Cable-Tec Expo: A Mile High and 18 Years Deep

Posted by on Oct 27, 2017 This year’s SCTE•ISBE’s Cable-Tec Expo in Denver was my 18th. To old-timers, that still makes me a rookie. Yes, the cable industry can be tight-knit and self-referential. But it is also welcoming, open to change and attentive to innovation. And mile-high Denver was the place to go this fall to tap into the industry’s forward-looking execs. Joining the big blue bear at the Denver Convention...
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IBC 2017: VR, Big Data and Other Trends

Posted by on Sep 29, 2017 IBC 2017, Amsterdam. That should have been the dateline. But the night before I was supposed to leave, I checked my passport. Surely it hadn’t expired. Arghh…it had. After an hour of checking on a quick renewal, I cut my losses and canceled. (Thank you, Expedia travel insurance.) So no Schiphol Airport or time at the RAI Convention Center. Too bad. But live and learn. And you can still learn,...
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An Early DOCSIS Memoir: Roads Taken and Not

Posted by on Jul 7, 2017 Most engineers have other things to do than write. Those who have the time and skill to draft their own conference papers or help marketing with white papers are rare finds. Fewer still are able – or willing – to shift from tech writing to historical narrative. But that’s what we see in Robert Cruickshank’s self-published e-book, The Souls of DOCSIS. Part industry history and part personal...
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NAB 2017: UHD, IP and Workflows

Posted by on May 19, 2017 The week after my trip to San Diego, I flew west again. Once in Las Vegas, I checked in to Circus Circus. Cheap and within walking distance of the Convention Center. And not without some aging charm. From my window, I had a good view of the dome that caps the hotel’s amusement park. A few days is long enough to take the pulse of an industry. It was also enough time to catch up with clients, both...
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From T-1s to Cable Modems

Posted by on Dec 15, 2016 Last month, I discussed Andy Kessler’s idea that we are all billionaires now. His point relates to the exponential rise in the power of technologies, as measured in terms of capability-per-dollar. One of his examples relates to T-1s. Up until the late 1990s and before the cable modem, if you needed anything more than the 56 kilobits per second (Kbps) available through telephone dial-up,...
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How to Be a Tech Billionaire

Posted by on Nov 16, 2016 One billion: that big number that uses three commas to separate nine zeros. Billionaire: someone who can flaunt three commas. Celebrity investor Marc Cuban has taken up the “three commas” mantra. In 2015, he co-launched a brand of the same name, selling t-shirts bearing these punctuation marks. Interesting business, this “aspirational brand.” Even if you include billionaire wannabes...
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