Expo and multi-screen, network performance, and cellular backhaul.
Ordinarily, we include coverage of Cable-Tec Expo in our November/December print issue. This year, Expo was scheduled too late in the year for us to include it in that edition, prompting this extra online installment.
In addition to our Expo roundup, we have two new articles: one from IneoQuest about meeting network performance requirements when delivering video on packet networks – think TV Everywhere and multi-screen delivery – and one from DragonWave on how cable operators can continue to provide cellular backhaul services, even as their wireless carrier customers evolve their networks.
Unscientific survey results suggest that the 2011 Cable-Tec Expo was the most energetic installment of that event in some time, and not just because seemingly half of the population of New Orleans was in town celebrating the Saints’ victory over the Falcons earlier in the week – though that helped.
Many of the headlines Cable-Tec generated were about multi-screen. But since multi-screen touches nearly every aspect of a network operator’s organization (from the network itself to the back office to call centers), the subject matter from any of the multiple multi-screen sessions was often almost entirely different from the ones preceding and following.
Even when the subject wasn’t explicitly multi-screen, multi-screen was just as likely to be the context of whatever was being discussed. There are a lot of moving parts to the technology, and those who’ve implemented it advise that success depends on addressing them all concurrently.
If there was a problem, it was inherent in the multi-session format of an exposition; the information about this important technology ended up being delivered in a disjointed fashion. Our coverage here distills many of the most important points, but we’d also like to point you to as thorough and succinct a discussion as we’ve heard about how service providers should best prepare for multi-screen delivery: our Dec. 8 Webinar “Implementing multi-screen: Preparing for deployment.” The panelists are Time Warner Cable senior vice president of Web services and technology Matthew Zelesko, Envivio vice president of solutions Arnaud Perrier, and SeaChange International senior vice president of advanced technology Steven Davi. Registration is free, and you can listen to the hour-long discussion at your convenience.