The SCTE Dinner and Awards 2008

SCTE Honours Achievement in the Industry

The Society for Broadband Professionals held its 15th annual awards dinner at Woburn Abbey Sculpture Gallery on Saturday 23 February 2008 at which it honoured achievement in the industry.

In his address to the Society the President, Dr Roger Blakeway, commented on the increased awareness of the Society outside its traditional base with over 20% of its membership outside of the UK.

“I am pleased to tell you that the Society is still going strong after sixty three years with healthy bank balance and a sustaining membership which due to new initiatives is growing,” he told the audience. “Together with the income from our involvement with IBC it gives us a firm base to face the future.”

The awards were introduced by Dr Roger Blakeway, president of the Society, and presented by Michael Bunce, chairman of IBC. Honorary Fellowships of the Society were awarded to David Hall, Chairman of the Marketing and Publications Committee, and Derrick Walker, CAI.

The SCTE Achievement Awards were introduced two years ago to provide recognition and encouragement of a wider spectrum of activity than is possible with our traditional Fellowships and Tom Hall Award. The categories awarded this year were SCTE Technician of the Year, SCTE Member of the Year and Technology Innovation of the Year. The winners were decided by vote - all members of the Society received nomination forms and voting was also possible via the website and at the Autumn Lecture & AGM.

The award for SCTE Technician of the Year 2007 went to Owen Williams of Virgin Media not only manages technical aspects of the Virgin Media network, but is also very comfortable and able to demonstrate a practical ability with a wide range of broadband cable equipment. He has immense experience working on the HFC network and is tremendously hard working.

The award for SCTE Member of the Year 2007 was shared between Ricky Crafford and Dale Bowen of Virgin Media who collectively specified the integration of the ntl and Telewest networks.

The 2008 award for Technology Innovation of the Year went to Harmonic, Inc. for its Universal EdgeQAM. Its NSG 9000 product is a highly integrated digital video gateway which multiplexes on-demand content streamed over an IP network and includes DOCSIS 3.0 support and redundancy options that streamline the provisioning of IP-based services including voice-over-IP (VOIP) and broadband Internet access.

“The M-CMTS solution is a unique offering currently not available from any other edgeQAM provider and is integrated with leading CMTS platforms to provide operators with a scalable foundation that permits bandwidth expansion now and can also support advanced services moving forward,” commented Dr Blakeway.

The final award of the evening was the prestigious The Tom Hall Award which was instituted in 2001 to mark outstanding service to the cable industry. One figure stood apart as being a member of the Society Executive for many years and long-time editor of its Broadband journal. The Tom Hall Award for Outstanding Services to Cable Industry was awarded to Daniel Henry Smart

As a Partner in IBC Amsterdam, the SCTE shared in the success of this event which helped to bolster the funds available for the Society to continue its activities. The Society now participates actively in Cable Europe and ANGA events and its technical journal, Broadband, has an increasing circulation and is widely respected in the industry.

As part of the IBC involvement the Society, over the past years, has provided two Bursaries for the event to enable members, who would not otherwise be able through lack of funding, to attend the conference and exhibition. This provides a full conference ticket and £1000 to cover hotel and travel expenses. This will again be available for the 2008 event.

In May this year, the Society, in conjunction with the Confederation of Aerial Industries, moved to its own premises in Watford, having been in serviced offices in Wembley for some 16 years. It also appointed a new managing editor for SCTE publications.

A complete Photo Gallery of the 2008 SCTE Dinner and Awards event is available to view online.