The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and CableLabs announced today that they would collaborate more closely on improving energy management issues for the cable industry, including strategies and innovations designed to reduce energy consumption and costs in facilities, plants, and fleet, as well as in the home.
CableLabs and SCTE have expanded their existing relationship to ensure better coordination in two distinct areas: CableLabs’ focus within the customer premise, and SCTE’s responsibility for the remainder of the industry’s technical operations.
The two cable operator driven entities said the increased cooperation would include more sharing of information and resources, as well as cross-representation that assures that activities undertaken by either organization are aligned with the needs of the other.
CableLabs and the SCTE will highlight their partnership at this month’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver on Sept.-22-25. Highlights at Expo will include:
• A demonstration at the CableLabs’ exhibit of “sleep mode” on a Samsung six-tuner DOCSIS 3.0 set-top box that can reduce power draw by 40 percent;
• SCTE’s Energy 2020 session on Sept. 24 that will be keynoted by John Schanz, executive vice president and chief network officer of Comcast, which will outline the product requirements and standards needed for the Energy 2020 program;
• Workshop sessions on “Optimizing Energy Consumption” and “Ensuring Energy” slated for Sept. 25.
“CableLabs is supporting energy-efficiency initiatives on many fronts, by providing substantial technical support to the STB Voluntary Agreement, updating existing specifications to address low-power modes, and driving energy efficiency into the forefront of new industry specifications”, said Ralph Brown, CTO of CableLabs. “The end-to-end solution we’re creating together with SCTE is expanding the benefits of reduced power consumption across the entire cable network.”
“Through our pioneering Smart Energy Management Initiative and now the Energy 2020 program, SCTE is creating the standards, the best practices and the industry consensus that are enabling cable operators to reduce costs and ensure energy availability in cable networks,” said Daniel Howard, senior vice president and CTO of SCTE. “Our partnership will help the industry develop a comprehensive strategy as CableLabs strives to bring the same cost benefits to residential and business customers.”
