Cox

If you’re a marketer, you already know what drives you nuts about engineers – and vice versa.

Usually, it festers around who calls the shots on new product development.

Marketers, and especially those with packaged goods experience, want earlier involvement.

Engineers usually hear this lament many months (or years) after they began writing densely technical, often inscrutable requirements. They want informed direction, sooner.

And then the wallop of “service velocity” hit. Gone is cable’s purgatory of “one new product every 18 months,” gated by legacy back office, conditional access, or guide issues. As Cox CTO Kevin Hart put it, during a CTAM Summit session last month: “Now, we’re doing 18 products in one year.”

The tech pieces accelerating product rollouts in cable are on a roll: Open standards, the migration to all-IP (Internet Protocol), and the prying open of back office components to remove proprietary hogties.

What’s on now is the workforce and cultural changes. And this is where you run into the lingo of “waterfall” vs. “agile” operations.

Primer: “Waterfall” means serial, step-by-step processes. Write a long requirements document. Get it into silicon. Test. Get it to device manufacturers. Test. Link into provisioning and billing systems. After all that, develop training, installation, customer care and – oh yes! – marketing plans.

“Agile” means working collaboratively, across departments, and in tandem. An “agile sprint” locks a small team into writing code that puts an existing feature into a companion service. Tech people call this “experience threading.” (My favorite example, for so many reasons: Voice mail that comes over as an email transcript.)

Cox, Comcast and others are already retuning the workforce for agility. Cox’s Hart meets all day on Tuesdays with the heads of marketing, product and operations — to review readiness checklists, prioritize resources, and liaison with call centers.

What do engineers want from marketers, these days? John Schanz, EVP of Network Engineering & Technical Operations for Comcast, seeks flexibility through the innovation process. “We need a give-and-take between the business, marketing and technology teams, even when you don’t really know exactly where the destination is.”

“Forge really tight partnerships across departments – that’s where the magic is,” said CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney.

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

This week marks one year of sampling a large variety of over-the-top video hardware and software in a makeshift office lab. Why: To understand why people cut the cable cord, or hang out on the “connected” side of today’s Internet-connected TVs.

Seems a good time to share some findings.

1. What I use the most, of the over-the-top services: Amazon Prime. Why: Amazon was first to offer Downton Abbey Season 2, which I could watch on a Vizio screen at home, while “getting steps” on the treadmill. (I am OCD about 10,000 steps per day, thanks to the Fitbit, to which I am wonderfully addicted.)
After that, and still on Amazon Prime: Tanked. Tanked is a family viewing activity, marathon-style – but, alas, the main TV in the house isn’t Internet-connected. So I brought home a Sony streamer, which was dissed at the lab for its clunky on-screen remote (it’s as clunky on the Sony PS3.) But, it has Amazon Prime. The Tanked binging continued in the living room.

2. Observation: Be careful what you wish for, in terms of user experience. OTT apps like Netfix and Amazon, as well as cable video apps like xFinity, can use or not use various native features within each streaming device. Which means that the same app behaves differently, one screen to the next. (Maybe we’ll all just get used to this?)

When marathon-viewing Nurse Jackie on the Vizio screen, for instance, the Amazon app keeps track of episodes I’ve seen with a simple check mark. No such feature on the Sony streamer upstairs. Same app, same show, but you need to remember which episode you watched last.

The flip side of that, which comes with DLNA, is that any software-based video app can leverage native device features that are cool or handy.

Example: At the Cable Show in June, on a back wall of the CableNET area, Cox showed how its Trio guide had taken advantage of a native feature inside a Sony connected TV, such that in-show navigation happens on a scroll bar, frame by frame. It looked great.

3. What I use the most at work: Comcast’s “AnyPlay,” fed by Motorola’s “Televation” box. Live streaming cable TV on the iPad. Love it. Make it do trick-play, I’d love it even more.

That’s a short walk through a year’s worth of OTT-ing in the lab. Next time: What all that streaming did to the broadband meter; the puzzle of getting signal to everything; the multiplier on remote control clutter.
This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

As wireless technology becomes increasingly popular, so do the individualized consumption of services, an area Cox is focused on as it continues its wireless development.Here, Jay discusses the operational procedures behind wireless implementation that will be daunting, yet familiar — given Cox’s involvement in switched telephony service. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In a late 2008 interview, conducted at Cox’s Atlanta headquarters, I speak with VP of Technology Jay Rolls about buying wireless spectrum, and the reasons why Cox chose to build its own wireless plant, using LTE. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In this segment, Jay  — a very active member of the DOCSIS community — describes operational impacts, M-CMTS, and the integration challenges associated with launching and activating DOCSIS 3.0-based technology. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In late 2008, I interviewed Cox VP/Technology Jay Rolls in Atlanta. A big topic of discussion: All things DOCSIS 3.0. Several drivers exist, including the increased speeds that come with channel bonding, of course. And, there’s the added bonus of operational efficiencies. He then discuss the steps necessary to launch DOCSIS 3.0, like QAM re-lashing.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In this late 2008 interview at Cox’s Atlanta headquarters, Chris Bowick discusses the “then and now” scene for network upgrades. Especially important: Considering customers when implementing upgrade procedure. (Yes, engineers DO think about customers. 🙂 Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

Upgrading bandwidth to 1 GHz almost always leads to discussion about amplifier spacing — a task that can be tedious and time consuming. Chris explains why NOT having to respace is important. He also explains the company’s strategic “Eon” program. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In this first segment of a December 2008 interview, Chris Bowick, then SVP Engineering and CTO for Cox, discusses the company’s decision to choose bandwidth expansion to 1 GHz, rather than digital-to-analog (DTA) and switched digital video (SDV) alternatives. Why: To make sure there’s enough room for everything that’s coming. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In this late 2008 interview with Jay Rolls, VP / technology for Cox, we discuss Cox’s role in converged services, SIP, and the importance of alignment between different engineering disciplines – a necessity for cross-platform architectures and development.Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.