Last week’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Orlando was down a bit number-wise from the previous year in Atlanta, but the number of international attendees was up 3 percent.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers announced that approximately 9,200 attendees were on hand last week, compared with more than 10,000 a year ago in Atlanta.

The conference featured a record 80 technical workshops, highlighted by the standing-room-only session on the new DOCSIS 3.1 specification. Paid registration for “The digital home: Preparing for the future,” the full-day symposium prior to the start of Expo, was up 47 percent.

“The continued expansion of the quantity and quality of our SCTE Cable-Tec Expo programs is a direct reflection of the industry’s need to speed the deployment of current and future technologies,” said Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE. “By working closely with CableLabs and NCTA, we are accelerating the development of training for the next generation of cable engineering and operations professionals.”

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2013 will take place Sept. 18-20 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Kevin Hart, executive vice president and CTO of Cox Communications, will serve as program committee chairman for next year’s event.