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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Is it premature for analog requiem?
May 31, 1997 8:00 pm | by Walt Ciciora | CommentsThe recent adoption of an accelerated schedule for DTV deployment in the U.S. has caused some in the popular press to suggest that the sole surviving technology for terrestrial domestic broadcasting will be digital, and that analog NTSC will rapidly fade away. There are several reasons why this may not happen at all.
Creating a Virtual Presence
May 31, 1997 8:00 pm | by Alan Gordon, Director of Video Business Unit, Superior Electronics Group Inc. | CommentsA customer complaint is a poor substitute for sound network practices. With competition and the deployment of new services, reliability of the network has become critical. Information from a network monitoring system is playing a key role in improving construction practices, installation procedures, plant maintenance procedures and customer service.
The DTV process has begun  where are cable operators?
May 31, 1997 8:00 pm | by Andy Paff, President and CEO, Integration Technologies | CommentsThe FCC has announced the conclusion of its fifth report and order regarding digital television (DTV). This exercise is intended to be the catalyst for broadcasters to enter the competitive digital world while maintaining "free" programming to the public. The Commission has effectively pushed many of the complicated technical and marketing issues back to the broadcasters.
The DTV process has begun  where are cable operators?(2)
May 31, 1997 8:00 pm | by Andy Paff, President and CEO, Integration Technologies | CommentsThe FCC has announced the conclusion of its fifth report and order regarding digital television (DTV). This exercise is intended to be the catalyst for broadcasters to enter the competitive digital world while maintaining "free" programming to the public. The Commission has effectively pushed many of the complicated technical and marketing issues back to the broadcasters.
Lurid confessions of a beta tester
May 31, 1997 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, Cable Modem Surfer and President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | CommentsI've been beta testing a cable modem since mid-January. I confess, I love it. When it works, that is. I get enormous data rates; Web pages SNAP! onto the screen. Huge documents download in seconds. But it doesn't always work. Remember the old rap against cable system reliability, that cable systems aren't reliable enough to compete against the telephone companies? It's still true.
Sorting out the satellite confusion
May 31, 1997 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, Satellite Skywatcher and President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | CommentsTraditional GEO fixed satellites We are all familiar with C-band and Ku-band satellites that deliver video programming to cable headends, TV stations and home dishes. These satellites are assigned to slots along a band that is located directly above the equator and at an altitude of 36,000 km, at which distance the earth's gravity and the sun's gravity are balanced.
Next-generation FSS may prove formidable
April 30, 1997 8:00 pm | by Fred Dawson | CommentsTerrestrial network strategists researching the business prospects for evolving satellite capabilities can find reasons for both relief and concern, depending on how far out they look. For operators of wireline broadband networks, the good news is that, even if Rupert Murdoch's much discussed "Death Star" project clears its regulatory and business hurdles, it won't have the technical wherewitha...
Cox steps up to the plate with telephony in California
April 30, 1997 8:00 pm | by Dave Woodrow, Cox Communications Senior Vice President, Broadband Services; and Guy Gill, Nortel Vice President/General Manager, Access Networks | CommentsIn early 1996, with the ink still damp on the Telecommunications Act, Cox Communications was actively exploring the "hows" and "whens" of providing wired voice services to its cable TV customers. Its telephony initiative got a jump-start when Westwood Residential, a Dallas-based developer with southern California expansion plans, approached Cox's Orange County operations to find out just how ca...
For cable, there are numbers in safety
April 30, 1997 8:00 pm | by Craig Kuhl | CommentsIt's probably safe to say that accidents, especially job-related ones, don't just "happen." When they do, the ripple effect is felt far beyond the victims, their families, and co-workers, reaching all the way to the company's bottom line. For the cable industry, getting the job done safely is an attitude with growing pains.
Backlash is music to an operator's ears
April 30, 1997 8:00 pm | by Roger Brown | CommentsTake a look at the nascent personal communications services industry. Remember how excited everyone got when this new service was proposed? It seemingly had something for everyone — smaller cellular telephones with longer battery life, digital modulation, and cheaper prices, to boot. Along with the service came the vision of one person/one phone number and a host of other intriguing possi...
Operational issues for digital have arrived
April 30, 1997 8:00 pm | by Wendell Bailey | CommentsThe FCC rules under which this service is to be offered are rather strict. The broadcasters in the top-10 markets must begin providing a digital signal within two years, and there are different, but strict, timetables for those in the second and lower markets. The NCTA has, for several years, had a consistent position on how, and under what circumstances this allotment would take place.
Ready to take off?
April 30, 1997 8:00 pm | by Compiled by CED Staff and Written by Michael Lafferty | CommentsAh, the fickle finger of fate. During the last decade and a half in the cable industry, that finger has been pointing all over the map, and back again, a number of times. Remember the 500-channel universe? Interactive television? Digital television? High-definition television? How about cable telephony? According to some industry observers (both informed and uninformed), the fickle finger of fa...
Rain and its effects on microwave spectrum
April 30, 1997 8:00 pm | by Jeffrey Krauss, Intellectual Property Developer and President of Telecommunications and Technology Policy | CommentsThe auction prices will depend on the marketplace opportunity for the service that the spectrum will be used for, but also on the effect of rain. Upcoming microwave auctions The major auction in 1997 or early 1998 will be Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), for a license of 1150 MHz of spectrum at 28 GHz in each of about 500 Rand McNally Basic Trading Areas (BTAs).
Supplying too much of the wrong thing?
March 31, 1997 7:00 pm | by Wendell Bailey | CommentsPerhaps that is a little too cruel. Let me try this: the primary goal of groups that seek to promote public technology is to make sure that no one is left out of the benefits that these technologies offer. There, that sounds better. No matter how you say it, it still comes down to this: how do we make sure that the riches of the Internet and cable TV and telephone connectivity reach those who a...
Operators look at back-door telephony service
March 31, 1997 7:00 pm | by Dana Cervenka | CommentsJust when cable engineers thought they were beginning to get the technical issues surrounding the provision of broadband data services under control, up jumps an unexpected opportunity—or distraction? Now that operators are putting their plans to offer fullscale cablephone service on hold, they are starting to take a hard look at what it would take to provide various incarnations of Inter...
