FEATURE STORY
Your Subs Are Squawking for HD

If you haven't rolled out HDTV yet, then more than likely you're developing an engineering strategy to make it happen. And proof continues to spill in that it's a key technology in reducing churn, and squeezing more dollars from all those upgrades you spent so much on over the last few years.

Subs Gotta Have It -- So, do buying behaviors suggest that your subscribers are beginning to truly understand and embrace the benefits of HDTV? Will they switch providers based on HD availability? Will they pay extra?

Yes, yes and yes, according to some recently released stats.

Knowledge of HDTV by U.S. consumers is quite high, according to a new Dove Consulting study. 81% percent of survey respondents expressed general familiarity with HDTV, and 13% of consumers indicated that they currently have an HD-capable TV. Of those surveyed, 6% percent of all consumers have purchased an HD set within the past six months. Additionally, 7.6% of consumers are considering buying a set within six months.

Over one-third of all HDTV owners surveyed indicated that they would consider switching providers for HD programming, and more than 75% are willing to pay a fee for an HD programming package. To download a copy of the summary research report, visit http://www.consultdove.com.

Roll 'Em Out -- MSOs including Comcast, Cox, Insight and others have made recent announcements that indicate agreement in the engineering community that its time to roll HD in a big way.

Comcast said it is soft-launching HDTV in its first market in the West -- Sacramento, CA. The op also beefed up its high-def offerings in Nashville, where approximately 1% of the market's 317,000 subscribers have HD boxes.

Two ops hot on ESPN HD include Cox and Insight. Cox launched it in Las Vegas recently, and has plans to roll it out in northern Virginia, Phoenix and San Diego in May. Cox's Omaha system should get it by June. Insight said it plans to launch ESPN HD in the following markets: Columbus, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

Other MSOs placing bets on high-def include Susquehanna, Blue Ridge and Shaw. Susquehanna and Blue Ridge have plans to deploy ESPN HD. Shaw launched its first HDTV service in Saskatoon, using DCT 5100 HD set-tops.

Expand Your HD Knowledge -- With all this interest in high-def, you'll want to arrive early to the "HDTV Deployment and Maintenance Techniques" workshop (http://expo.scte.org/all_workshops.htm#8) at next month's SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Philly. Speakers with examine the technical requirements for carrying HDTV from end-to- end, including system architectures in the MTC and in the home. Home interfaces such as 1394 and DVI also will be explored.

If you're looking to tackle your HDTV challenges immediately, check out "HD Rising," an article that ran in the March issue of Communications Technology (http://www.cabletoday.com/ct2/archives/0303/0303_rising.asp). It details HDTV reception and processing lessons-learned at Time Warner, Raleigh, N.C., and Cox Las Vegas.

ENGINEERING NEWS
Nail Pirates and Convert Thieves

Time Warner Cable took top honors in this year's cable and broadband security case study competition, sponsored by the Broadband and Internet Security Task Force, a collaboration of cable operators, programmers and equipment vendors.

The two winning entries came from Austin Coates, security director of TWC's South Carolina division, and Geff Dennee, technical supervisor at the MSO's Syracuse, NY, division's signal security department.

Denee's entry focussed on the Syracuse system's efforts at identifying, tracking, converting and/or prosecuting unauthorized viewers. The security department starts from both a "green bar" audit report of all subscribers, as well as from a list of all cancelled installations, and terminates unauthorized cable use while aiming for a high rate of reclaimed subscribers.

A combined tally of audit and cancelled installation work revealed that from 1996 to 2002, the department found 17,197 unauthorized viewers. Converted customers, meanwhile, amounted to 4,915, or 28.6 percent of that total population.

Getting Back Big $ -- Denee estimates the reclaimed monthly revenue at about $200,000, but downplays that metric: "The realization that a successful audit department can increase the subscriber base is paramount."

Time Warner's South Carolina division knew it had a problem with "pirate-box" end users. The division also realized that it needed a multi-phased strategy to reduce their number, deter their future use and recover lost programming costs.

Security Director Coates says the awareness and education phase of their strategy involved bringing judges, prosecutors, police officers up to speed on "black box" issues, as well as raising public awareness over the legality and overall financial impact of unauthorized decoder use.

Knock and Talk -- The operational and criminal litigation phase shifted into the acquisition of leads and tips and development of cases through both search warrants and "Knock and Talk" tactics, in which a Time Warner employee would accompany a police officer empowered under the "Plain View Doctrine" to identify and seize illegal boxes.

