By: Mark Dzuban

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), a subsidiary of CableLabs^®, is pulling out all the stops for SCTE^® Cable-Tec Expo^® 2022, which will take place live, onsite, and in real life for the first time since 2019. Next month, the City of Brotherly Love will be hosting the annual marquee event for the industry we love, and the excitement to reunite in person with colleagues and competitors from around the world has been heating up all summer. Expo 2022 offers the unique opportunity to preview the emerging technologies and applications transforming the industry. Attendees can engage with industry CEOs, CTOs and a myriad of experts from within and outside of cable who will assemble to share key insights that will improve consumers’ lives and yield unmatched business results.

Known globally for nearly four decades as the preeminent venue for thought leadership, engineering innovation and dealmaking within the broadband telecommunications industry, Expo 2022 will be hosted in Philadelphia, September 19 to 22, chaired by industry leaders Comcast Cable President and CEO David Watson and Liberty Global Vice-chairman and CEO Michael Fries. Expo 2022 assembles more than 100 hours of learning with preeminent experts and thought leaders in addition to hundreds of innovative vendors with trailblazing technology solutions.

As always, Innovation Theater programming includes important conversations, exclusive presentations and fireside chats that are not to be missed. Dive into what is driving innovation in our industry, learn about expanding broadband service to rural areas, and check in on the convergence of change, culture, and innovation with the next gen DEI cable leadership.

Fall Technical Forum

Aligning with this year’s theme of “Creating Infinite Possibilities,” the volume and quality of papers submitted for the annual Fall Technical Forum is unprecedented, with subject matter experts preparing to discuss innovation in a showcase of current and forward-looking technologies and solutions helping to power the industry’s 10G platform and advance its technical foundation. A grand total of 127 papers will be presented, assembled into 57 sessions across 13 categories, as selected by the SCTE^® Cable-Tec Expo^® 2022 Program Committee, co-chaired by Comcast Cable SVP of Technology, Environments & Strategy Sherita Ceasar and Liberty Global VP of Technology Bill Warga.

Three new tracks have been added for Expo 2022. Attendees can learn how to activate the future with DevOps & Agile. A dozen papers will explore innovations in the second new category: Software Development, Automation, and Tooling. Sessions range from a broad spectrum of solutions for capacity expansion to looking at flexible software automation for dynamic DOCSIS delivery. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning gets its own track on the agenda this year, by popular demand. There have been independent sessions to explore AI/ML in prior years, but for Expo 2022 six sessions will showcase developments in AI/ML to improve everything from video services to field operations, customer experience and network planning. The most robust track is once again Wireline Access, with 30 papers presented over 13 different sessions.   

10G Avenue

Lining the corridor to the Innovation Theater this year will be 10G Avenue, making its Expo debut. Attendees will be flanked by a collection of some of the world’s most innovative technology companies that are paving the way toward 10G.

Finalists of the 10G Challenge will be featured along 10G Avenue, and winners will be announced during Expo 2022. Powered by CableLabs in collaboration with industry experts to inspire innovators to leverage the emerging 10G network, the Challenge was designed to support developing technologies, services and applications that rely on the network of the future. The 10G network is bringing higher Internet speeds, more security, lower latency and improved reliability. 10G is a new, powerful broadband network that serves as a platform for innovators to develop new solutions that impact the way we live, work, learn and play. Winners have been selected in all four categories.

Industry honors

Industry honors will be presented in person this year at Expo. Each year, the SCTE awards shine a spotlight on the excellent work being done in workforce development that is happening throughout the cable telecommunications industry. We look forward