The Orlando edition of SCTE Cable-Tec Expo kicked off with opening remarks from SCTE President and CEO Mark Dzuban and Program Committee Chairman Jim Ludington.

Dzuban thanked his staff, Program Committee members and sponsors in his remarks, and Ludington also thanked members of the Program Committee and SCTE staff.

“We have another great Expo lined up for you this week, and I know this because I’ve worked with the program committee that, along with the SCTE staff, has done all of the hard work and heavy lifting to get this show where it is this week,” said Ludington, Time Warner Cable’s executive vice president of national network operations and engineering. “We had a record 250 abstracts submitted this year that the committee reviewed and discussed, and we programmed them into more than 80 workshop time slots under the six tracks.”

For Ludington, standing at the podium was a flashback of sorts to 15 years ago when he was Program Committee chairman for another Expo in Orlando. Ludington pointed out that 15 years ago, DOCSIS 1.0 was the hot topic, and during a panel tomorrow, the industry will be discussing the next move forward with DOCSIS 3.1.

“Maybe 15 years from now we’ll be discussing DOCSIS 15 or DOCSIS 17, or who knows, something else,” Ludington said.

Ludington also said that the cable industry “wasn’t in the business of business services” 15 years ago, but 15 years from now, those services could be on par with residential services.

Time Warner Cable CTO and executive vice president Mike LaJoie, who was elected to another term as the SCTE’s chairman of the board on Tuesday, handed out the SCTE Chairman’s Award to past SCTE board chairman Bob Foote. The award recognizes individuals and groups that have contributed to making “the industry the best it can be,” LaJoie said. Foote has been on the SCTE’s board for 10 of the past 12 years.

“In the past, this award’s recipient has known about it, but I didn’t, and I think you did this so I wouldn’t have a big, long speech,” Foote joked. “I’m truly humbled and very appreciative.”