* Leghorn honored by Air Force Space Command
Richard Leghorn, a founder of CableLabs, was among six who were recently inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.
Leghorn, a retired Colonel of the USAF Reserve, led development of early Cold War airborne and space-based reconnaissance systems. He joined the Army Air Corps six months before Pearl Harbor, serving as a reconnaissance group commander in Europe through V-E Day and participating in the two atomic bomb tests at Bikini in 1946. Shortly thereafter, as part of efforts to overcome the Iron Curtain, he proposed a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, later the U-2 spy plane, to overfly the Soviet Union.
Leghorn funded a study by RAND Corp. that led to the establishment of CableLabs in 1988. He is presently a director emeritus on the 28-member CableLabs board.
* EuroCableNET nets participants
Ten companies have come on board the EuroCableNET Pavilion, which will be part of the 2006 Broadband World Forum Europe conference, set for Oct. 9-12 in Paris.
Those already participating include CableMatrix, Gallery IP Telephony, JacobsRimell, Motorola, and NETGEAR; and an integrated VoIP demo from Nominum, NeuStar, Nortel and Acme Packet; as well as Nuera (part of AudioCodes), OpVista, Strategy & Technology Ltd./UniSoft, and VectorMAX.
Other slated demos include EuroDOCSIS channel bonding with a 160 Mbps downstream, PacketCable Multimedia, and IPTV multicast via DOCSIS.
* Hinnant joins Rentrak
Carol Hinnant has been named VP of business development for the Rentrak Corp. OnDemand Essentials business.
In addition to heading up that product, she will also spearhead the introduction of AdEssentials, slated to launch in 2007.
Hinnant, who reports to OnDemand Essentials SVP Cathy Hetzel, replaces Sandra Swain Kilbridge, who has relocated to Albuquerque, N.M., and will remain with Rentrak as a consultant.
Hinnant most recently served as VP of sales and marketing for Q Television Network. During her career, she has also been with HereTV!, Great American Country and HBO.
* Whaleback seeks recruits
Whaleback Systems has launched a distribution partnership program for its IP-based CrystalBlue Voice Service platform for small- and mid-sized businesses.
The recruitment effort seeks resellers, VARs and system integrators for the company’s IP-PBX system. Early participants include Quality Communications, AmeriCom Voice and Data, Accu-Tel, Comm-4, ComputerSmith Consulting LLC, and C.S. & M Tele-System.
* Gemstar-TV Guide to adopt TiVo’s Web-based scheduler
Gemstar-TV Guide has negotiated with TiVo to incorporate TiVo’s Online Scheduling feature, slated for introduction in early 2007. The feature will allow viewers to log on to the TVGuide.com Web site (which unveiled a new design today) from any location and arrange to have shows recorded on their TiVo Series2 systems at home. Gemstar-TV Guide also extended a previous licensing agreement with TiVo.
* Study: SMB sector gives Comcast HSD high marks
Comcast ranked first in terms of Internet access customer satisfaction among small and medium business (SMB) users in 2005. This is the second year in a row Comcast led the study, which is conducted by the Yankee Group.
* Addendum: Qwest offers double the beef
In our story “Qwest beefs up VDSL/FTTH channel lineup” on Friday we said Qwest is adding channels only in its Phoenix system. It is similarly adding channels in its Denver system.