Unleashing the Speed of Innovation
By Kevin Hart
Cox’s Kevin Hart is serving as Program Chair of SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo for the second time this decade. Broadband Librarycaught up with him for an inside view on what to expect in Atlanta.
BBL: SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2018’s theme is “Vision of the Future.” How do you see yourself addressing that in the Opening General Session and elsewhere?
KH:As you know, we hosted Expo in Atlanta five years ago. As we look ahead to the future, it’s amazing to think about how far we’ve come since then — particularly customer experience advances that are the result of innovation partnerships between cable operators, SCTE•ISBE and CableLabs. Here’s an example: Back then we were talking about DOCSIS 3.1; the latest data shows that gigabit service will be available to approximately 90 percent of U.S. households by the end of the year.
In terms of forward-looking technologies, there’s so much going on that will have an impact on our industry in the next five years: The whole connected ecosystem; the ability to take your home or business connectivity on the go; connected wearables; connected cars; connected cities. How cable is increasing the speed of innovation with new network investments that enable customers to access content when and where they want it. Fiber deep. Small cells. The future of security and privacy.
BBL: What are the opportunities Expo will be exploring?
KH:We’re looking near and long term, so it’s a long list. The biggest lift for us as an industry is around the access network, so we’ll be looking at the latest work being done with DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS. New advances in node architectures, especially our special session on Distributed Access Architectures on the Monday of Expo Week. With all the buzz around 5G, it’s important to remember that most 5G backhaul uses cable infrastructure, so we’ll be talking about that opportunity. How digitizing the customer experience can increase satisfaction, take costs out of the business and sharpen the operational focus on excellence.
BBL: What is the value of SCTE•ISBE and Expo in helping the industry deploy needed solutions and maximize benefits/ROI?
KH:Cable-Tec Expo is core to the process of taking the ideation, the innovation and the standards that are the product of the cable ecosystem — operators, vendors, NCTA, CableLabs and of course SCTE•ISBE — and transforming them into operational solutions, products and services. It’s a forum to galvanize us around the standards, the procedures and even the language that enables us to operate in a scalable fashion. I’m especially grateful to our longtime technology vendor partners for their continued commitment to driving technology advances, and to first-time exhibitors for engineering novel approaches that enable our industry to capitalize on new opportunities.
BBL: What are the top three areas to look for at Expo this year?
KH:It’s hard to single out only a few, but here are some that jump out: No. 1 would be the evolving state of the access network, the evolution of convergence between wireline and wireless — including FDX, 5G and small cells; No. 2, digitizing the customer experience and operations — self-install, self-service — drop shipping and the capability for our techs to do a better job with proactive network maintenance; for No. 3, I would say the way operators and technology partners continue to innovate products and services around IoT, OTT video and enhanced Wi-Fi — as well as the use of software defined networking as a platform for future network innovation.
BBL: Anything else we should look out for?
KH:Cox President Pat Esser is keynoting the Opening General Session, and we’ll also be bringing together for the first time ever the top leaders at NCTA, CableLabs and SCTE•ISBE — Michael Powell, Phil McKinney and Mark Dzuban — to talk about the regulatory/innovation/applied science partnership among the three organizations and why that is a force multiplier for the industry. The other theme is how we’re investing in the development of future talent. Through co-op programs and internships we’re bringing new skill sets to the industry. We’re also working with WICT and others to enhance education of the industry workforce. All in all, we’ve got a great lineup — I look forward to seeing you in Atlanta!
Kevin Hart
Executive Vice President, Chief Product and Technology Officer
Cox Communications
Kevin oversees product development/management, enterprise IT development/operations, security, engineering, network operations, outside plant construction and service assurance. He has led launches of innovative products and services, including: G1GABLAST residential Internet service; Contour video integration with OTT content such as Netflix and YouTube; Cox Homelife security/home automation service and new Cox Business products. Kevin is leading Cox’s nationwide network transformation and $10B investment that boosts speed, reach and reliability to better support the smart homes, smart businesses and smart cities of the future; he also has improved customer experiences via e-commerce and other digitally-enabled customer self-service channels.
