The SCTE Spring Lecture Meeting, 2006.

	Next Generation Cabled Networks The SCTE held its 2006 Spring Lecture Meeting on Tuesday 4th April at the IEE in Savoy Place, London. SCTE lecture meetings are all day events beginning at around 0930 and ending in time for the 1700 cocktail party where attendees get the chance to discuss the day, and the industry, in an informal atmosphere.


Members Only. Members of the SCTE can follow this link to download the presentation slides for any or all of the presentations.


Welcome and Introduction The theme for the day was next generation cabled networks and, as usual, an interesting set of papers enabled attendees to expand their knowledge of the latest industry developments as well as the chance to meet contemporaries from all sides. Deputy Editor of 'Broadband', Graeme Young, reports on the proceedings. SCTE President, Dr. Roger Blakeway, began by welcoming attendees and giving a brief view of the position of the society after the end of its diamond jubilee year. Following his introductory remarks, Dr Blakeway welcomed the new Papers Secretary, Jan van Brienen, who takes over from Dr Mark Burns.		Jan van Brienen

Paul Fellows, Amino Technologies	IPTV and the move from MPEG 2 to MPEG 4 Paul Fellows, CTO at Amino Technologies Plc The paper set out some of the current problems with Quality of Service. A major issue with viewers is the time taken to change channels on digital signals and this is being addressed by changes to software that will reduce the latency to a target time of between 800mS and 1.2 Seconds. H.264 takes longer because I-frame location can take several seconds and applications software will also add its own delays. Encoding technology also needs examination, timing is tied to audio packets and instances where audio data was offset by 4 seconds - the video data being ahead in the Multiplex.

DOCSIS M-CMTS Architecture Addressing the need for higher subscriber bandwidth on cable networks Denis Downey, Hardware architect, Arris International With present moves towards the convergence of voice, data and video, bandwidth and cost issues are embraced in Cablelabs M-CMTS initiative as Cable moves increasinglt towards Teiple-Play. Mr Downey covered the M-CMTS architecture in detail and discussed the DEPI, DTI, DRFI and ERMI specifications - showing how these worked together. The concept of Channel Bonding was seen to be very appealing, and this plus the higher density afforded by M-CMTS would give Cable TV a competitive edge in the market-place.		Denis Downey, Arris International

Peter Strong, SiConnect	In-Home Communications using Mains Wiring Peter Strong, Chief Technologist, SiConnect Limited Several attempts to achieve reliable and easily-installed equipment for mains-borne communication have been made in the past with varying degrees of success. The transmission path chosen is hostile and unpredictable, doubts have been raised about the security of the method and problems of ingress equally raise doubts about the desirability of PLC. Mr Strong described the concept pursued by SiConnect that complies with EN55022 EMC emissions standard, and embodies intelligent transceivers that operate in four bands in the range 5 to 50MHz using coded digital signals and routing to avoid lines with high attenuation.

Cable TV & IPTV The Threat and the opportunity The Threat and the Opportunity Edward Allfrey, Cable Architect, Tandberg Television A set of challenges now faces the CATV operator in preparation for the future, not only in keeping up with new services launched by IPTV, but with new platforms and revenue-gathering services and delivering the right services for the present generation of viewers who want these now. The future holds excellent opportunities for content providers, CATV operators and equipment manufacturers, but success will only come to those who listen to their markets, deliver what customers and consumers want, and never underestimate them. The most imminent threat to Cable is that of IP over xDSL as this technology may be the first to deliver services.		Edward Allfrey

Gerrit Boskaljon	IngressSafe - a passive approach to Ingress reduction Gerrit Boskaljon, Product manager, Technetix Group Ingress is a serious problem particularly in Return Path networks. There have been attempts in the past to overcome this nuisance from domestic appliances using small universal motors, Citizens’ Band Radio, older cordless phones, and short wave radio. A new weapon to add to the armoury of anti-ingress measures comes in the shape of IngressSafe, essentially a reverse path combiner that has cancellation properties affording a 6dB reduction in ingress – a useful enhancement to the SNR! This is achieved by the introduction of a 180-degree broadband phase-shift in one of the inputs, this producing a partial cancellation of ingress present on the incoming cables.

Note for Non-Members This page would normally be part of the Members' Area of the SCTE site. In order to give the widest possible circulation to the information about this important meeting, special arrangements have been made to make this page available to all. Please note that non-members who click the menu links to the left may find they are asked to sign in and will, therefore, be unable to view these pages. To find out how you can view all of this site please visit the Non-members Area.		Lunch provides the chance to chat

Members Only. Members of the SCTE can follow this link to download the presentation slides for any or all of the presentations.



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