Articles
FREE Email Newsletter
Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Does broadband data need eye candy?
September 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Fred Dawson | CommentsThe growing presence of small, but consumer-pleasing video windows on Web sites has raised the bar for the technical parameters in near-term broadband data service rollouts, adding new issues to operators' technical choices. While some experts argue that the key to success with consumers in the early going with broadband data services is provision of fast access to conventional sites, in combi...
Investing in super headends
September 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Lynn Newsom, Vice President, Network Services, MediaOne; and Tore Nelson, Director of Headend Marketing, Scientific-Atlanta | CommentsMediaOne, a US West company and main provider of cable television entertainment services throughout metropolitan Atlanta, has embarked on a $350 million rebuild/upgrade of its Atlanta network, most of which was originally built during the late 1970s. With the goal of creating a state-of-the-art 750 MHz hybrid fiber/coax system to provide entertainment, data, video and telephony services, MediaO...
Looking through your customers' walls
September 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsBoth, of course, offer data transfer and Internet access at speeds hundreds of times faster than the telcos can with conventional POTS modems. And both are providing continuous connections for a monthly flat fee. With the launch of their own high-speed data services, the nation's largest cable system operators are plunging headlong into uncharted waters as they search for new revenue opportunit...
Boston College soars with high-speed modems
September 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsRemember when going to college and living in a dormitory meant long hours of study, bad food, a single telephone down the hall and an old TV that pulled in maybe five or six snow-filled channels? My, how times have changed. Sure, the studying is still necessary, and the food is probably just as bad, but today's students are becoming active participants in the Information Age-and they're bringin...
Preventing ingress in the return path
September 30, 1996 8:00 pm | by Kevin J. Oliver, Product Marketing Manager, CATV Division, Wavetek Corp | CommentsWith new opportunities for revenue available and competitive threats building, the focus of the cable industry is on making cable networks quality, interactive, two-way communications pipelines. As such services as high-speed data, interactive TV applications, telephony, and even Internet TV are being considered or activated, one of the big questions being asked is how do I handle ingress encou...
From 1550 to WDM, choices abound
August 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsAny video network designer who thought his life became infinitely more complicated a few years ago when fiber optics came on the scene will be astounded by the sheer number of options that are coming on-line today. No longer is it just a debate over 1310 nm vs. 1550 nm, or hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) as opposed to switched digital video: It's that plus a few others.
New needs create a new demand
August 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsYou don't have to go too far back in the history books to find a time when, if you announced to the world that you planned to deploy 1550 nm fiber optic technology, you were considered odd, or unique. After all, 1550 was itself an oddity-a distraction to those who were lobbying cable operators to deploy fiber as fast as possible, but preferred that they use 1310 nm gear.
Taking the PC out of the data comm loop
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Michael Lafferty | CommentsRemember that classic scene in Moonstruck where Cher gives Nicholas Cage a swift high-five upside the face and yells, "Snap out of it!"? Consider yourself slapped and duly instructed. For the past year or so, as many in the industry have paced the floor, wrung their hands and consumed mountains of Zantec to calm roiling stomachs churning with cable modem distress, it seems everyone's attention ...
Bury your head  and bury your business(2)
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
Bury your head  and bury your business
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
Bury your head — and bury your business(2)
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
Bricking up the 'Net to make it safe for business
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Dana Cervenka | CommentsAmong the more intriguing aspects of the Internet are the capabilities it provides to 'Net surfers to gain access to limitless information, visit exotic locales without ever leaving the safety of their keyboards and even interact with other people electronically, revealing only the information that they want to reveal about themselves, and in some cases, trying on new identities for size.
Bandwidth hunger driving high-speed data
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by David J. Freeman, Senior Consultant, Digital Equipment Corp. | CommentsThe continuing explosive growth of the Internet and the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996 have kicked into high-gear plans, pilots and development of high-speed data networks to homes, schools, offices and many other institutions. An applications-driven market is developing with an increasing need for connectivity and greater bandwidth.
Capital Currents: Baseband digital interfaces, revisited
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, Interfacing with The Digital World and President of Telecommunications and Technology policy | CommentsThis work has run into a major conflict that is almost certain to lead to incompatible, consumer-unfriendly products. And this time, nobody can blame the cable industry. The blame rests with two different groups of TV and VCR manufacturers. Background The EIA set out a few years ago to adopt a standard for a baseband digital interface that allows digital TVs, VCRs, cable boxes and other audio- ...
Bury your head — and bury your business
July 31, 1996 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsI've written tutorial stories about the technology, commentaries about its possible use as an adjunct to cable TV (before that idea was prohibited by FCC mandate) and covered new product releases - all in an effort to educate CED readers about what was happening with that alternative video medium. The fact of the matter is, however, that I was never really impressed with the technology.
