by Radiene Watson, Vice President, Service Provider Market
ATEME recently exhibited with our US rep firm, ComTech-Sales at the North Central Texas Society of Cable & Telecommunications Engineers Vendor day in Fort Worth, TX. Decision makers from several Service Providers such as Charter, New Wave, Suddenlink and Time Warner attend and visit the vendor display tables. We were showing some Roland-Garros 2013 HEVC feeds running on an iPad.
Mike LaJoie, Time Warner Cable CTO and current SCTE Chairman was the keynote speaker. He talked about how important it is to stay involved with the SCTE. SCTE Cable-Tec Expo — the cable telecommunications engineering show of the year—hosts 10,000 attendees annually and provides the opportunity to discover and learn first-hand about the latest in cable telecommunications technology, products and services in one cost-effective setting. For 30 years the industry has relied on Cable-Tec Expo to provide the most energizing, technical knowledge exchange of the year.
At the 2013 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, (in Atlanta this October) Anais Painchault will speak on our advanced MPEG2 compression. Her paper was chosen out of several hundred submitted in this category. Since the US Cableco’s still have millions of MPEG2 STBs in their field, further improvements in MPEG2 compression is extremely important. Improving the MPEG2 codec facilitates further compressing MPEG2 signals so they each need less bandwidth. Smaller MPEG2 streams means more streams can be sent in each 38.8 MHz QAM channel, thereby allowing the Cableco’s to advance the number of services in their channel line-up. Competition between Cable, Telco and Satellite providers is fierce in most areas of the US. The company offering the best service usually wins the subscriber! Having the most subscribers, in a dense area, gives the Service Providers a better position in negotiating Programming Rates, which is one of their largest expenses. Mantra of US Service Providers … Content is King!