In the civil litigation and recovery phase, the South Carolina system sent up to two Demand Letters, and in the absence of settlement, would then file action in the state's Summary Court. (For practical reasons, it had opted against invoking federal law.)

The upshot was the seizure of more than 1,000 illegal decoders and the prosecution of 312 criminal cases, the recovery of $377,000 in settlements and $301,000 in judgments. - Jonathan Tombes

CAREER ENGINEER
How the Headend Handles Increased Traffic Flow

As the type and variety of services you offer expands, your technical team needs to remain consistently updated about how the headend accommodates and processes increased traffic.

Broadband Learning Live (http://www.broadbandlearninglive.com) recently offered a Webinar that explained how data flows in and out of the headend, and how the incorporation of new technologies like VOD and VoIP affect traffic flow. The session traced common paths for Internet traffic, and provided examples of hardware to support traffic. It concluded with a review of the challenges associated with headend upgrades and the move to carrier-class performance.

The Webinar was recorded, and is available at Broadband Learning's Web site.

BROADBAND SOAPBOX
The Power of MPEG-4

"MPEG-4 Part 10, a.k.a. H.264, is set to revolutionize the video delivery industry. DVD quality video, at ~1.25 Mbps per stream with full viewer control and interaction capabilities is right around the corner," HFCNET's Max Morales said in last week's Pipeline. "The delivery mechanism to STBs, PCs, laptops, PDAs and numerous other Web appliances will not be proprietary systems, but rather good old Ethernet and TCP/IP. This change will revolutionize our industry as much or more than satellites and fiber ever did."

If you'd like to share your opinion on this topic with other readers, send an e-mail to . All letters may be published, and may be edited for style or length.

SCTE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Last Chance to Save $100 on Expo

Pre-register for SCTE's 20th Anniversary Cable-Tec Expo -- May 11-14 at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Convention Center -- by this Friday (May 2), and you'll save $100. Your registration to Expo includes entry to the Annual Engineering Conference featuring keynote Brian Roberts of Comcast, and panel discussions among some of the industry's leading CEOs and CTOs; your choice of 20 educational workshops on current cable engineering issues; an exhibit hall chock-full of engineering and hardware service providers; and several receptions and events. Register online at http://expo.scte.org/register.htm. For more information, call .

Society's Mission Expands -- SCTE's Board of Directors recently approved an expanded mission for the Society, broadening our strategic goals to provide professional development, information and standards to our members and the cable telecommunications industry. Professional development includes SCTE's cornerstone training and certification programs as well as additional career-enhancement programs. Information refers to SCTE's goals to provide new, knowledge-based resources for members. Standards will also remain a key focus of the Society. Visit http://www.scte.org/about/index.cfm?pID=463 for a complete rundown on the expanded mission. Call for more information.

Congratulations Safety Winners -- The winners of SCTE's 2003 Safety Awards include 66 Gold Level and 28 Silver Level MSOs, contractors or individual divisions/systems of MSOs that achieved exemplary safety requirements. Winners are selected based on the OSHA recordable incident rate: Gold Level winners achieved 50% or less of the industry's national rate, and Silver Level winners posted 25% or less. Winners will be recognized on May 12 at the Annual Awards Luncheon during SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo, May 11- 14 in Philadelphia. View the winners online at http://www.scte.org/membership/index.cfm?pID=462. For more information on Expo, visit http://expo.scte.org or call .

Sign Up for SCTE Live Learning VOD Series, New Web-based Seminars -- SCTE'snew Web-based seminars -- SCTE Live Learning -- provide you with a comprehensive roadmap to deploying VOD. The seminar line-up includes:

• Launching VOD: A Practical Guide, on May 21
• Deploying VOD: Is Your System Ready?, on June 25
• VOD Architectural Choices, presented by nCUBE, on July 23
• Tips And Techniques For Troubleshooting VOD, on Aug. 20
• After Launch: How To Maximize VOD's Future Potential, on Sept. 24

Created in partnership with Maher & Maher, each seminar is one-hour long and includes tools that participants can use during an actual VOD deployment. Enroll at http://www.scte.org/training/index.cfm?pID=444.

If you find CT's Pipeline to be a valuable resource, e-mail this issue to your colleagues and tell them it's just one of the many exclusive benefits of SCTE membership--only a click away at http://www.scte.org/membership/index.cfm?pID=27.

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