CableLabs Won’t Retreat From Work With CE, Others After Liao Leaves

The switch to longer IP addresses, CE devices’ integration with cable operators so consumers don’t need CableCARDs to connect DVRs and TVs to subscription video, and interactive and targeted ads are among the reasons why more inter-industry work is needed, executives said. Moving “quickly” to issue IPv6 addresses means “Band Aid” technologies to convert content between those addresses and IPv4 won’t be needed, Liao said. “It’s something that the ISPs, whether it’s cable or telephone or whatever, you can’t do” alone,” he continued: “You need the end-devices to make that switch, you need the programming sites to make that switch,” which takes cooperation.

Executives credit Liao, who came to CableLabs in 2009 from Panasonic, with helping to collaborate on IPv6 and other areas. “You can’t ignore those other groups, and CableLabs is a great entree” by holding interoperability events and working with DLNA, said NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg: “The nature of the industry’s convergence” with other sectors has played a part, and “Paul’s tenure gave a bit of an impetus, because he came from that environment.” His recent plan to leave when his contract expires in December 2012 (CD Oct 17 p13) didn’t come because of any discord between the CEO and CableLabs’ board, executives watching the transition and Liao said.

Rather, the executives said Liao had always planned to stay a much shorter time at the helm than did Richard Green. Green became CableLabs’ first CEO in 1988 and said three years ago he was stepping down. Liao appeared to have initially wanted to stay for a few more years, but the work he’s started ought to continue, cable and CE executives said. Because of his CE industry background, Liao was expected at the outset of his tenure to increase the degree CableLabs works with consumer device makers. Some CE companies and the CEA want the FCC to propose AllVid rules for all pay-TV systems to work with plug-and-play devices without a CableCARD, while NCTA and members don’t want the rules. Yet operators have increased the number of integration deals with various CE companies, something Liao pointed to again last week in contending the rules are unnecessary (CD Sept 6 p4). CEA, DLNA and Green had no comment.

"There’s no disagreement on strategic vision” between Liao and his board, he said. Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt is heading the committee to search for a successor, Liao said. “Ideally, you'd like to have somebody serve for an extended time,” though “you don’t want it to be forever,” he said. “Because you always want new blood. But I think that the staff doesn’t like to see the change every couple, three years.” During the “relatively short period of time” Liao was at the group, he made “great” contributions and started new programs to expand cable operators’ broadband business and selling that service, phone and video to businesses, Britt said. He said Liao also boosted “cable’s ability to provide services to smart CE devices using IP technology.”

Between CableLabs and SCTE, “the collaboration has really stepped up significantly this past year,” said SCTE CEO Mark Dzuban. “This year really solidified” the mission shared by CableLabs, NCTA and SCTE, he said. “We're reducing silos between us” and any overlap between CableLabs and SCTE’s work, Dzuban said. “There are things we can do together that just make smart sense, and I am very optimistic that whoever comes on board, we can work it out,” he said of Liao’s successor.

"There’s no doubt” in Liao’s mind that CableLabs’ work with other groups in the cable industry and in other sectors “will only increase,” he said. “We've now moved to an era in which the technologies employed by the cable industry are not just employed by the cable industry.” He pointed to the CEA and Metro Ethernet Forum, which are “not cable-specific groups.” CableLabs’ office opening in San Francisco will work with “universities and venture-backed start-ups, to really tap into the innovation … not just throughout the cable industry,” Liao said.

Under Liao, CableLabs has held many “interop” events with the CE, Internet and other industries to privately work on technical issues, he and other executives said. Among the other focuses of CableLabs’ and cable operators work is expanding the presence of “whole home networking” devices that serve as a DVR, cable modem and wireless router in one. “During the next year or so, you're really going to continue to see that blossom,” Liao said of the devices and their interoperability being “extended to all these consumer devices.” Reducing the costs of cable modem termination systems and their power consumption will help spur deployment of DOCSIS technologies to deliver Internet content to the home, Liao said. “The beauty of IP -- it is not the most elegant protocol -- [is] the innovation that occurs, it’s a global technology. I can almost guarantee you that the cost will go down, and at CableLabs we want to accelerate that."

The increased presence of the CE industry in cable can be physically seen at the annual NCTA Cable Show and at the SCTE’s yearly Cable-Tec Expo, said NCTA and SCTE executives. The CableNet technology showcase sponsored by CableLabs and the NCTA at the Cable Show has grown in prominence in recent years, an NCTA spokesman said. And “you're going to see much more CE manufacturer participation in Expos in the future,” Dzuban said. “We're going to focus on CE solutions, both wired and wireless, at Expo starting this year, and growing in 2012, and I believe that’s been in support of CableLabs.” IPv6 has been also an area where “much training” is needed, Dzuban said.

CableLabs will need to keep paying attention to broadband transmission issues and Internet security, NCTA executives said. CableLabs “will need to continue to be involved in these different pieces, as technology continues to grow,” said NCTA Senior Vice President Bill Check. Other industries have tried to “duplicate it and replicate” CableLabs, “but haven’t really been able to do so,” he said. Check cited CableLabs’ work “with outside groups -- both manufacturers as well as outside standards organizations around the world.”