® and CableLabs® — into one complementary and aligned partnership, and that relationship has already created a number of beneficial opportunities for members and the cable industry as a whole. By aligning scientific research and development with the practical, hands-on operations side of the cable sector, SCTE and CableLabs are, together, increasing collaboration, alignment and innovation across the industry to build a more connected future.
As an illustration of the myriad benefits this unmatched level of collaboration delivers to the industry and society overall, we are joining forces to present SCTE Cable-Tec Expo® 2021, the largest cable telecommunications and technology trade show in the Americas.
SCTE® Cable-Tec® is back — and better than ever
This year’s momentous Expo — the first event SCTE is hosting as a subsidiary of CableLabs — will take place in Atlanta as a hybrid experience to safely bring the cable telecommunications community back together. Enabling attendees to preview the promising technologies and applications transforming the industry and meet with the experts guiding the transformation of connectivity, this year’s Expo will equip attendees with tools and tactics to improve their customers’ lives and advance their businesses.
Together, our collective mission is to create opportunities for our members to be the providers of choice in the markets they serve. Cable is no longer a single technology. Some member companies deploy PON; others are focused on HFC and expanding work on DOCSIS 4.0 technology, while other providers have also added mobile services in their markets.
Clearly, no two members are the same, underscoring the importance of assuring specifications, standards and training are more tightly connected. To ensure products are interchangeable and interoperable across the ever-changing broadband landscape, SCTE and CableLabs are leveraging strategic, technical and operational resources, in addition to global member and vendor relationships, to create efficiencies across the industry.
This year’s Expo is focused on unleashing the power of limitless connectivity, and CableLabs is bringing one of the most successful elements of its popular Summer Conference, Innovation Showcase, to Expo 2021. Since the inception of the Innovation Showcase, more than 300 emergent startups have demonstrated their cutting-edge technologies to audiences — with another four presenting at this year’s event. The incredible technologies that will be featured embody the future of live, work, learn, play and are a testament to the low latency, faster speeds, improved security and enhanced reliability 10G delivers.
From the pre-event technology workshop and a visually exciting opening general session that is sure to delight and surprise both the in-person and virtual attendees to the first National Association of Broadcasters-SCTE live bicoastal collaborative event, more than 50 Fall Technical Forum sessions and the cutting-edge presentations on the Innovation Theater stage, Expo will deliver an unparalleled learning and networking experience.
We are also thrilled to have Kevin Hart, executive vice president and chief product and technology officer at Cox Communications, as Expo program chair. Hart has led this year’s Fall Technical Forum program committee to select 120 papers that will be presented during Expo and will also kick off the general session. Hart will be joined by influential technology executives whose organizations play a key role in moving the industry forward, including Eric S. Yuan, CEO and founder of Zoom Video Communications, Inc. The general session discussion will focus on how collaboration will remain critical as the industry builds on key pandemic-era learnings while unleashing 10G connectivity.
Now that CableLabs and SCTE are one entity, we are better positioned to help our members become more efficient and aware of how technology is evolving and how they can keep pace with — and accelerate — innovation.
Surprising synergies
Not only are Kyrio and SCTE working together to develop and deliver innovative and impactful software solutions that increase the alignment of investments, resources, innovation and execution to revolutionize the way we live, work, learn and play, but the collaboration with each other has unearthed some additional — and surprising — organizational synergies.
Consider health care as an unlikely example of an area where our interaction and cooperation can deliver better results for the industry and society at large. Generally speaking, you do not often think about cable being focused on health care, but connectivity transcends industries and the issues faced by health care are massive. One such example of this collaboration is CableLabs’ work with the Center for Medical Interoperability (CMI), which enables the cable industry to bring its expertise in device interoperability, device security and certification to health care via participation in CMI’s specification development efforts.
Through increased collaboration, we are better able to innovate and deploy technologies on a global scale for consumers and industry stakeholders alike. This mutually beneficial relationship provides cable operators who are members of CableLabs the opportunity to access a greater array of SCTE benefits and services and expands training, learning, and certification programs to an increasing number of technical and operations staff across CableLabs members.
All things considered, the refresh cycle of network technologies is accelerating, and our traditional model of collaboration must change to keep pace. By accelerating collaboration, alignment and innovation, we are moving forward together and charting new territory.
Join us Oct. 11-14 in Atlanta to discover how an increasingly connected future will truly benefit all of us.
Mark L. Dzuban
President/CEO, SCTE
mdzuban@scte.org
Mark Dzuban is president and CEO of SCTE, a global not-for-profit member organization driving the acceleration and deployment of technology in the cable industry. With a career spanning more than 50 years, Dzuban has been named a Cable TV Pioneer and Cable Center Innovation Laureate, and received the Vanguard Award for Cable Operations Management. Since joining SCTE, Dzuban has transformed the organization into the industry’s applied science leader and has expanded its training, standards, and energy management programs.
