The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has selected Daniel Howard, a technologist and entrepreneur whose efforts are said to have impacted the entire cable industry, as the organization's first Chief Technology Officer.
Meanwhile, the election process continues for other SCTE directors, including Canadian representatives to the industry trade association.
Howard, who co-founded and served as CTO of Broadcom acquisition Digital Furnace and co-authored DOCSIS specifications, brings to SCTE more than 20 years of experience in technology innovation and standards leadership with a variety of established and startup technology firms and educational institutions. With SCTE, he will be responsible for driving the technical leadership, innovation and increased focus on IP delivery that will help the industry to reduce costs, optimize network performance and enhance customer satisfaction.
"Daniel Howard is exactly the type of candidate we had in mind when we created the position of CTO," Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE, said in announcing the new positoin and incumbant officer. "His visionary approach, the scope of his experience and his track record of success all impressed CTOs from large and small operators alike throughout our exhaustive interview process, and convinced the selection committee that Daniel was best positioned to take SCTE into the future."
"In many ways, Daniel is the 'Edison' of digital cable technology," added Dan Pike, CTO of GCI Cable and a member of the selection committee. "He's equally at home in the boardroom or the bucket truck, has a real grasp of the issues that are important to the industry, and takes a 'roll-up-the-sleeves' approach to creating solutions. Ultimately, Daniel's efforts have led to many of the digital technology advancements we take for granted today."
A leader in recognizing the potential of IP technology for cable system operators, Howard co-authored the industry's DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0 specifications, and while with Broadcom was a lead inventor on the company's primary DOCSIS 3.0 patent. Additional contributions include the development of broadband growth models for cable system networks, evaluation of such new technologies as IPTV and Synchronous CDMA (SCDMA), and the writing of more than 50 articles, reports and international technical specifications.
"In today's highly competitive landscape, it's critical that cable leverage current and future technologies to provide the best possible products for its customers," said Howard. "I'm looking forward to enhancing SCTE's current leadership position in technical education, and to working with my peers within the operator, programmer and vendor communities to accelerate the deployment of the next generation of cable services."
"Daniel Howard's diverse background and experience will accelerate SCTE's ability to drive new programs for the benefit of the entire industry," said Tony Werner, executive vice president and CTO of Comcast. "We believe he'll bring fresh perspectives that will enhance SCTE's continued efforts to provide leadership as the IP evolution continues."
Prior to co-founding Digital Furnace in 1998, Howard spent eight years as senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, where he co-founded and served as associate director of the Broadband Telecom Center. During five years with Digital Furnace and as technical director with Broadcom, he developed Digital Furnace's technology for reducing bandwidth requirements of telephony and video over cable and provided leadership in Broadcom's work with S-CDMA and Advanced TDMA (ATDMA).
Howard also has served as president and CEO of Quadrock Communications, an interactive television startup; as a systems architect with Motorola; and most recently as CTO of VQLink, a developer of advanced digital video quality measurement and monitoring technology. In addition, he has created and taught a graduate class at Georgia Tech on cable telecommunications technology and has been a consultant for the Atlanta Public Schools system on classroom thin client computer architectures and teacher training in the Linux operating system and applications. Howard holds a BS in Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech.
The search was conducted for SCTE by Dean Madison of TD Madison.& Associates, based in Virginia Beach, VA.
For more Mediacaster Magazine coverage related to this topic, please see:
SCTE Canadian Summit Honours Cable's History, Future Technology
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000363380
Cable Techs Get New Standards for IP Verification, Multimedia Quality
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000365991
Like Water For Bandwidth
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000341065
The SCTE is now in election mode for association representatives and directors; SCTE members may cast votes up until July 30, 2010.
Newly elected directors will take office to begin their two-year terms on Tuesday, Oct. 19 in conjunction with SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2010, which is set for Oct. 20-22 in New Orleans.
Election details can be found in the Member Services/Elections section of the website, at http://www.scte.org
Candidates include the following:
Director-At-Large Canada (representing SCTE's Canadian members)
Boris Eventov, director, digital video engineering, Cogeco Cable
Tony Faccia, vice president, wireline access networks, Rogers Cable Communications
Bruce Marshall, technical director, Shaw Cablesystems
The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) is a non-profit professional association that provides technical leadership for the telecommunications industry and serves its members through professional development, standards, certification and information. SCTE currently has approximately 13,000 members from the U.S. and 70 countries worldwide and offers a variety of programs and services for the industry's educational benefit. A prime example is SCTE's Smart Energy Management Initiative (SEMI), an unprecedented effort to help cable operators leverage financial and environmental advantages of implementing Green strategies. SCTE has 68 chapters and meeting groups and more than 3,000 employees of the cable telecommunications industry hold SCTE technical certifications. SCTE is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization.