A Special Supplement of CED Magazine. the a T of ADDRESS ILITY

THE MAGAZINE OF BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY/APRIL 1990

A special supplement of CED Magazine. THE A T OF ADDRESS ILITY

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THE PROBLEM Direct pickup interference 8 Subscribers who plug cable directly into their cable-ready TVs are plagued with ghosts and beats caused by poor quality consumer electronics. Yet subscribers almost universally blame the cable operator. Del Heller of Viacom Cable describes the problem and steps the industry can take to get the consumer electronics manufacturers' attention.

How the mess was created 12 The problems associated with interfacing cable-TV with consumer gear grew out of alack of communication between the two industries, according to Walt Ciciora of ATC. However, joint committees and regular communication has led not only to a reduction in the growth of problems, but some real solutions.

THE SOLUTIONS The evolution of the CATV converter 19 As more and more hardware has been introduced into American About the Cover: homes, the cable converter has had to work harder and harder Making CATV more compatible with to remain inconspicuous atop the television. CED Contributing consumer gear remains an elusive Editor George Sell provides an historical view of the efforts dream, but one worth pursuing. converter manufacturers have made to remain friendly with stereo TV, VCRs, cable-ready equipment and other gear.

The economic impact of the EIA MultiPort 25 A product that grew out of joint efforts by the EIA and NCTA, MultiPort offers along-term solution to the interface problem between the TV and VCR in ascrambled environment. But the product has seen limited acceptance because of numerous financial reasons. Claude Baggett of CableLabs examines these reasons and provides alittle perspective on the benefits of MultiPort.

Cable TVs' role in home automation 30 Much has been written about the automated 'home of tomorrow,' in which consumer devices can literally 'talk' to one another, but where does CATV fit in? Um Mock of the Electronic Industries Association explains what the Consumer Electronics Bus is, its status and how cable-TV is expected to fit in with it all.

Off-premise: coming full circle 33 Originally conceived more than adecade ago, off-premise addressability is hardly anew idea. But it is experiencing a A tangled web of interface needs, p. 12 resurgence in interest because it is friendly with subscribers. Jim Farmer of Scientific-Atlanta explains how S-A's new interdiction system works and the benefits it brings to operators and viewers alike.

Integrating electronics within the home 40 Jerrold Communications' approach to the problem of interfacing consumer and cable equipment is to integrate common functions within the home. Dan Moloney of Jerrold explains the concept and the progress being made on avariety of projects and products aimed at taking the hassle out of watching cable TV. The MultiPort issue, p. 25

4 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 THE MATRIX SYSTEM'

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e.n age-old specter continues to stalk a cable system cable country. Sightings of ghosts drop and observa- Are reported almost daily. These tions were made are particularly brazen fellers, appear- on the five local ing in cable customer's living rooms VHF stations in rather than hiding in the attic. the test market for These benign cable creatures result the presence of DPI from the almost simultaneous recep- ghosts. A well tion of the same VHF television broad- shielded set-top con- cast station. One signal is delivered by verter was first the cable system and the second, an used to determine identical image of the first, is picked if the cable system up by the cable customer's TV set was free of DPI directly off-air, because of poor electri- itself and the cable cal shielding in the TV set. Because of drop levels were propagation or timing differences be- adjusted to a uni- tween the two identical signals, one form signal level becomes the "ghost" or secondary of +5 dBmV. All image of the other. In cable parlance five television this phenomena is called DPI or Direct receivers had DPI ghosts on the local Pickup Interference. A normal television picture. Photo courtesy of NCTI VHF channels, A converter helps ranging in inten- sity from slight to Ironically, in these enlightened times severe. when off-premises and on-premises tech- The ambient nology and even the MultiPort ap- field strengths of proach is seen as the answer to the the five VHF sta- consumer interface dilemma, the only tions at the test effective antidote for DPI is the much site, which was ap- maligned set-top converter. proximately 1.5 The DPI problem is apart of cable's miles from the heritage, and set-top converters were transmit tower, used as an early preventive measure ranged in inten- for the problem. Other areas of early sity from 200 mil- incompatibility between aTV receiver livolts per meter and a cable TV system were channel to slightly in ex- tuning capabilities, input signal level cess of one volt per tolerances, and scrambled cable serv- meter. These ambi- ices. ent signal levels In 1982, a Joint EIA/NCTA Engi- are typical to those neering Committee was formed to work experienced by ca- on these issues. Represented on this ble TV customers A leading ghost, often created by direct pickup interference. in this particular committee were various consumer elec- Photo courtesy of NCTI tronics manufacturers and cable TV market. companies. The lengthy work of three compatible TV or VCR, A 1 volt per A follow-up test was conducted with subcommittees eventually produced a meter proposal has been "on the table" these same television receivers in an- channel identification and tuning stan- since 1987. Lacking an applicable U.S. other cable TV system, by additional dard called IS-6 (currently being up- standard, current cable compatible TVs members of the ELVNCTA committee, dated); the MultiPort descrambler in- and VCRs are built to a CanAdian with similar results. terface, now called EIA Standard 563; shielding standard of 100 millivolts per and ayet to be completed RF interface meter. Confusing results standard called IS-23. One segment of IS-23 deals with the Some performance tests The five test receivers were then issue of RF shielding in consumer subjected to a series of shielding tests electronics equipment. This RF shield- In 1984, under the sponsorship of the in aTV manufacturer's TEM cell. lbst ing standard relates to the DPI per- Joint ELVNCTA Engineering Commit- results were inconclusive in that no formance characteristics of a cable tee, DPI performance tests were con- direct correlations could be made in all ducted on five then-current brands and cases between the results of the field By Del Heller, Vice President of models of cable compatible TVs. Each tests and the TEM cell measurements. Engineering, Viacom Cable test receiver was connected in turn to However, the various tests did demon-

8 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 IMTCCCDE NCE The

strate to the television manufacturers' specifically related to DPI trouble. representatives that a DPI problem Our experience has also shown that hottest existed and that new receiver designs many customers voluntarily accept should be explored. Since that time a slight to moderate DPI in order to moderate improvement in DPI per- retain the convenience of their TV's topics... formance has been seen in some televi- remote control capability and either sion receivers. reject the option of a set-top converter to eliminate the problem or never call Survey says us about their DPI in the first place. In conjunction with our internal In 1988 the NCTA Engineering survey, ambient field strength meas- The latest Committee requested that member com- urements of the local VHF stations panies perform a DPI survey of cable were made at random locations in these compatible receivers in their custom- six systems. Ambient signal strengths technical ers' homes as part of their routine ranged from 658 millivolts per meter service work. Twelve MS0s, represent- to 50 millivolts per meter at distances ing 134 participating cable TV sys- from 1 mile to 8 miles from the news... tems, responded to the survey; 1,894 transmit locations. In five of the six survey forms were returned and 633, systems, over 75 percent of our cable or 33 percent of the television receivers customers reside within these distances included in the survey, exhibited DPI of the local VHF transmitters. on one or more VHF channels. What was particularly surprising Special Since many of the television receiv- was that although the sixth system is ers included in the survey were early 24 to 27 miles distant from the VHF model cable compatible receivers (pre- transmitter locations, the ambient sig- supplements 1985) that may not have met the 100 nal tests produced field strength read- millivolt per meter shielding standard, ings ranging from 6to 50 millivolts per the television manufacturers requested meter, which caused DPI problems on and that the survey list be purged of these anumber of customer's TV sets. early model receivers. Eleven of the 18 major television receiver manufacturers Need cooperative efforts guides... represented in the field survey responded with alist of television models If we are to see any improvements whose initial manufacturing date be- in the RF shielding of cable compatible gan after January 1985. TVs and VCRs, an overwhelming When the 1988 survey list was amount of evidence indicating the revised, 70 (33 percent) of the remain- extent of the DPI problem in the cable Look to the ing 269 TVs had a DPI problem. industry must be presented to the Several of the manufacturers not re- consumer electronics manufacturers. sponding to the request for model The existing 100 millivolt per meter industry's manufacturing dates represented asub- shielding standard is not adequate for stantial portion of the initial receiver many cable markets. count. These manufacturers were not Another national DPI survey, under technical included in the revised list. the sponsorship of the NCTA or Cable- Labs, with wide support from the cable Viacom's own research industry is needed. Consumer electron- leader to ics distributors and dealers must be A recent two-month survey of post educated about the problem, as well. January 1985 manufactured cable com- Although the cable industry has usu- keep you patible TV receivers in six of Viacom ally avoided the recommendation or Cables' systems found 145 TVs with endorsement of particular brands or DPI problems during routine service models of TVs or VCRs; perhaps it is up-to-date. calls. Since our annualized service call time to develop a list of products that rate averages 17 percent in these six perform acceptably when connected to systems, with a270,000 customer base, amodern cable TV system. we might expect to find about 870 customers with DPI problems in the Problem will continue course of one year. Although the mini-survey suggests Any cable delivery technology that that only 1.9 percent of our customers is dependent upon the customer's TV in these six systems may experience or VCR for tuning capabilities such as DPI problems, our experience has shown off-premises, MultiPort or trap sys- amuch larger problem than this. Since tems, will continue to be plagued with Read CED. our DPI tests were incidental to the this problem. The only "ghostbuster" primary reasons for the service call, the we currently have is the set-top con- majority of the service calls were not verter/descrambler. •

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 11 HISTORY The co nsumer electron i

he consumer electronics interface have become very complicated. increases the likelihood of implementa- with cable is aproblem which vexes The loss of convenience is evident tion errors which will deprive the Tsubscribers, cable system manage- every time cable is used. It manifests subscriber of the full functionality of ment and technologies. No one will itself primarily through the remote the cable service or his consumer argue about that. How serious a prob- control. Prior to the cable installation, electronics products. This further con- lem is it? How did we get into this the TV's and VCR's remote control was tributes to the loss of convenience of situation? What are the options? And ahandy convenience. But when acable use. is anything being done about it? converter is installed, the subscriber In the past, there was a lot of finger has to deal with multiple remotes; one Cable-ready, simple but severe pointing over who is to blame. Cable to turn the TV on and tune it to channel people felt that consumer electronics 3, another to select cable channels, and The requirements for a consumer manufacturers created the "cable- back to the TV's remote to adjust electronics product to be cable-ready ready TV" just to increase profits volume or mute the sound. are simple but severe. The first require- without regard for the subscriber's The VCR provides the most frustra- ment is that the product must tune the needs. The consumer electronics indus- tion in ascrambled cable environment. channels of interest to the subscriber. try saw cable as uncoordinated and The second requirement is that a lacking standards. A consumer elec- quality picture must be provided. tronics product that works fine in one The first part is obvious. All chan- system is a disaster in another. There nels which interest the subscriber must were areas where the two industries be available without the need of an were in genuine conflict. The requirements external converter. If just one channel Some cable operators introduced re- needs the external device, the sub- mote controls as ameans of generating for aconsumer scriber might just as well have a new revenue streams. But this practice monitor! The less obvious aspect is interfered with the subscribers' ability electronics product providing the quality picture. There to use purchased remote controls and to be cable-ready seem to be three major threats to with the salability of high end TV picture quality: 1) direct pickup inter- receivers. For the consumer electronics are simple ference, (DPI) 2) tuner overload and 3) industry, this was a serious matter. noise. We'll say more of this later. The business could not survive if only but severe. The first requirement for compatibil- low end products were purchased. ity can be met in several ways. If the The greatest burden fell on the cable system uses traps for signal subscriber. Confusion, frustration and security or if the subscriber is simply anger were common reactions. The With aconverter ahead of the VCR, the not interested in the scrambled chan- situation appeared hopeless until the VCR timer can no longer select the nels, a descrambler will not be needed cable and the consumer electronics channels to be recorded. Only the in front of the TV. Likewise, if a form industry came to the realization that channel originally selected on the con- of descrambler is used which plugs into our subscriber and their customer were verter can be recorded without further the back of the TV, a set-top descram- one and the same person. If we worked intervention. A potential solution is bler will not be required. Two examples together, both industries and the con- the introduction of converters with of this situation are the pioneering sumer could benefit. That work has a timers or converter remote controls Zenith Base-TAC product and the EIA good beginning, but a long way to go with built-in timers. MultiPort. More on this later. before the installed base of problems As a practical matter, this approach The second requirement is met if the are resolved. introduces another series of steps which subscriber does not live near a TV must be executed flawlessly if a suc- transmitter or if he has awell shielded The problem is fundamental cessful recording is to be made. The receiver. Otherwise a converter/ subscriber is not looking for a chal- descrambler is needed ahead of the TV The problem seems to have two lenge to his mental abilities as he tries tuner. The remote control becomes fundamental aspects. First, the sub- to set up his equipment to record a almost useless and the subscriber is scriber often experiences a significant program just before rushing out the frustrated. loss of convenience in the use of his door to an unexpected event. Notice that this is a situational consumer electronics equipment when The complication of installation oc- definition. If asubscriber who had only it is connected to cable. Second, the curs only occasionally. It is first noticed basic cable service now upgrades to installation and reconfiguration of con- after the initial introduction of cable, HBO in a scrambled system, his for- sumer electronics products and cable and then appears each time a new merly cable-ready TV will lose func- consumer electronics product is added tionality when a set-top descrambler By Walter Ciciora, Vice President of to the home entertainment center or is added. Likewise, if he moves closer Technology, American Television and after moving furniture for cleaning or to a TV transmitter, a TV receiver Communications painting. The complicated installation which previously worked satisfactorily

12 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 HISTORY interface with cable

Photo by Don Riley CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 13 may start to exhibit ghosts. A con- information from undesired signals to recording circuits and less is bypassed verter may be required to eliminate the watched channel. Since the off-air to the TV receiver. This does two this problem. situation has few channels, the usual things. It helps compensate for noise I've often said that one of the main consumer electronics tuner is better deficiencies in the recording process problems with the "cable-ready" TV able to cope. If the tuner has not been and it cripples the TV display which is is that nothing in life is ever really upgraded for the cable application, normally the standard of comparison. ready. Just as things appear to be difficulties may result. Most cable systems have not been almost ready, something changes and There is an unfortunate trap in all designed to accommodate this trickery. the readiness is jeopardized. Recogniz- this. The subscriber who has poor Cable signals may also be split to feed ing the negative implications of cable- pictures when watching the off-air asecond set. By this time the pictures ready, some manufacturers have cho- channels through his cable system is are quite noisy. An off-air comparison sen the term, "cable compatible" in- likely to get an external antenna. then results in serious trouble. stead. But "compatible" is a rubber When he switches to the external In the case where set-top boxes have word which is often stretched to meet antenna, he may get acceptable, even been added after the system was built, the needs of the moment. great, pictures. Switching back to ca- the problem is further aggravated. In the strict sense, compatible means ble, he finds poor quality video. The Set-top boxes generally have a poorer that two things—like a cable system obvious conclusion is that there is noise figure than TV tuners. The and a cable compatible TV—work to- something wrong with the cable serv- premium channel which goes through gether perfectly without loss of func- aset-top, is split for the second TV set tionality on the part of either. In the and then is tape recorded has strong loose sense, compatible means they impediments placed in the way of video both run on electricity. Unfortunately, quality. compatible is used in the loose sense Ifrequently am asked to recommend more often than in the strict sense. I've often said that TV receiver models to friends. My Initially, being cable-ready added suggestion is this: I encourage the little cost to a TV. As an inexpensive one of the main would-be purchaser to find a retailer feature on apremium electronic tuner, problems with the who is on the same cable system he is it only required memory space in the on and a location nearby. Demand to microcomputer which controls the tuner. 'cable-ready' TV see the receiver connected to cable and The tuner was a big improvement over check all the off-air channels. If it plays the old fashioned mechanical "clunker." is that nothing in life well in the store, it likely will do so at The extra cost was for the improved home. The converse is also true. Poor tuner, not for the cable-ready feature. is ever really ready. performance on the showroom floor Later, as more and more channels portends trouble at home. were added, a small increment in cost The problem with this suggestion is was incurred as anther set of tuning that many TV retailers either do not diodes were added and more memory ice. There are essentially no subscrib- have a cable drop or they split and was required for the microcomputer. ers who are sophisticated enough to amplify it so much that their signals Note that electronically controlled tun- understand that the consumer elec- are awful. It would be prudent for cable ing is mandatory for practical tuning tronics product may be at fault. operators to work closely with retail- of cable channels. Can you imagine a Therefore, the consumer electronics ers. A complementary drop and techni- 105-channel mechanical tuner? An auto- manufacturers get no corrective feed- cal advice to ensure quality pictures mobile steering wheel would be needed back. They may not even know they would go a long way to ensuring that to turn the dial! have a problem. Conversely, there is subscribers buy receivers which will Returning to the challenge of picture no way for aTV manufacturer to gain play well in the home when connected quality, we need to consider tuner a sales advantage by investing in to cable. performance. better sheilding. It is not easy to The cable marketing department DPI is the result of inadequate demonstrate this phenomena on the should consider joint promotions. The shielding and is most severe in off-air sales floor. Ironically, the stronger the TV retailer could become an important channels which are carried on the same off-air signal, the more likely there is cable representative. A cable system channel number. Since signal propaga- to be a significant disparity between which carries stereo TV sound on tion through the cable is slower than the cable delivered and the antenna several of its channels could be agreat through the air, the stronger cable delivered picture. The strong signal help in stepping up the retailer's buyer signal is delayed. The off-air direct make the antenna picture sparkle to astereo set. There is mutual advan- pick-up results in apre-ghost which is while bleeding through when the TV tage to be gained from cable and very annoying. In an Harmonically receiver is connected to cable. consumer electronics retailers working Related Carrier (HRC) system, the Noise is more of a problem with together. beats between the transmitted carrier VCRs. In general, the VCR splits the and the cable carrier cause severe signal so some of it goes to the record- What caused this problem? diagonal stripes which can render the ing circuits while the rest is bypassed video unwatchable. DPU is the major to the TV. This allows simultaneous Originally there was very little diffi- tuner technical problem in current recording of one channel while viewing culty between cable and consumer products. another. electronics products. Both were rela- Miner overload results in annoying A subterfuge exists in some less tively unsophisticated from atechnical patterns in the viewed picture caused expensive VCRs. The signal is split perspective. There was little need for by tuner non-linearities transferring unevenly. More signal goes to the the two industries to communicate

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with each other. Things worked well. will have the sense that, in most cases, products and cable systems. But as the technology of the two he can do without cable. It is not The NCTA Engineering Committee industries separately evolved, numer- practical to have full converter/ recognizes the importance of these long ous options became available to the descramblers on top of each receiver in term efforts. But it is not satisfied that designers of consumer electronics prod- the home. they are adequate. 'lb alleviate (elimi- ucts and of cable systems. Without nate is not likely) the problems in the standards and without vigorous com- What's being done? shorter term, a subcommittee was munications between the two indus- formed under Dave Large, then of Gill tries, designers in both industries made Acknowledging the root of the prob- Cable. It has compiled and analyzed a a variety of choices which were per- lem is the separate evolution of the set of connection diagrams to aid cable fectly valid taken one at a time. The technologies of the two industries, an technicians and subscribers in obtain- trouble arose when these choices were important steop toward asolution is to ing the best results from their collec- expected to function together. build bridges between the industries' tion of equipment. Cable's contribution to the problem engineers. This will facilitate aconver- This set of diagrams is available includes a variety of frequency plans gence of the technologies. That is the from the NCTA Science and 'Ibchnol- in different cable systems and the use motivation behind the EIA/NCTA Joint ogy department in Washington D.C. It of scrambling. Scrambling is a funda- Engineering Committee. The EIA is is much toa long to be reproduced here. mental technique for restricting access Unfortunately, that fact reveals that to cable programming and thereby even it is not simple. insuring that it can be sold. It is likely that scrambling will be part of the CableLabs cable tool kit for the foreseeable future. Perhaps the most None the less, it must be recognized The EIA/NCTA Joint Engineering that, more than any other factor, important consumer Committee remains hobbled by the scrambling as done in the past, contrib- dependence on volunteer help. All who utes the consumer electronics interface electronics trend has serve on the committee have full-time problems. jobs. The committee effort must be The consumer electronics industry's no technical component. shoehorned into a busy schedule with principal contribution to the problem a variety of demands. In 1988, Cable- is the failure to adequately shield the It is simply Labs, an industry R&D consortium, internal circuits of receivers from strong was formed. Now for the first time, off-air signals. The retail segment of proliferation. full-time staff can be assigned to work the consumer electronics business added on solving the consumer electronics to the difficulties by less-than-clear interface problems. The other volun- advertising. Certain other actions, such the Electronic Industries Association teer work goes on, but it is coordinated as the addition of new features (which which represents the manufacturers, with the substantial efforts CableLabs incidentally place additional demands while the National Cable Television is able to bring to bear. on cable systems) are a proper con- Association's Engineering Committee CableLabs has a variety of projects sumer electronics business practice represents the technical elements of in the consumer electronics area under which, for the most part, benefit the cable. the leadership of Claude Baggett. A consumers. This committee was formed eight symposium on consumer electronics These actions are necessary for sur- years ago to provide a forum for was held during the last week of vival in the highly competitive con- engineers who design comsumer elec- February. sumer electronics business. Examples tronics and engineers who design and include the "Picture-in-Picture" (PIP) operate cable systems. These technolo- Standards efforts feature which places a small second gies communicate on important techni- image on the screen along with the cal issues and increase their under- There are three levels of applicable main picture. It is offered in many of standing of each other's problems and standards. The most mature standards the new "digital" TVs and VCRs. PIP constraints. A secondary purpose is to are in the "RS" series. RS means requires two descramblers when the arrive at technical standards for the "recommended standard." Perhaps the subscriber wants both the large and the design of consumer electronics products most familiar example of this series is small image to come from scrambled and cable systems which will facilitate the RS232 standard used with comput- channels. Manufacturers will continue satisfactory performance. ers and data communications devices. such innovation in the pursuit of a It must be recognized that these are A step along the way to "RS" is viable market share. Cable will have relatively long term efforts. The uncou- "IS," standing for "interim stan- to be nimble on its feet and accommo- pled technical evolution of the two dard". An IS standard is issued on a date these technical advances. industries has gone on for quite a trial basis for a year or two. During Perhaps the most important con- number of years. More than 200 mil- this period, manufacturers attempt sumer electronics trend has no techni- lion television sets have been placed designs in order to more fully under- cal component. It is simply prolifera- in U.S. homes and thousands of cable stand the consequences of the stan- tion. As prices continue to erode, more systems have been built without the dard's details. After the trial period, and more TVs and VCRs will be found benefit of adequate communications. the standard is amended to include in the home. If cable service is to There is no escaping the fact that it learning from the past year and voted maintain its value to subscribers, it will take time to overcome incompati- upon by the EIA for promotion to RS must be available on most of the home's bilties built up over such along period status. receivers. Otherwise the subscriber in such a large installed base of The least mature phase in the devel-

16 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 opment of a standard is the "Recom- a fair method of indicating capacity to ity: 1) the TV or VCR must be able to mended Practice." It is intended to the consumer have been agreed upon. be connected directly to the cable indicate a direction for manufacturers Before the channelization standard, without a converter or descrambler to choose where there may be many cable companies used numbers and ahead of it, and 2) the internal circuits reasonable approaches. letters to designate channels in a of the TV or VCR must not pick up It is important to realize that these variety of ways. There simply were a off-air signals directly. The IS-23 stan- standards are voluntary. Neither the dard is intended to set technical specifi- NCTA nor the EIA have enforcement cations that define what is required for powers. Adherences to the standards aconsumer electronics product to avoid depends on the good faith of the DPI problems in the majority of cable companies involved. it is important to installations. The channelization standard exem- Additionally, IS-23 deals with signal plifies the process of standards crea- realize that these levels, connector types and the allow- tion. Engineers from the two industries able level of signals back fed into the met and educated each other on the standards are cable. The standard went up for vote various methods used to allocate fre- at the end of 1986. TV manufacturers quencies in the cable spectrum to voluntary, found its direct pick-up requirement channel designations. A debate ensued difficult to achieve. They've asked for over the pros and cons. Some questions further clarification and compelling were deferred until more experience number of equally logical ways of doing evidence of the need for such a severe was gathered. The interim standard this and no mechanism to coordinate standard. This does not mean that was issued in May 1983. Manufac- between those making the choices. A nothing has happened in the mean turers then evolved their product de- serious consequence of this situation is time. signs toward compliance with IS-6. that it became impossible for consumer The engineers who participated in IS-6 was approved. In late 1989, the electronics product manufacturers to the committee have informally made committee took up the issue of updat- make receivers which complied to mul- improvements in their designs. There ing IS-6. The goal is to extend IS-6 into tiple channelization methods. Now, has been a noticeable improvement in the 1 GHz range and anticipate what with IS-6, cable practice and consumer DPI performance over the years the high definition television might mean electronics design can converge over committee has been in existence. One for frequency assignments. time to the benefit of the subscriber, major market share brand has made The order in which channels are As mentioned above, there are two dramatic improvements. Beneficial re- added when capacity is expanded and requirements for true cable campatibil- sults are obtained even when a stan-

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Reader Service Number 7

Reader Service Number 6 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 17 dard cannot be created because of years by heavy users. The rotating Special, high tech traps are installed differences of opinion. Nonetheless, heads are a critical mechanical ele- in a "tamper evident" cabinet on the work continues on reaching a DPI ment in an otherwise electronic sys- side of the house. Initially, the ap- standard. tem. They clog and wear, causing proach is not addressable. However, expensive repair bills. In many cases, the "hooks" have been installed in the The EA MultiPort the cost of repair rivals the cost of anew design to allow future upgrading to unit. Since the purchase of aVCR more addressibility if the business needs Perhaps the standard which has the than doubles the trouble with the dictate. As with the off-premises ap- most potential to solve consumer elec- consumer electronics interface, it is proach, the subscriber gets a broad- tronics interface problems is the IS-15 particularly appealing to find that the band feed with authorized channels in Decoder Interface Standard which is EIA MultiPort can bring relief when the clear. The consumer electronics also known as the EIA MultiPort. The taken as an option on anew VCR. interface is well served by this ap- standard is embodied as a 20-pin plug proach. on the back of a television receiver or Other approaches In both the on- and off-premises VCR which accepts aset-back descram- approach, the consumer friendly pur- bler. It has been adopted and endorsed If we think further about the above pose can be frustrated if the consumer by both the EIA and the NCTA. It is mentioned two requirements for com- electronics product is susceptible to now known as the EIA 563 standard. patibility in the consumer electronics direct pick-up. DPI can become a The principal advantage of the Mul- spoiler which requires a converter tiPort is that it makes a truly cable- ahead of the TV or VCR in strong ready receiver possible in a scrambled signal environments. environment. Because descrambling is accomplished after the receiver's tuner, The principal A strategic view the consumer electronics product can be directly connected to cable. The advantage of the As the cable industry prepares for subscriber regains use of his remote increased competition from other deliv- control. MultiPort is that it ery media, it is important to maximize In the case of aVCR, the timer again all its possible advantages. Other de- becomes useful. It can again control makes atruly cable- livery media that depend on digital or channel selection an turn the VCR on FM modulation of their signals have a and off. An important secondary ad- ready receiver possible. distinct disadvantage compared to ca- vantage is a significant reduction in ble. iblevision receivers and VCRs are designed for AM inputs. When the cost to the cable operator. Set-back interface, we realize that there are signal arrives in a different form, a descramblers will be 40 percent to 60 other methods for avoiding another conversion is required. That conversion percent the cost of set-top units. It tuner ahead of the TV or VCR. These invariably requires a box to be put on becomes practical to provide two units, methods are based on providing a top of the TV or VCR. one for the TV and another for the broadband feed into the subscriber's This is fundamentally consumer elec- VCR. For the first time, it's possible to home. "Interdiction" is applied to the tronics unfriendly. Cable is the only watch one scrambled channel while channels the subscriber has not chosen. major multichannel media which can recording a different scrambled chan- All other channels are "in the clear". be designed to not require this interfer- nel at an affordable price. Two methods are currently being ac- ence with the convenience of use of the A practical limitation of the EIA tively pursued in the cable industry: a consumer electronics products. It is MultiPort is that is requires the sub- jamming method and atrapping method. important for cable to recognize this scriber to purchase a new MultiPort- Scientific-Atlanta and The Paragon, advantage and to maximize it. equipped TV receiver or VCR. This an MSO encompassing many of the won't happen overnight. Unfortunately, former Group W cable systems, are Conclusion TVs last too long. The typical life is 12 developing an off-premises technology to 14 years. New receivers are bought which jams the channels the subscriber A lot of progress has been made. every seven years with the old unit put does not want. In addition, the entire Communications between the cable in the basement or donated to one of service may be turned off at the tap. It and the consumer electronics indus- the kids who grew up with it. is afully addressable technology. tries has increased and improved by Significant penetration will take From a consumer electronics inter- several orders of magnitude. The result time. However, the subscriber who face perspective, its virtue is that no will be greater satisfaction with cable feels he needs asolution can contribute tuners are put in front of the TV or service as enjoyed through subscriber to it by making a purchase. Even that VCR. The subscriber's purchased re- owned consumer electronics products. was unavailable just a few short years mote controls do their intended job and However, we must have realistic ago. At the present time, more than 1 the VCR timer is fully functional. expectations. There are about 200 mil- million MultiPort equipped receivers While there are some technical hur- lion television receivers in American are in consumers' hands. Two of the dles, they do not seem overwhelming. homes that were designed before stan- three major market share descramblers The principal challenge with this ap- dards were accomplished. It will take are available in MultiPort versions proach is economic. Because the hard- time for these to be replaced with more with the third brand promised for ware must be installed outside the compatible models. But that eventual mid-year. home of every subscriber, the up-front goal would have never been attainable The situation is dramatically differ- cost is aserious consideration. had it not been for the work of the ent with VCRs. Because they wear out, The trapping method is featured by EIA/NCTA Joint Engineering Commit- VCRs are replaced every three or four TCI in its "on-premises" approach. tee and CableLabs. •

18 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 INTRODUCING STARPORT;T THE CABLE SYSTEM THAT'S TURNING 1 ADDRESSABLE TECHNOLOGY INSIDE OUT.

Now there's acable system that goes outside the normal realm of addressable technology. Because it goes on the outside of a subscriber's home in asecure, weatherized enclosure. STARPORT is the alternative on-premises addressable system that gives you remote control of up to four pay services plus disconnect right from your own location. So once you've made initial connections you never need to roll atruck to make more. And since each cable household or multiple-dwelling unit uses and powers its own STARPORT, your per subscriber costs are significantly reduced. Consumer friendliness, however, is increased. STARPORT's transparent delivery system provides all the services that a subscriber chooses through one wire. So viewers can use their Ns' electronic features, like picture-in-picture and on-screen displays, without cable complications. What's more, STARPORT's clear signal lets subscribers route your service to all their cable-ready Ns with no additional converter equipment. But the best thing about STARPORT is that it's from Jerrold, the leader in cable television technology. With Jerrold, you always get equal amounts of innovation and quality plus an extra measure of customer commitment. So call Jerrold today and get an

Fully-configured STARPORT inside line on the technology unit within an on-premises that's turning the Cable N enclosure. industry inside out STARPORT. For more information contact Jerrold Communications, General Instrument Corporation, 2200 Byberry Road, Hatboro, PA 19040, 215-674-4800 GENERAL INSTRUMENT ICOMMUNICATI()NSERROLD ora,„ihnn a radd Reader Service Number 8 CONVERTERS T The evolution of the CAW converter How the 'little black box' became a high-tech addressable descrambling 'terminal'

early a quarter of a century ago, letin in 1975 regarding this and other cable subscriber's response when he converters were introduced for the aspects of compatibility with CATV. discovered, after purchasing atop-of-the- Nfirst time. Until then, television However, the IF jumper was not dis- line and expensive TV, that the special reception technology developed entirely cussed and the bulletin never reached conveniences of the remote control in the over-the-air broadcast environ- the status of even an Interim Standard were rendered almost useless by acable ment with almost no coordination with which would have been subject to connection. And, when they attempted cable TV delivery systems or any other rigorous public review. to introduce a videocassette recorder potential uses for the TV display com- However, receiver manufacturers did with its own complex features into this ponent. begin to provide 75 ohm coaxial input mix, there was undoubtedly some hair Converters were first introduced in ports. Possibly motivated as much by pulling in the family viewing area. the Manhattan Borough of New York a desire to improve color reception Although initially intended as an to overcome the direct pickup interfer- off-air as to relieve the cable direct interim solution to an interface prob- ence from seven VHF stations trans- pickup conundrum, this helped some. lem that was not expected to remain, mitting from the Empire State Build- But, because of design flaws, many of the low-tech and ubiquitous converter ing. Hubert Schlafly, then engineering these ports turned out to be more or box has operated well for the industry vice president at ibleprompter, at- less ineffective. and has evolved, along with the re- tempted to persuade TV set manufac- Perhaps the most disturbing misun- ceiver, to become a very complex de- turers to provide an externally accessi- derstanding between the two indus- vice. ble IF jumper so the converter could tries came when set manufacturers And, although it may someday be be connected directly to the receiver's began marketing the the so-called and replaced by MultiPort or some form of IF instead of through the leaky 300 much touted "cable-ready" television off-premise conversion scheme, the set- ohm TV antenna terminals and an- set, which was "ready" only for non- top converter (or as some prefer to refer other tuner. premium cable customers. The receiver to it, an "addressable converter/decoder/ As a result of the research into the folks genuinely believed they had cre- descrambler terminal," reflecting its matter of immunity to interference ated the cable-compatible receiver eve- high tech nature), still serves millions from strong local co-channel signals ryone wanted. They were incredulous of consumers. by the Cable Iblevision Advisory Com- when they discovered cable operators mittee to the FCC, the Electronic continuing to install the noxious con- Don't touch that dial Industries Association published abul- verter boxes even in front of cable- ready sets. Convincing the cable subscriber to By George Sell, Contributing Editor This is not to mention the angry leave the set tuned to one channel,

1979 Ham- mote. Milestones in lin/Regal digi- 1984 Oak offers Sigma baseband tal converters encryption, non-volatile memory, with :"1-..mmillINOMIZ". converter evolution with remote volume con- Jerrold's Starfone add- control debut. trol, last 1969 Teleprompter uses the first on IPPV unit 1982 Jer- channel re- —‘e converters to over- rold offers automatic frequency control call, and pa- come off-air Manhat- converters. rental con- tan interferance. De- 1982 Oak's TC-56 converter with trol. vices tune non-stan- infrared remote control, favorite chan- 1984 dard channels. nels memory is introduced. CATV in- 1976 TV receiver 1983 Jerrold develops Starcom V dustry im- manufacturers in- baseband addressable converters with pacted by Jerrold's stall 75 ohm input remote control and VCR timers. BTSC ste- Zen'th's VCR interface Starsound MTS ports. switcher 1984 Broadcast MTS stereo intro- reo recom- stereo adapter 1977 Pioneer devel- duced. Many converters were already mendations. ops two-way addressable converters for compatible including S-A, Pioneer, 1985 Stereo-capable and cable-ready Warner's QUBE systems with wired Panasonic and Hamlin. TV sets hit market. Converter sales remote control, parental discretion, 1984 Scientific-Atlanta develops con- begin a steady decline at approxi- and power sensor. verters with VCR programmable re- mately 10 percent per year.

20 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 usually either channel 3 or 4 Then came the videocas- as determined by the cable sette player/recorder. Where operator, was an early prob- do you put it? Enterprising lem. For almost 30 years, cabinet makers saw an opportu- consumers had changed chan- nity here and some made a nels by reaching for the ro- small fortune designing and tary selector knob on the set. building units for home enter- This habit was hard to break. tainment centers. There was All household members had 11 s aspace for the set, a shelf for to be made aware of how cable 74 -' ui'lsewtch the VCR, some shelves for the service worked because as stereo components, acompart- soon as someone attempted ment for records and tapes, to change channels the old and maybe a shelf for the way, they often thought the converter. Or, perhaps the system had malfunctioned and converter might be sand- were on the phone to the cable wiched somewhere among the company requesting aservice bowling trophies and plastic call. flower arrangements. But many cable systems And, to get it all to work did experience actual and fre- properly, it seemed at the quent outages in the early time that two converters days and viewers often discon- might be necessary, one for nected the converter at those the TV set and one for the times. Because of this, some VCR. How else could the operators introduced an A/B consumer watch one channel switch, allowing selection be- while recording another? How tween the converter and an could the viewer deal with off-air rabbit ear or roof top recording scrambled premium antenna. channels while watching either a non-scrambled or The matching transformer scrambled channel? Introduce the video game and you really Matching the converter's got aconfusing mess! 75 ohm output to the re- The first difficulty of inte- ceiver's 300 ohm VHF input grating the VCR with the TV required a transformer. And Zenith's SuperSwitch allows pay-TV subscribers to use their set and converter was wiring since the older TV sets, espe- remotes without flipping amanual AIR switch configurations. The question cially black and white receivers, gener- ing with two fine tuners was an early was where to place the VCR in the ated strong electromagnetic fields from problem. Adjacent channel filtering in wiring line-up. The solution, albeit an the picture tube yoke that interfered the earlier sets was poor. Lacking unsatisfactory one, was to integrate the with the converter's tuning, better automatic frequency control (a later VCR between the converter and the shielding of the RF tuner was required. innovation) both in the set and in the set. The incoming drop cable was Distortion caused by additional chan- converter, either the set or the con- connected to the converter's input port. nel loading was difficult for converter verter, or both, tended to drift off From the output port of the converter, manufacturers to conquer. Also, work- frequency. acable was run to the input port of the VCR. The VCR's output port had 1985 Pioneer nals to TV and VCR. another cable, then, leading to the has its BA-5000 1990 Oak's Sigma 2000 line with input port of the TV set, if it had one. line with VCR tim- videophile options including an RF This meant, of course, that most of ers. bypass the control features of both the set and 1985 Scientific- switch mak- the VCR might be rendered useless. If Atlanta brings ing con- the VCR did not pass the signal S.A.'s approach to out the VCR verter trans- transparently when turned off, you VCR switcher switcher. parent un- were in real trouble. Many cable opera- 1986 Oak's Sigma line now has VCR less watch- tors offered VCR wiring along with time shifter, on-screen display. ing scram- initial installation of cable and some 1987 Oak Optional version with bled chan- specified how all VCR wiring should integral MTS decoder, addressable vol- nel or if set be done by their subscribers. ume controlled left/right baseband audio has no re- Once connected, customer service Oak's Micro 550, a550 and video outputs. mote. reps and service tech's headaches were MHz, 83-channel remote 1987 Pioneer offers the SmartFte- 1991 just beginning. Given the multiplicity control converter mote, programmable for various fea- CATV in- of wiring configurations, much of the tures. dustry develops switched bypass trans- time a service call actually took was 1988 Pioneer's BA-6000 line now has parency, MultiPort and off- or on- in first figuring out just how they did it. VCR Filter, providing both descram- premise conversion/interdiction And, the VCR, in many homes, bled and non-scrambled broadband sig- schemes. either introduced the remote control for

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 21 Ile

the first time or introduced a second ally handle up to 440 MHz. introduce stereo-compatible baseband remote control, thus inaugurating the With the competition hot and heavy, addressable converters and a retro -fit multiple remote control problem. 'fry- and advances coming seemingly every program for modifying earlier models. ing to find the correct remote control month, some manufacturers sought to Passing stereo signals, after BTSC among the newspapers, magazines and avoid rapid obsolescence by making stereo recommendations were an- empty bags of chips or popcorn on the their units modular for future upgrad- nounced, was not a problem for many coffee table, or down in the cushion of ing. One such unit was Scientific- converters, especially RF converters. the sofa, became an unhappy evening Atlanta's Series 6700. And ibxscan Descrambling systems were the prob- happening in households across Amer- was promoting its TRACS system, an lem as well as the baseband low pass ica. early version of pole-mounted, off- filters employed to limit the audio to a Since the old electro-mechanical con- premise conversion. maximum of 15 kHz and to minimize verters took away the functionality of There was much talk about ad- distortion. BTSC signals traveling the TV set's and VCR's remote controls, vanced features such as videotext, through baseband converters had their converter manufacturers began a har- interactive shopping and banking from pilot, stereo difference channel, SAP ried effort to deal with the problem. the home, opinion polling, computer and any other subcarriers stripped by When Warner Cable proposed its QUBE interfacing and "smart homes." These the low pass filter. If volume levels systems, it looked to Pioneer to develop were the heady times when cable was were set high enough, enough of the astate-of-the-art converter. hot stuff. pilot carrier might pass through to the receiver and trigger the stereo decoder Digital and addressable Stereo -compatibility in the TV set. This could result in noisy, possibly distorted audio. Beginning in 1977, the Warner QUBE The ad slogan of the day was "I Add-on adapters proliferated initially. systems utilized the Pioneer two-way want my MTV" and MTV wanted Jerrold's converters, including base- addressable converters which included stereo. So did pay-per-view and special band units, were made BTSC stereo- such advanced features as a compatible from 1986 on, as wired remote control and a were Panasonic's. Oak intro- parental control feature for, duced an optional product in prohibiting display of un- 1987 with integral MTS de- authorized scrambled program- coders and volume controlled ming. Also, a power sensor left/right baseband audio out- on the convenience outlet for puts and this unit is still in the TV receiver told the QUBE production. headend when the set was turned off even though the Timing the VCR subscriber had left the converter tuned to an impulse Problems integrating the pay-per-view channel. This VCR continued until the mid- avoided false billing for se- '80s when adaptor switches quential IPPV programs. or VCR interfaces were intro- The first digital converter duced by Qintar, Zenith, with remote control for the Panasonic, JNEL/CableMas- general CATV market was Pioneer's BC-4000 converter boasted awireless remote control ter, and Archer/Radio Shack. introduced by Hamlin USA (Regal) in events programmers. Seventy-five mil- Scientific-Atlanta integrated a VCR 1978. By 1981, when this writer assem- lion homes had stereo equipment in switch in some units at this time. bled the first CED "Product Profile," 1984 and, according to U.S. Census But the primary converter/VCR prob- it was decided to feature converters. figures, music-listening ranked behind lem that needed to be attacked was There were 17 different digital address- only television watching as the most recording pay and non-pay channels able converters available and, of course, popular household activities. The mar- while watching another channel or a whole slew of block converters and riage of TV and stereo audio was a timing the VCR to record pay and non-addressables. natural. One survey showed that 93 non-pay programming unattended. Some of the better ones had ad- percent of basic cable subscribers also Since the pay programming signal vanced features such as Zenith's Z-TAC owned stereo equipment in 1984. required the addressable descrambler with full remote control, and incorpo- Simulcasting had been done quite to be authorized from the headend, the rated baseband video and audio output. often by now but not always to every- timer clock function had to be inte- Sylvania's 4040 offered 16-channel stor- one's satisfaction. And, simulcasting grated into the converter itself. age and recall, Oak's Dimension II with thousands of local FM stations for Pioneer introduced its BA-5000 con- units had multiple tiering, polling and nationwide viewing events was a pro- verter in 1985 with its own VCR timer. stolen unit deactivation. Pioneer's VIP ducer's nightmare. The timer clock could be enabled/ system had an optional teletext with Multichannel Iblevision Sound (MTS) disabled from the headend and re- hard copy print-out and microcomputer was authorized in 1984 for broadcast. freshed about once every minute. The adapter. lbcom's 5510A also had teletext Cable was already able to deliver 14 feature also could be used for morning and graphics capability along with cable networks in FM stereo, all local wakeup, late-night shut off and event 24-hour emergency alert and on-screen broadcast stations that had stereo audio, reminders. channel identification. And 400 MHz and all stand-alone music services. Also that year, Zenith made its was the sky-high reach that all at- Zenith, a pioneer in the development TAC -TIMER programmable remote contained. Hamlin's SPC-5000 could actu- of MTS stereo, was among the first to trol available. While functioning as a

22 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 Wouldn't it be nice if C-COR rebuilt homes,too?

Like our cable system rebuilds, You'd have the best home on 60 Decibel Road, State College, you'd have the technology of the block. PA 16801. tomorrow, today. And if you preferred, If this kind of innovative service, But please. Limit your rebuild we'd custom build it. Your warranty advanced product line and commit- requests to cable systems. We don't would be three times the industry ment to quality hits home, let us show do houses. Yet. standard. You could reach us 24 hours you what we can do for your business. aday for personalized service and fast Call 1-800-233-2267. In PA, Ceo e l e turnaround on repairs. 1-800-356-5090. Or write: C-COR, ELECTRONICS INC We're Out To Give You The Best Reception In The Industry. Reader Service Number 9 full featured remote and was fully this. on-premise conversion schemes. Scien- compatible with any existing Z-TAC tific-Atlanta, following intense indus- system, it could also allow recording of MultiPort try pressure, has reluctantly agreed to different channels at different times. build MultiPort units but devotes con- The TAC -TIMER worked with any The MultiPort solution, a device siderable R&D efforts toward off- VCR and could program up to eight fitting on the receiver's input port that premise addressability. events in 14 days. would allow for the connection of the Other manufacturers are going ahead Oak's Sigma line of converters in- TV set and VCR without an address- full steam with various versions of cluded a VCR "time shifter" feature able converter, has been debated for off-premise or outside-the-premise sys- after 1986. This programmable clock, years now. In the beginning, naturally, tems. Jerrold has what it refers to as with the time of day downloaded by the the converter manufacturers were pub- an addressable on-premise system called system computer, never needed setting lically skeptical, and some remain so. Starport. Raynet, Midwest CATV, AM by the subscriber, just the desired The MultiPort approach grew out of Communications, Eagle Comtronics and channel and time to tune. Sigma also the EIA IS-15 (for Interim Standard Blonder-lbngue Laboratories have their went to an on-screen, five character, number 15) handed down in early 1986. versions as well. Some are pole- alpha-numeric display. Since word This baseband video/audio connector, mounted or side-of-the-house configu- prompts were used (and still are) analogous to the RS-232 for computers, rations. Some rely on addressable traps instead of codes, this feature helped was a 20-pin connector that would and others, like Scientific-Atlanta's, subscribers use the timer and IPPV accept any and all peripheral NTSC or use an interdicting carrier that jams functions. RGB inputs. Converters would be nec- the signal the subscriber isn't author- dessary until such time as integrated ized to receive. Not ready for cable-ready IS-15 receivers penetrated the market- In all cases, the broadband signal place. eventually entering the home is what Amid this hyper creativity and pro- Since IS-15, there has been a con- the subscriber is supposed to receive liferation of bells and whistles, cable- tinuous design evolution down te to- and can therefore use all his consumer ready TV sets were introduced by the day's MultiPort proposals. MultiPort electronics devices as they were in- receiver manufacturing industry. Ca- supporters hope it will handle the tended to be used including splitting ble TV had finally been recognized by addressability requirement without the the signal anyway he wishes. In some the set manufacturers. external set-top box, which many hope rare cases, of course, an in-home ampli- In spite of the fact that many of these will eventually be integrated inside the fier might be needed if the signal is top-of-the-line units were able to tune receiver circuitry. split too many times. the full range of non-standard channels Some converter manufacturers com- But, bottom line oriented cable op- that cable provided at the time, the plain that while MultiPort solves many erators may resist outside-the-home cable industry reacted with mixed of the problems it was designed to architectures. With re-regulation possi- emotions. At technical sessions held at solve, it still requires substantial in- ble, and if renewed tiering of services cable conventions, whenever the words vestment in hardware in the sub- is the result, off-premise control could cable-ready were mentioned, they were scriber's home by the cable operator become less attractive. Also the loss of always prefaced with the words "so- and will take a long time before revenues from remote control rentals called," and often with a cynical tone significant penetration occurs. The price impacts some operators as does the of voice. of MultiPort devices will come down. powering requirement of off-premise When the cable industry continued Already they are down from the $300 systems. the practice of using converters, this range to around $100. The hope is to Even with out-of-the-home address- "gift" to the industry seemed to be ill eventually have a MultiPort device able conversion, converters will be received, or so the set manufacturers that will be produced at alow cost such required for subscribers without cable- thought. that it could even become athrow-away ready TV sets or cable-ready sets that Actually, cable-ready sets were type of device and sent by mail to do not tune all the channels the cable "ready" for basic cable but not for subscribers. system offers. A new feature of convert- scrambled pay and pay-per-view sig- Zenith (through a proprietary ver- ers that may soon receive alot of hype nals. We still could not dispense with sion called Redi-Plug) and Jerrold were is the bypass switch that allows the the addressable converter/descrambler. the first manufacturers to actually ship transparent passing of non-scrambled With the exception of a buying MultiPort devices last year. MultiPort, signals through the converter to the frenzy in 1987 stimulated by deregula- to work, also needs plugs built into the set. tion, the non-addressable converter's TV set or VCR. RCA, Panasonic, Qua- market has steadily declined since the sar and General Electric were the first Acknowledgements introduction of cable-ready sets. Ac- set manufacturers to ship sets conform- cording to Steve Necessary at Scientific- ing to MultiPort specifications, and The author wishes to thank those Atlanta, that decline has been about Bang and Olufsen has shipped the who "interfaced" with him on this 10 percent per year. world's first MultiPort VCRs. article: Steve Necessary of Scientific- Apart from leading to the slow death Atlanta, Gaylord Hart of Hamlin/ of non-addressable converters, cable- Interdiction without traps Regal, Ibny Wechselberger of Oak ready sets renewed the quest for con- Communications, Jim Slade of sumer interface solutions with the still While skepticism about the market Panasonic, Dan Moloney of Jerrold, necessary addressable units. The pri- for MultiPort continues among con- Larry Cooper of Pioneer, and Vito mary impact was to highlight the need verter manufacturers, some have re- Brugliera and John Taylor of Zenith. for consumer-friendliness of the cable sisted its development and, instead, However, any inaccuracies or omis- interface and technology to accomplish have concentrated on off-premise and sions are my own. a

24 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 MULTIPORT Multi Port's economic and business impact

hen it comes to signal security penetrating pay service, you secure it standard addressable baseband decoder systems for cable television, the in a fashion that only impacts those card, along with its associated power W old addage that "Nothin' works customers who actually subscribe to it. supply and communications subsys- everywhere, but everything works some- If you have ahigh penetrating service, tem, in asmall box. What is eliminated where" certainly holds true. Just about you do something to those subscribers is the tuner circuitry and the human every perturbation of every concept has who don't take it. The problem is, that, interface elements, such as the IR been tried at one time or another, and generally speaking, the level of secu- sensor and the channel read-out. The some of them even work, at least rity is not equal between supply and box is not hooked into the signal stream technically. demand systems. The best example is in front of the TV or VCR, but just after But, technical ability is not enough. negative vs. positive trapping. You the consumer electronics tuner. Thus, Don't forget dBs, as in dollar bills. This negative trap the high penetrators, the tuner and the human interface is the sad truth about many of the positive trap the low penetrators. But elements of the consumer equipment systems yet devised. The technology is positive traps are much easier to de- is used, and not replicated as in the solid, but the installed cost limits their feat. case of the set-top converter. The box applicability to asmaller market share, The other factor to consider is how itself ends up stuck behind the TV or thus making the whole venture less gracefully the system can be deployed. VCR, out of sight and out of the palatable to the manufacturer. But If you have to double-carry pay services subscriber's mind. even if the technology and dollars are during the transition, or some other The use of MultiPort requires a right, we still have the problem of such ploy, there is a lot of negative special plug on the back of the con- being able to fulfill the needs of the impact to system efficiency and. what's sumer hardware. A lot of work by the system, and the tastes of the subscriber. In other words, if the security system can only handle four pay services, and the system requires eight, it doesn't work. If subscribers would rather cancel their pay services and use the local videotape store rather than have a set-top converter in the home, it doesn't work.

How we got where we are

We got into this whole mess by devising service formats which have differentiated availability. In other words, we don't generally treat all channels the same, except in those large urban systems where all channels are scrambled. Second only to this in its impact upon our consumer interface the advent of the so-called "cable ready" television receiver. Isay "so-called" because, as you well know, the sets are not cable-ready. In general, From the front, Jerrold's MultiPort looks alot like aconverter.. they don't tune enough channels, they worse, usually to the system's bottom NCTA/EIA Joint Engineering Commit- don't contain a decoder unit, are not line during the process. If the system tee has arrived at a standard for this addressable by the headend, and have requires a major rebuild, or even just use, which is known as the EIA-563 relatively poor shielding around their an extensive repowering, the cost of plug. There are several thousand Mul- single conversion tuner, giving rise to transition is often more than the bene- tiPorts in the field now, although in the Direct Pickup Interference problem fits can carry away. fact they are actually manufacturable where the off-air signal interferes with prototypes and are in no way optimized the same channel on the cable. A more graceful deployment? as to size, reliability and cost. For those It didn't take long to learn the of you who may not know, the EIA, the difference between supply and demand Let's examine another security ap- Electronic Industries Association, rep- security, however. If you have a low proach, called MultiPort. Perhaps it's resents all of the consumer electronics not really a new approach, but just an manufacturers, both here and abroad. By Claude Baggett, Director of Systems old approach in a new suit. The Mul- Since the units in the field right now Engineering, CableLabs tiPort unit is nothing more than a are prototypes, let's talk instead about

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what MultiPort could be if it catches that our invested capital in the sub- reason why you can't deploy MultiPort on in our industry. The following scriber home is cut in half, or if more on an indescriminant basis in your numbers are generally agreed upon by television sets in the home have ad- systems. They are virtually interchan- the big three (Jerrold, Scientific- dressable decoders associated with them. gable. (I say virtually, because those Atlanta and Zenith) and represent a Time will tell. security systems which send control useable unit to our industry. data out in the VBI require an RF Size wise, the ultimate VLSI unit Ramp-up of consumer products modem to place the same data on a could be about one inch by two inches separate data channel, usually located by four inches, and weigh but a few As is the way with all things, around the top of the FM band. This is ounces. The current models have a nothing is perfect. MultiPort has one required because the MultiPort sits thick umbilical which connects them problem over which we have little behind the television tuner, which does to the television set or VCR via the control. Its use depends upon the con- not pass the VBI.) EIA-563 plug. In the future, this costly sumer gear having the appropriate The bad news is that it could be 5to cable can be eliminated by using a plug installed during manufacturing. 7 years before there is an adequate "poke-on" type connector on the Mul- Ihave learned from the manufacturers penetration of plug-equipped sets in our systems for MultiPort to have the total beneficial impact possible.

Self-targeting problem subscribers

The good news is that plug-equipped sets seem to be self-targeting on that cable subscriber who will most benefit from using MultiPort. Imust introduce you to the concept of the "problem" cable subscriber at this time. In fact, this subscriber is avery good customer and usually a real videophile. The problem subscriber usually takes 2 to 3 pay channels, does a little pay-per- view on occasion, and, although highly

• • • • • • • • irritated about it, rents a remote to • • • • • e • 0 . 0 w 00 control his set-top addressable descram- • • • • • • 0 e • bling converter. This customer is ready and able to pay the extra bucks to eliminate the set-top and quit renting the remote by buying a plug-equipped set. Of course, as an operator, you ...But from the back, the difference is readily apparent. better have the MultiPort units ready, tiPort, with some kind of a captive that this costs them between $3.50 and or you might lose another good cus- device on the consumer gear. This $10, which is pretty big money in the tomer to the tape stores. makes the MultiPort a true applique eyes of the consumer industry. unit and further protects it from acci- Their problem is compounded be- How MultiPort looks financially dental harm. cause they can't really show how Eliminating the above mentioned MultiPort increases the market share Ialways hestitate to use hard num- circuitry and the need for direct human of their hardware. However, if the bers when describing the net present interface, and placing the unit in a retailers who sell their sets tell them values of some new thing to representa- more protected environment can mean to put it on, it shall be done. This is tives of different cable companies. The a much greater mean time between why we are encouraging cable systems problem is that no two cable companies failure (MTBF). If the current genera- to work with retailers in their fran- agree on the assumptions which go into tion of decoder cards were redesigned chise area in order to increase demand the calculations, thus they all end up for the best available level of VLSI, for plug-equipped sets. This is the only with different answers. In the case of most manufacturers feel that the Mul- sure way we can have a favorable MultiPort, we ran the calculations for tiPort could have a MTBF about equal impact on the manufacturers. a wide variety of assumptions, and to the television set, or about seven Well, what does this mean? It means found that, although the real numbers years, with atotal useful life of perhaps that the ramp-up of plug-equipped sets might change, the relationship to com- double that number. is likely to be rather slow. Indeed, petitive technologies does not. Mul- Once again, because the MultiPort because television sets typically last tiPort, primarily because of its lower is a much simpler device, the cost is 13 years, about half that as the pri- capital cost per subscriber and its also considerably below that of compat- mary set in the house, new features are addressability features, just represents ible set-top units. It is estimated that always slow to be dispersed when abetter deal to the operator. aMultiPort would cost the cable opera- compared to the total number of televi- Now I brought up one of the big tor about $50 plus $10 in full produc- sion homes. But remember earlier issues about using MultiPort earlier. tion. This is about half the cost of a when we talked about graceful deploy- The subscriber can use the remote typical addressable set-top converter ment? Well, if you are using address- which came with the TV or VCR and today. Idon't know whether this means able set-top units now, there is no isn't forced to rent one to control the

28 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 set-top converter. This has a negative buy many television sets. In other impact on an operator's remote reve- words, we have different customers and nues. different requirements. The Industry's But it may not be all that bad after all. Remote revenues seem destined Joint ventures with retailers Technical Training eventually to go away anyhow. If you look at the growth of universal re- Having tried hard to directly influ- Partner Since 1968 motes, both aftermarket and those that ence the manufacturers without agreat For 22 years the National Cable now come with the upper level con- deal of success, we think we have found Television Institute has taken the pain sumer gear, you will find that this the key to injecting a little cable out of technical training for thousands ramp-up is much greater than the influence into the planning process. of cable companies. NCTI offers a ramp-up associated with MultiPort de- Use the retailers. It all makes such complete career path for cable televi- ployment, thus having a greater im- good sense in retrospect, Iwonder why sion technical employees at all system pact on remote revenue loss by far. we didn't see it earlier. The local levels, as well as special interest cours- Also, some operators have been able to electronics retailer has the same cus- es for specific training needs. tomer to make happy that we do, and the interface problems between the Results-oriented technical training consumer equipment and the cable •Cost-effective system causes them just as much •Easy to administer problem as it does us. Remember, no •Technically excellent matter how good our system may be, it In most cases, the •Consistent, planned curriculum must go through the consumer equip- •Self-paced learning engineers do not ment before getting to the eyes and •Written for cable employees by ears of the subscriber. So it is beneficial cable veterans determine the future if we work together. •Doesn't take employees out of the These joint venture efforts are being field or require expensive trips to strategies for tried successfully in such diverse areas training facilities as San Francisco, Overland Park, Kan- consumer products. sas, and in Denver, Colorado. Typi- NCTI has acourse for every level cally, they work something like this: and interest • The cable company agrees to hook charge a small additional monthly fee up the store and wire the inside. Now Career Path Courses: for MultiPort as a value added service this must really be done right so that Installer •Installer Technician • to the subscriber, thus off-setting all the customer sees the very best picture Service Technician •System or some of the loss. This is another there. That means a tech should drop Technician •Advanced Technician time-will-tell issue. in on aregular basis to check on things Special Interest Courses: and fix any problems. CATV Fiber Optics •CATV System The Joint NCTA/EIA committee • Now the store has a clear way to Overview •Broadband RF demonstrate why amore expensive set, Technician •CATV Technology for The efforts of the Joint NCTA/EIA with the better tuner, does not have Non-Technical Employees •CATV Engineering Committee have been very direct pickup interference, while a Technology for Industry Suppliers beneficial to both cable and the con- cheaper receiver does. sumer industries. A lot of credit goes • At the same time, the salesperson to those who first saw the potential and has the opportunity to inquire if the Reader Service Number 11 then worked to make the dialogue take new set owner takes cable. If the place. The committee is working to answer is no, the customer gets a finish canonizing the EIA-563 plug coupon which gives them a free hook- Please rush me: standard, defining the channelization up, or some other incentive. When the A complete Training Kit with informa- out to 1 GHz, striving to convince the system processes the coupon, the sales- ID tion on all NCTI courses. manufacturers to replace their current person gets the commission, which is 01 More information on the following tuner technology with an implementa- usually more than was made on selling NCTI course. tion that is less susceptible to off-air the TV set. If the customer is on cable interference, and looking into value- already, the salesperson may offer a Name added ways that future subscribers can coupon for afree month or two with the Title meaningfully tune and use 150-plus purchase of anew pay service. channel systems. • When we get all comfortable with Company As good as this effort is, it is not each other, we can then ask the retailer enough. In most cases, the engineers to vote for some improvements in the MS0 affiliation do not determine the future strategies sets through his purchase orders with Address for consumer products, this being the the manufacturers. We have already domain of the product planners and pulsed this circuit once and it works City State Zip marketing personnel. One of the main amazingly well. thrusts for the CableLabs effort in this The end result is a happier cable Daytime phone area is to open new dialogues with subscriber and a satisfied consumer Mail this form to: these individuals. It has been difficult electronics purchaser, and this is good National Cable Television Institute because we, the cable industry, do not for all of us. • P.O. Box 27277, Denver, CO 80227 (303) 761-8554 C.I. 3/20/90 j

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 29 1111.111M CONSUMER ELECTRONICS BUS What is home automation?

e question, "What is home auto- in the privacy of their laboratories and television, semiconductors, appliances mation?" has many answers, de- research centers. To help in this, GTRI and many in the home automation Thpending on who you ask. From a arranged to gather information under business. In all, more than 250 indi- functional standpoint it is the inte- a non-disclosure agreement. The out- viduals and organizations have partici- gration of products in the home into put of GTRI's effort was a sanitized pated. Attendance at the meetings now one cohesive system. From an applica- report that, without showing individ- averages 45. tions viewpoint is where the diversity ual research, provided a matrix that What it is. The EIA Home Automa- of answers begins. Home automation showed factors such as media, data rate tion Standard is a communications can provide many services. Among and other parameters that were under protocol that uses several media as these are: evaluation. The results showed that communications pathways throughout • An increase of safety and security while there were diverse approaches the home. The media now under consid- • A means of cost effective energy being considered, there was conver- eration are the power line, twisted pair management gence of thought in many key areas. wiring, coaxial cable, infrared and • An increase radio. Future up- in comfort and con- CEBus COAXIAL BUS (CXBus) Topology grades will in- venience of life- clude fiber optics style Downstream Runs Antenna or CAT/ Any Number, But Must when the technol- • More produc- Signal Input Match Upstream ogy matures to the V tivity for those Node 0 point that it is a working at home viable service for • Assistance to consumer applica-

those with special Ant. o CATV tions. needs Signal The proposed • Convenience Insertion Downstream standard consists for the elderly RF Plus Base- of two major parts. • Support for band Control Channel The first of these Routers to Other the creation of Power 31D Moda tor is the language Supply new products not Control Channel and protocol. For heretofore possi- Upsteam RF Control inter-product com- Plus Power Channel PSouwppelry ble Distribution Coupling munications to be- • Added value come a reality, a 50 -120 MHz Block In and convenience Bandstop Converter grammar and syn- 0 Out to existing prod- tax must be devel- ucts and services Node oped that can be A Maxenum of Ten per Run If one or more understood by all of these areas is participants. of interest to you, Upstream Runs: There are two for personal or busi- Any Number, But Must Match Downstream major parts to this ness reasons, then command lan- home automation guage. The actual has adefinite place in your future. Based on these findings, a second kernel of the message is the instruction contract was awarded to GTRI. It was to the recipient. This is wrapped in an The EIA home automation standard assumed that all basic consumer prod- envelope that contains the information ucts would contain some type of micro- required to get the message delivered. How it began. In 1983 the Con- processor controller. This time the task This envelope contains the address of sumer Electronics Group (CEG) of the was to determine the potential for the sender, the address of the destina- Electronic Industries Association (EIA) developing access ports to these con- tion, its priority, and other necessary started on its quest for apossible home trollers. The results of the study showed data. automation standard. Georgia Tech that it was possible to consider adding In addition to the protocol, the stan- Research Institute (GTRI) was awarded access ports to interface with different dard defines the physical layer. This is two study contracts. The first study media in acost effective manner. how the actual communications take was to examine the trend toward home March 1984 marked the first meet- place over the different media. This automation. Two areas were explored. ing of the group that became the part describes the modulation methods, One of these was a review of the EIA/CEG Consumer Electronics Bus signal levels and data rates. The stan- information that was available in the Committee. The original group of 13 dard is based on distributed intelli- public domain. consumer electronic manufacturers was gence, so there is no need for acentral The second area was what was being soon joined by representatives from controller. If the need arises, a central done by companies and organizations many industry segments that saw the controller, such as a personal com- potential for home automation. These puter, can be used to schedule events By Thomas Mock, Consumer Electronics included security, telephone (both equip- or select alternative actions. Group, EIA ment manufacturers and telcos), cable As stated, the EIA Home Automa-

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4562 Wate Clay, NY 13041 " Cablesystem name (315) 622-3402. Address In Canada: Deskin Sales •heit .4144: : •Toronto •‘94:3n-cotiyer tot •••ti • - City State Zip In Europe: Electro Set**. •011 ,32-15-2D-9 •Norway •01/4' à • •W. Germati .., ••• • ‘t• Reader \ Mail This Ccilipon •• or CALL TOLL FREE 800-448-7474 , _ the headend are needed. This requires to the broadband signals delivered to ultimate population of over 268 million some reconfiguration of the headend the subscriber. A subscriber disconnect unique addresses. Interdiction addresses and distribution system. switch is provided to drop service are assigned from a different block Figure 1 shows the idea of the completely, under control of the ad- than are set-top addresses. 'lb reduce interdiction system as presently config- dressable system. the chance of errors, the system man- ured. The unit serves four subscribers A unique frequency stabilization ager computer will not recognize the and can jam 16 channels with excellent system allows calibration of each oscil- interdiction block unless the interdic- security. More channels may be jammed lator every few minutes. During a tion version of the software is used. The with areduction of the degree to which calibration cycle, the other three oscil- interdiction version will also control they are jammed. Some channels may lators are stopped momentarily. The set-top terminals. be jammed more thoroughly than oth- calibration process takes only a few ers. milliseconds, so the loss of jamming on The jamming window The directional coupler shown at the other channels is not significant. Each top of the drawing is the replacement oscillator is calibrated on each fre- Early in the development of the for the normal coupler in the tap. In the quency to which it is assigned. lb save system, it was decided to use the same test configuration, power is drawn from power, the calibration circuitry is turned oscillator for as many jamming fre- the distribution system, though we off when not in use. quencies as possible. An early experi- plan to make home power optionally Digital memory containing the cur- ment was to observe jamming quality available. The industry seems about rent tuning data for each jammed on a large sample of TV sets, of both evenly divided between favoring sys- frequency is coupled in turn to a current and earlier production. A jam- tem and home powering, with both digital-to-analog (DIA) converter, which ming oscillator was arranged to jam at sides feeling strongly that their view charges a separate capacitor for each a controllable offset frequency (with is the only logical one. oscillator. The capacitor holds tuning respect to the picture carrier), with a A diplexer after the coupler allows information for it's oscillator while the controlled dwell. Dwell is the percent- for several modes of reverse operation. D/A converter services the other three age of time the oscillator is on the A plug-in equalizer flattens the spec- oscillators. channel under test. The time between trum as required. This allows improved The multiplexer (Mux) connects the visiting the channel under test (the service to the subscriber, especially in DIA converter to the appropriate ca- jamming frequency) was varied. It was light of the limited distortion perform- pacitor. Each time the microprocessor quickly learned that different TVs ance of some cable-ready TV sets. Also, changes the mux to connect the DIA to react differently to a particularly jam- the jamming consistency is enhanced another oscillator, that oscillator's ming pattern. A jamming pattern that by presenting a reasonably flat spec- switch opens momentarily to allow forced one TV to ablack screen, barely trum. frequency slewing without causing in- caused picture degradation on another An attenuator and amplifier provide terference to authorized channels. The set. For this reason, all later testing level correction in an automatic gain effect of this frequency stabilization has involved large banks of TVs. control loop, used to improve consis- system is to keep the jamming fre- The most common reaction to "good" tency of service. A data receiver ex- quency close to the desired frequency. jamming is loss of sync. Our jamming tracts addressing data, transmitted However, the oscillator frequency does criterion for good jamming is that no normally on 108.2 MHz, and supplies wander within limits between calibra- more than one TV in the test can hold information to acontrol microprocessor tion cycles. This controlled wandering sync, and only then on an occasional on the motherboard. Non-volatile mem- enhances the security of the system by scene. When the set is in sync, the ory stores configuration data. The mi- making trapping of the jamming car- picture should be extremely degraded, croprocessor extracts data intended for rier even harder. but may be barely recognizable. this unit, and loads appropriate infor- A diplexer at the output of the Early work centered on determining mation to smaller microprocessors in subscriber module is part of the reverse the lowest dwell at which the threshold the subscriber modules. system path and is used in the home of good jamming was independent of powered configuration. jamming frequency over a wide range. The subscriber module A curve of good jamming threshold as The addressing system a function of jamming frequency was Figure 2 is the block diagram of an plotted for various dwell times. This individual subscriber module, up to Addresses for the four ports are curve was bathtub shaped with abroad four of which may be used with one stored in the motherboard non-volatile minimum centered at about 4 kHz. A motherboard. Four voltage controlled memory. When a subscriber module is 20 percent dwell was determined to be oscillators (VC0s) tune different fre- changed, the address does not change. the minumum for good jamming. quency ranges (some overlap is pro- Bar code labels on the outside of the Allowing for some time to slew vided, as explained below). The range housing show the addresses stored in jammed channels, it was determined of each oscillator is limited to about the unit, with each address located that one oscillator could jam up to four one-third of an octave, to provide for directly under its output port. A test channels with good jamming. The sys- adequate low pass filtering. Switches connector allows access to the contents tem allows for jamming more channels, after each oscillator open when the of the non-volatile memory and to the but to do so may allow some TV oscillator slews from one jammed chan- operational status of the unit. A hand- receivers to show a recognizable pic- nel to the next (permitted channels held computer may be used to view this ture on some scenes. However, most may be located between jammed chan- information in the field. operators who have seen the system nels). Addresses follow the same conven- feel that a lower degree of jamming is After low pass filtering, the oscilla- tion as in S-A's addressable set-tops. quite satisfactory for most purposes. tor outputs are combined then coupled They are 28 bits long, allowing for an Other tests were conducted to deter-

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 35 OFF-PREMISE ADDRESSABILITY mine the frequency offset and relative by allowing the frequency to drift B through E. This choice allows for amplitude of the jammer, for which the within those limits, trapping the car- jamming on any channels 14 through chosen jamming frequency and dwell rier is even more difficult. Addition- 41, with restrictions on the total num- produced good jamming. We also were ally, since the carrier is frequency ber of channels jammed. Note that the concerned about the effect on a lower hopped between different channels, interdiction system passes the entire adjacent channel. Our criteria was that when observing one channel the jam- bandwidth from 50 to 550 MHz, but the no TV in the test bank could show mer appears as a rounded pulse train jammed channels are restricted to a degradation on the lower adjacent 100 percent modulating acarrier. This smaller band. Additional groups may channel, using a sensitive test pattern produces sidebands which further compli- be defined in the future. and trained observers close to the TV cate trapping the jammer. The groups do not overlap except sets. Note that the jammer will drift Groups B and C. This overlap was One surprise from these tests was through the picture carrier. At con- provided to permit complete jamming the operation of one 12-inch black and stant temperature, the oscillator will of the midband. As the frequency is white set. At lower jammer levels, this require a long time (on the order of increased, the number of channels nemesis TV was out of sync. As the hours) to drift out of the window. With jammed by one oscillator also in- jamming level rose above about +10 temperature change, the oscillator will creases. This is because, as the fre- dB from the picture carrier, the set drift much faster. Because of this, a quency increases, one-third of an oc- suddenly regained sync, yielding a variable calibration cycle is provided, tave includes more channels. recognizable picture. The picture was seriously degraded by the jamming noise, but the picture was recognizable! Jamming Window Further investigation showed the set had a very good sync separator and Relative Amplitude noise invertor, which rejected as noise the higher amplitude jamming signal. Lower Adjacent From these investigations came the Channel Interference "Nemesis" jamming window shown in Figure 3. Sets May Regain The window of good jamming is shown Sync within the dashed lines. If the jamming is too low with respect to the picture carrier, good jamming is not always ...... ,,,,1„...... \„..„,---4.- obtained. Lower Insufficient Jamming Similarly, even with reasonable jam- Adjacent ming levels, if the jamming oscillator Channel Picture Interference frequency is too high, good jamming is Carrier problematical. At higher jamming lev- Jamming els the nemesis TV would lock. If the Window frequency of the jamming oscillator was too low or its amplitude too high, Insufficient Jamming adjacent channel interference could be expected on some TVs. From this jamming window, error budgets were developed for the system. One error budget involved the relative Frequency amplitude of the jamming carrier with Figure 3 respect to the picture carrier. The required relative amplitude required with calibration intervals starting at The calibration system allows cali- automatic gain control. This AGC could only afew minutes. bration of each jamming frequency have been applied to either the incom- with a resolution of around 50 kHz. ing carriers from the cable, or to the The frequency plan This means tha the system can be jamming carriers themselves. The for- configured for standard, IRC and HRC mer approach was chosen, as it will Figure 4 shows the frequency plan assignments, and can also accommo- also have beneficial effects on the for the present interdiction product. date any unusual frequency require- signals seen by the subscriber. Th avoid Four of the five oscillators are used in ments. the requirement for an AGC pilot a particular system. The first oscilla- channel, a broadband AGC system tor, Group A, covers channels 2through The hopping plan which samples the composite level of 5. Because the frequencies are so low, many of the channels in the range of we do not benefit from alarge number Figure 5 illustrates the frequency frequencies jammed was developed. If of channels which can be jammed. hopping plan. Sixteen time slots are one or two channels are removed from (Recall that each oscillator can cover assigned for each oscillator. During the system, the effect on the AGC is only about one-third of an octave each of these time slots, the oscillator minimal. because of filter requirements.) is assigned to one frequency in the band Another error budget paced develop- Group A provides for those operators of which it is capable. Since maximum ment of the frequency control system. who wish to keep premium program- jamming requires a dwell of at least This system must hold the oscillator ming in the low band. We expect that 20 percent, four of the time slots are frequency within prescribed limits, but most systems will opt for using groups dedicated to one channel when maxi-

36 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 OFF-PREMISE ADDRESSABILITY

Interdiction System Band Plan

Lowband Midband Highband Superband Hyperband

2 5

A ..55.25 -77.25 MHz ..Interdict 0 to 4 Group A ..120.00 -151.25 MHz ..Interdict 0 to 6 ..144.00 -187.25 MHz ..Interdict 0 to 8 14-.'.11> 19 71) ..190.00 -247.25 MHz „Interdict 0 to 10 ..250.50 -325.25 MHz ..Interdict 0 to 13 Group B

18 al> 22 7 4111.- 9

Group C

23 •immill111.- 28

Group D

29 ....1110.37 38 11110.- 41

Group E

54 MHz 108 MHz 174 MHz 216 MHz 300 MHz Figure 4

mum jamming is desired. Proprietary the jamming time slots normally as- filter passing only the low-, mid- and hopping patterns optimize use of the signed to that service are distributed high-bands may be added at the port time slots. among the other protected services. If output. The jamming oscillators are If desired, the time slots may be the oscillator is needed to protect only assigned to jam the midband (groups assigned to more than four channels, one service, it will dwell about 80 B and C) and the superband transition up to the maximum number of chan- percent of the time on that service. The region of the filter (group D if necessary nels of which the oscillator is capable. remaining 20 percent is the slew time. group E). Jamming effectiveness is somewhat If desired, some of the jamming time reduced compared with the suggested slots may be assigned to different The effect on sound four channels per oscillator. The jam- frequencies within the channel pro- ming effectiveness is very dependent tected. For example, some time slots Iblevision sets almost universally upon the TV. may be assigned to the picture carrier. use intercarrier sound detection, in For example, four of the time slots Other time slots may be assigned to which the 4.5 MHz sound intermediate may be assigned to jam program serv- frequencies about 0.5 MHz, 1MHz and frequency is derived by mixing the ice X, for which the operator has 2 MHz above the picture carrier. Ex- picture and sound carriers. Because the determined that he needs a high level cept for one case shown below, this is jammer dwells near the picture carrier, of jamming. This decision may be made not thought to be necessary, but is this is usually adequate to make the because of the nature of programming available if desired. sound unintelligible. Jamming is trans- on that channel. He may also want to ferred to the sound carrier in the protect program services, Y, Z, T and The lifeline service intercarrier mixer. Typically, the audio W with the same oscillator. After is replaced by a loud, rough tone. In protecting X with four of the 16 Lifeline service is being debated some cases the sound output is almost available slots, 12 slots are availabe to within the industry, as a means of muted. However, afew sets give accept- jam the other four services. providing very basic service at low cost able sound quality even with the These services could all be jammed to the subscriber. The interdiction picture jammed. If this is a problem, with four slots, leaving eight for the system may be used for this application one or more of the jamming time slots other three services. If a subscriber by placing available filters in the tap are asaigned to a frequency half-way buys one or more of the premium output, using the jamming oscillators between the picture and sound carriers. programs protected by the oscillator, to protect filter skirts. For example, a Then the second harmonic of the jam-

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 37 mer beat falls on the sound carrier. This has been found to be effective Interdiction System in those cases where sound jamming Frequency Hopping Plan at the picture carrier is inadequate. However, if the subscriber uses a TV All>1 VCO #1 1100- Output Injected into Cable Spectrum band radio receiver, which does not use intercarrier detection, he can still hear Jamming Interval the sound. One could in principle place 40.1 vc0#2 the jammer on the sound carrier, but F1 Hop F2 Hop F3 F16 if an upper adjacent channel is used, it 000.1 vco#3H may experience interference from the Time jammer on the sound carrier. The vC0 #4 H

reason is that the jammer amplitude •Agile VCO "Hops" and "Dwells" is similar to that of the picture carrier, up to 16 Times per Interval stronger than what the TV is expecting • Security Level is Proportional to at the lower adjacent sound carrier. Fontrol Total Dwell Time on aChannel

The output level •Agile VCO Generates Jamming Frequencies

• Four VCOs per Subscriber Module The system is designed with anomi- nal output level of +16 dBmV at 550 • Progressive Frequency Calibration MHz and +15 dBmV at 450 MHz. While these levels are a little higher than some systems are designing now, Figure 5 it was determined that the extra output level would be important, considering as in conventional taps, and is revers- The bottom portion of the housing trends in CATV service. These trends ible. This means that the signal may includes a switching power supply, a include the increasing use of multiple be routed through the housing in either data receiver, the motherboard and up set hookups (a trend which will be direction. The cover is reversible, so the to four subscriber modules. Provision accelerated with use of interdiction housing can always be installed to open is made for a traverse system, not yet technology), more complex entertain- to the street. When the housing is available. ment center hook-ups and the drive for installed in a pedestal, the seizure The switching power supply is con- better quality pictures. Also, because board is rotated 90 degrees. This allows tained in the enclosure (to the right in of the AGC used in the system, it is not the incoming and outgoing cables to the photo). The data receiver is just to an option (really, it was never a good attach to the same end of the housing. the left of the power supply, a data option) to change the tap value to give A piece of miniature flexible coaxial receiver, the motherboard and up to a subscriber more signal level when cable carries the RF signals to the four subscriber modules. Provision is needed. electronics in the bottom of the hous- made for a reverse system, not yet ing. A flexible, two-conductor cable available. The mechanical configuration carries power if line powering is used. The switching power supply is contained in the en- Figure 6shows the open interdiction closure to the right unit housing, and Figure 7 shows a in the photo. The typical installation at the test site. data receiver is Note that, even though the unit is large just to the left of compared with a normal tap (though the power supply. much smaller than a trunk housing), Four subscriber it compares favorably in size with other modules are shown things near poles, such as the telephone plugged into the company splice boot shown. motherboard, The top of the housing (Figure 6) which is barely vis- contains the tap, equalizer and power ible in the bottom extraction circuit. These mount on a of the housing. Sig- seizure board. A piece of hardline nals from the sub- coaxial cable traverses the length of scriber modules the housing not needed by the tap exit toward the bot- circuit. Because of the higher number tom at the left end. of connections required by the off- The housing is premises unit, through loss is not quite an aluminum cast- as low as that of the tap it replaces. ing similar to those However, in the test installation this used by distribu- has not proved to be a problem, as tion electronics, adequate level was available due to and features her- normal design practice. metic sealing. It is The plug-in directional coupler is L-shaped at the available in generally the same values Figure 6. The interdiction system's housing drop cable exit, al-

38 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 lowing the drop cables' drip loop to be installation, so "on the job" training Based on experience gained during contained reasonably close to the strand. was employed. After the crew got up installation, and experience with other to speed, it could install and balance cable plants, Warner and S-A person- The Installation experience one 20-25 unit feeder per day (nine to nel have developed the following obser- 11 hours). vations (most of which are already The first test site is the Warner Balancing involved leap frogging familiar): system in Williamsburg, Virginia. This from the upstream to the downstream I. Strand maps must be accurate. system had a300 MHz bandwidth, and II. Design the powering then the was upgraded to 450 MHz at the time radio frequency levels. of interdiction installation. Program III. Required design parameters must denial was by non-addressable set-top be understood. converters using basic gated sync sup- IV. Because a subscriber's address pression. Installation began in Decem- is now ássociated with the tap, drop ber 1989 is now complete, with about identification is even more important 220 customers connected. Serious test- than before. ing of the system is only now starting, V. Some change of directional cou- so we cannot report results yet. How- pler and equalizer values may be ever, the system is functioning nor- necessary during balancing. mally, with no problems noticed. VI. Subscriber communication is im- The area targeted for introduction portant, as service will have to be of the interdiction system was identi- interrupted during installation. Figure 7. A typical installation fied. Design maps were created show- VII. Since the taps are AGC'd, chang- ing the location of units and approxi- tap. When an installer finished at one ing tap value to accommodate higher mate values of directional couplers and pole, the other installer balanced the level requirements cannot be done (it equalizers. Since line powering is used next station while the first moved to was never a good idea). The system in this installation, each feeder experi- his next pole. The taps were first provides higher than normal levels. If enced an increased power requirement. balanced by measuring AGC voltage even higher levels are required, we The standby power supplies on the in the interdiction unit, using a mul- recommend a larger drop cable or trunk could not accommodate this ex- timeter. A directional coupler was in-home amplification. Amplification tra power. Where additional power was selected for the prescribed AGC volt- is easier than with conventional sys- required, the power connection to the age. A signal level meter was used to tems because of the consistency of level trunk was severed, and a Mini-max select an equalizer to yield 3dB of tilt thanks to the AGC, and because of the power supply was added. A total of four from 50 to 330 MHz. Existing drops tilt correction in the tap. new power supplies were added, though were connected. In some cases, it was fewer probably would have sufficed. not possible to determine which of The acknowledgement Warner personnel estimated that the several drops served aparticular house. interdiction system required the addi- In these cases a best guess estimate The author appreciates the help of tion of about one-half power supply per was made. Scientific-Atlanta senior applications mile. An installed, the interdiction units engineer John Cochran, for his help The underground section was popu- allowed all services. Downgrading to with the experience portion of this lated with larger pedestals. A system the services bought is accomplished paper. Mr. Cochran also developed manager IV was installed and linked later. As part of the initial testing, most of the illustrations and photo- by modem from the Warner Hampton Warner personnel are visiting each graphs in the article. Ron Horchier and office to the Williamsburg headend. A house to inform the subscriber of what the other people in the Warner system dedicated trunk with unscrambled pre- was done and how he is affected. have been most cooperative and have mium channels was installed between Cable-ready TVs and VCRs will be set contributed valuable ideas to improve the headend and the test area. up. Service will be downgraded to that the product. Paragon 'Pampa has been When a feeder was upgraded to ordered by the subscriber, allowing very helpful in evaluating power sup- interdiction, power was removed and confirmation that the subscriber is plies. Lamar West and Jack Bryant the old taps were replaced with inter- connected to the port assumed during reviewed the manuscript and made diction units. lb support the expanded installation. many useful suggestions. • bandwidth, amplifiers were respaced or upgraded as required. This was not Rad« Service # P999 9 required for the interdiction installa- Anixter (Regal) 15 52 tion. Then power was restored to the BradF'TS 14 51 C-COR Electronics 9 23 leg. All active devices were balanced, CATV Services Inc. 6 17 beginning at the point closest to the Cabletenna Corp 9-10 trunk. Comm/Scope Inc 10 26-27 Eagle Comtronics 13 9-10, 34 Installation was done by acontractor FM Systems 9-10 crew of three men, two with bucket General Inst./Jerrold a 19 trucks. The third prepared each unit Midwest CATV 3 5 National Cable Iblevision Institute 11 29 for installation. Preparation consisted Pioneer Communications of America 1 2 of installing stringers, directional cou- Qintar 7 17 plers and equalizers according to the Scientific-Atlanta 4 7 Times Fiber 12 31 map design. The crew was not trained 'ffilogy Communications 2 3 on interdiction before the first day of Zenith Cable Products à 15

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 39 Consumer inte face issues and solu tions

he consumer interface issue has verters controlled only a few services, while viewing asecond. long plagued the cable industry. the added security was seen as advan- TOperators have been torn between tageous and worth the investment. The impulse question the need to secure channels to protect Addressability provided the operational their revenue base and the desire to benefits to justify the cost of the Over the past several years, the provide a service subscribers deem converter. Despite these operator ad- benefits of impulse pay-per-view (IPPV) beneficial, easy to use and worth buy- vantages, subscribers began to experi- have further intensified the consumer ing. While many methods for reducing ence the interface issues associated interface issue. Operators have viewed with descrambl- impulse as the ultimate in consumer

on voloole VOInke ReelkO« ing converters. convenience for ordering movies or Memory Thus, a renewed events. True impulse, however, re- effort was placed quires an in-home device to accept the on developing a purchase data and transmit the infor- more consumer- mation back to the cable office. Such a friendly approach device is a natural addition to the to addressability. addressable converter. Several ap - One recent approach to this problem pro aches were has been to develop a MultiPort de- tried during the coder. This offers the operator the mid-'80s. Each security and control of an addressable provided various converter while returning all consumer benefits to the con- features to the subscriber's TV or VCR. sumer, but not in The TV or VCR decoder performs the a universally ap- tuning and passes the signal to the plicable, cost-ef- MultiPort decoder for descrambling. A fective manner. module integral to the decoder easily Storpon BOOroosable Nodule Block Degrom One such ap- handles IPPV. proach was the While this approach appears very this conflict have been tried, few have use of addressable taps that provided promising, the penetration of TVs and succeeded. A renewed focus on con- the operator with remote connect/ VCRs with MultiPort capability is sumer friendliness, however, has re- disconnect. Used with traps, this pole- minimal. Given the 130 million TVs cently generated some positive results. mounted device did improve opera- in service today without this capabil- tional efficiencies compared to atrapped- ity, and given a 10-year minimum When it all went sour only system, but fell short of the control turnover rate on TVs, it will take many possible with addressable converters. years to penetrate the cable base with The problem of interfacing cable into A second off-premise approach was MultiPorts. the home grew with the arrival of pay aform of the agile jammer. While this Another approach is to tackle the television. Until such time, soft secu- product exceeded the addressable tap main consumer interface device, the rity means such as block conversions coupled with traps for remote control remote control. Preprogrammed uni- controlled access to services. 'fraps of subscriber services, it was plagued versal and learning remote controls were implemented to provide a higher by several significant problems. have been offered as the solution to degree of security for those limited First, since these devices served multiple remotes. Unfortunately, the subscribers accessing pay television. multiple subscribers, the cost-per- advantages offered by these remotes As more subscribers began to pur- subscriber for a 50-percent penetrated have been more than offset by the chase the early pay services, operators system was unacceptable. In addition, complexity of operation. Subscribers quickly realized the operational defi- cost and logistical concerns over power- have shown their unwillingness to ciencies associated with traps. The ing the unit were never fully resolved. spend $50 or more to solve what they costs associated with the need to roll a A third consumer interface approach feel is an unnecessary interface prob- truck for subscriber to upgrade or was the use of in-home video switching lem. downgrade service became unaccept- units and bypass switches. When used able to most operators. As aresult, the with addressable descrambling con- Is there hope for the future? push for addressable descrambling converters, these units eased the intercon- verters began to take hold. nection of the converter with the VCR Given past failure to resolve the While the first descrambling con- and television. Such switching units, consumer interface issue, why should however, were often difficult for the we expect better future results? Sev- By Dan Moloney, Director, Product typical subscriber to understand and eral items are key to answering this Marketing, Jerrold Subscriber Systems didn't address the key consumer con- question. First, today's approaches to Div., General Instrument Corp. cern: recording one premium service on/off premise technology are very

40 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 HOME INTEGRATION

promising. Single dwelling unit versions of addressable control modules and addressable jammers offer significant cost improvements over multiple- subscriber devices of the past. Power- ing is handled in a cost-effective and operationally efficient manner from the subscriber home. While some concerns remain about the level of security the system provides because of the transmission of clear broadband to these denial devices, methods can be developed to alleviate this concern. In addition, the number of services controllable by such a device will soon reach levels acceptable to most operators. Secondly, several developments for converters in the future will enhance the consumer interface. VLSI developments will enable converters to incor- porate two tuners in a cost-effective manner, thereby overcoming the problem of viewing one premium service and recording another. On-screen graphics with menu-driven screens will ease subscriber interaction with enhanced services such as IPPV. It also may provide help screens to show subscribers how to interconnect their in-home equipment. Downloadable messaging will enable operators to communicate with individual subscribers on atarget basis and thereby simplify subscriber interaction.

The home as a solution

Thirdly, and by far the most important development in consumer interface, is the onset of electronic home integration. Despite the lack of integration in the distribution network, subscribers will shortly benefit from the cable operator's ability to integrate efficiently the in-home control electronics for video, audio, telphony and "The CED-CAN Buyers' Guide has been a tremendous AC power. The ability to use the cable aid to me over the years. Iparticularly like the front remote as a remote telephone exists section that tells me who the company is and who the today. Soon, it also will be possible to control AC outlets in the home with players are. What Ilike best about the guide are the CEBus and X-10 protocols coupled with sections and tabs that lead you quickly to whatever on-screen display. you're looking for." In addition, the integration of voice Jack Joynt recognition equipment in existing cable electronics will even further en- ICI Corporate Purchasing Coordinator hance the methods by which subscribers interface with cable. As a final stage, all the control electronics will shift to a modular design and located either on the side of the house or in the basement. This will then permit the ultimate in consumer friendliness with CD an integrated distribution network in 1990 CATV Buyers' Guide the home, despite the state of integration outside the home. •

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 41 \DVFRTISFNIFNT • NSUMER INTERFACE CALLB •.•

The following companies have paid Chester Syp, National Sales Manager a fee to have their listing appear in the On-premise Addressability DESCRIPTION: Eagle's addressable trap system is consumer friendly and available Consumer Interface Callbook. today. It incorporates eight tier switching, impulse pay-per-view selection, negative,

TIA positive or multichannel trap control, home MultiPort powering through drop cable, parential RiririelDTC control, downloadable credit unit, IBM PC control, external billing compatibility, store and forward return, and is economically comparable to converter-descrambler system.

JCOMMUNICATIONS BradPTS (518) 382-8000 diner° .nnova,od .5 dad 1.or4 FAX (518) 382-8452 1023 State St. Schenectady, NY 12301 ERROLD Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 PERSONNEL: Len Gigliotta, National Sales JOOMMUNICA IIONS FAX (215) 443-9454 Manager; Joe King, Manager National .44e,E4 ddxreal.04, 45 d dadtbon 2200 Byberry Rd. Accounts Hatboro, PA 19040 DESCRIPTION: BradPTS is the industry's PERSONNEL: Ed Ebenbach; Dan Moloney largest CATV equipment service and sales Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 DESCRIPTION: This unit attaches to an organization. With nine full service facilities FAX (215) 443-9454 appropriately equipped television or VCR strategically located throughout the U.S., 2200 Byberry Rd. and serves as asignal descrambler. we service and sell the following products: Hatboro, PA 19040 Effectively, the EIA MultiPort unit returns All major makes and models of converters, PERSONNEL: Ed Ebenbach; John Burke all the subscriber features to the TV/VCR amplifiers, trunk stations and headend DESCRIPTION: Jerrold's STARPORT unit by removing the cable converter/descrambler equipment, IPPV accessories and afull line attaches to the outside of asubscriber from the path of incoming signals, making of exact replacement remote control units. household and provides an entry way for those signals transparent to the TV or VCR. Factory authorized warranty services is cable signals to cable-ready televisions and provided for Panasonic, Oak, Alpha VCRs. Consumer homes equipped with Technologies, and others on aprearranged STARPORTs inform the cable operators basis. For additional information call (800) what services they wish to take and those 382-2723 (NY) or (800) 999-2723 (Ind.). services are either trapped or transmitted clear into the homes via the STARPORT unit.

Cable Technologies

Power & Telephone .. ..(901) 324-6116 International, Inc. Supply Co. FAX (901) 320-3084 2701 Union Extended, Ste. 500 Cable Technologies .. ..(215) 953-0100 Memphis, TN 38112 International, Inc. More than supplies. Solutions. PERSONNEL: Sonny Dickinson, Director FAX (215) 322 -6127 Midwest CAN (304) 343-8874 of National CATV Sales; Derwin Otwell, 1051 County Line Rd., Ste. 107 A Division of UNR Industries National Accounts Manager Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 FAX (304) 346-0624 DESCRIPTION: We are anational PERSONNEL: Pete Morse, President P.O. Box 271 distributor of directional taps, splitters, and DESCRIPTION: Purchase and sale of Charleston, WV 25321 installation material for drop. subscriber products with emphasis on PERSONNEL: Stephen R. Brazil; Penny addressable converters and entire addressable Ellis systems, both new or refurbished. Various DESCRIPTION: Midwest CATV is the manufacturers. Plain and descrambling exclusive distributor of the MATRIX system. "Pay" converters are also available as new Matrix is an on-premises addressable trap or refurbished products. CTI also offers system. In two versions, Matrix will solve Scientific your single family or MDU needs. We've subscriber video control switchers, and new or refurbished handheld remote control been in the field since 1988! For tomorrow's Atlanta units for all manufacturers. system today, call 1-800-MID-CATV.

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. . ..(404) 441-4000 FAX (404) 925-6280 Box 105027 Scientific Atlanta, GA 30348 nizEAGLEVe PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Andy Meyer CONIT1TONSCS INC DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta's Atlanta MultiPort product allows transparent consumer interface with cable-ready Eagle Comtronics Inc. . ..(315) 622 -3402 Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. .. .(404) 441-4000 television sets and remotes. It meets EIA WATS (800) 448-7474 FAX (404) 925 -6280 563 specifications and is compatible with 4562 Waterhouse Rd Box 105027 existing Scientific-Atlanta addressable Clay, NY 13041 Atlanta, GA 30348 systems. PERSONNEL: Alan Devendorf, President; PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Jack Bryant Joseph Ostuni, VP/Sales and Marketing, DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta's

42 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1989 11 )\ I RTISENIF:til' CONSUMER 1111.111BORMIDK interdiction technology is ahighly secure Atlanta, GA 30348 and reliable alternative which provides a PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Jack Bryant transparent consumer interface. Decreased DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta's 11•11•1, ', 11111 MI•1111, Meff operating costs, additional marketing interdiction technology is ahighly secure Mi/n/o im»im • «Mr ••••• 011Un •••IM and reliable alternative which provides a »OM IM•IM 11•11» opportunities and extra flexibility in your ON«. MM. Mfflak. AM» system are three major benefits. There is a transparent consumer interface. Decreased M•11.• .1111111 ..111M1 operating costs, additional marketing %NM IMMIMIMM••• •••••••alMalffla family of products to suit your application— ".11111•10 ." -.MUNN." single subscriber, four-port, eight-port and opportunities and extra flexibility in your MDU. system are three major benefits. There is a family of products to suit your application— single subscriber, four-port, eight-port and Computer Utilities (800) 541-8825 Off-premise Addressability MDU. of the Ozarks, Inc. FAX (501) 741-9812 Pay-per-view 103-C Industrial Park Rd. Harrison, AR 72601 PERSONNEL: Herb Lair; John Bartlow RwratilDTC DESCRIPTION: Cable/I—Management Infor- MI IN 1111 IMF mation and Billing System for in-house, on-line IBM PC and compatible with pay-per- laireuPIDTC Te4 view interfaces with 'Ibcom, Zenith, Jerrold BradPTS (518) 382-8000 111011,111 MI UMW a and Scientific-Atlanta. FAX (518) 382-8452 1023 State St. Schenectady, NY 12301 PERSONNEL: Len Gigliotta, National Sales BradPTS (518) 382-8000 Manager; Joe King, Manager National FAX (518) 382-8452 .giarmailm••••• \\\.•1•1•1 Accounts 1023 State St. DESCRIPTION: BradPTS is the industry's Schenectady, NY 12301 '4111EAGLEVe largest CATV equipment service and sales PERSONNEL: Len Gigliotta, National Sales 0004TRONICS INC organization. With nine full service facilities Manager; Joe King, Manager National strategically located throughout the U.S., Accounts we service and sell the following products: DESCRIPTION: BradPTS is the industry's All major makes and models of converters, largest CATV equipment service and sales amplifiers, trunk stations and headend organization. With nine full service facilities Eagle Comtronics Inc. ..(315) 622-3402 equipment, IPPV accessories and afull line strategically located throughout the U.S., WATS (800) 448-7474 of exact replacement remote control units. we service and sell the following products: 4562 Waterhouse Rd. Factory authorized warranty services is All major makes and models of converters, Clay, NY 13041 provided for Panasonic, Oak, Alpha amplifiers, trunk stations and headend PERSONNEL: Alan Devendorf, President; Technologies, and others on aprearranged equipment, IPPV accessories and afull line Joseph Ostuni, VP/Sales and Marketing, basis. For additional information call (800) of exact replacement remote control units. Chester Syp, National Sales Manager 382-2723 (NY) or (800) 999-2723 (Ind.). Factory authorized warranty services is DESCRIPTION: Eagle's addressable trap provided for Panasonic, Oak, Alpha switch offers 8channels of pay-per-view or Technologies, and others on aprearranged impulse pay-per-view. Operator controls basis. For additional information call (800) ordering window from amonth before the 382-2723 (NY) or (800) 999-2723 (Ind.). event to after it has started. Selections are CABLE EXCHANGE, INC. as simple as an event number or asingle letter. Subscribers may terminate an event anytime upon the discretion of the operator. Cable Exchange, Inc. . ..(303) 694-6789 Billing versatility is in increments of $.05 WATS (800) 422-2567 Cable Technologies up to $50.00 per event in increments of 5 FAX (303) 290-9810 International, Inc. minutes. In-house or external billing 5730 E. Otero Ave., Ste. 700 available. Englewood, CO 80112-3064 PERSONNEL: Dennis Dwyer, VP Sales; Harold Bjorklund, President DESCRIPTION: Distributors of off-premise Cable Technologies . . .(215) 953-0100 four port addressable trap with master International, Inc. disconnect. Pay-per-view compatible. FAX (215) 322-6127 Inexpensive XT/AT compatible control system 1051 County Line Rd., Ste. 107 JERROLD COMMUNICATIONS Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 assures simple upgradability when expanding Whee enovabon e a Iraelen features. PERSONNEL: Pete Morse, President DESCRIPTION: Sale and purchase of subscriber products including Plain, Pay and Addressable converters, both refurbished Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 and new, all manufacturers. In addition, FAX (215) 443-9454 Scientific CTI offers subscriber video switchers and 2200 Byberry Rd. remote control handhelds for most major Hatboro, PA 19040 manufacturers. Consulting for cable operators PERSONNEL: Ed Ebenbach; Jeremy Atlanta in the use of PPV and IPPV, addressability and other transactional services, marketing Rosenberg Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. .. .(404) 441-4000 services for cable operators, computer DESCRIPTION: Jerrold manufactures store- and-forward technology which allows FAX (404) 925-6280 software development for addressability. Box 105027 subscribers to order pay-per-view

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1989 45 programming "on impulse." The converter 2701 Union Extended, Ste. 500 DESCRIPTION: Midwest CATV stocks a stores the subscriber order and holds the Memphis, TN 38112 full line of traps from PPC in each of our six information until it is polled at alater time PERSONNEL: Sonny Dickinson, Director regional warehouses. PPC offers all types by the cable computer. The ordering of National CATV Sales; Derwin Otwell, of traps to fit every signal security need. For information is then forwarded to the cable National Accounts Manager prompt service, call 1-800-MID-CATV. office for later billing. Jerrold's Cable Video DESCRIPTION: We stock modular hardwire, Store pay-per-view service takes full wire and cords. advantage of this technology by offering events 24-hours-a-day, seven days aweek. MIDWEST Scientific CATV Atlanta Production Products . . . (315) 682-2031 A dIvIsion of Mdwest Corporeal Co. (PPC) Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. . ..(404) 441-4000 WATS (800) 468-2288 More than supplies. Solutions. FAX (404) 925-6280 One Mezzy Lane Midwest CATV (304) 343-8874 Box 105027 Manlius, NY 13104 A Division of UNR Industries Atlanta, GA 30348 PERSONNEL: John Mezzalingua, Chairman; FAX (304) 346-0624 PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Andy Meyer Daniel Mezzalingua, PresidentAndrew P.O. Box 271 DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta offers a Szegda, Vice President; Dominick Maio, Charleston, WV 25321 complete line of products and system for Vice President PERSONNEL: Stephen R. Brazil; Penny impulse pay-per-view (IPPV) capabilities DESCRIPTION: With mounting pressures Ellis including addressable set-top terminals, IPPV for pay television programs and increased DESCRIPTION: Midwest CATV is afull modules, as well as systems management pay packages now in widespread operation, line stocking distributor. Every one of our hardware and software. the cable system operator requires the six regional warehouses is on call to serve ultimate product, insuring optimum you. Your PPV needs are easily satisfied performance levels and maximum security with the MATRIX System, an on-premises Traps to better control the signal integrity to his addressable trap system. Call us at 1-800- subscriber base. For more information, call MID-CATV. toll free 1-800-468-2288 and ask for your PPC representative in your area. ELE (V) PIONEER COMTVONICS ne. PIONEER COMMUNICATIONB OF AMERICA. INC.

Eagle Comtronics Inc.. ..(315) 622-3402 Pioneer Communications .(201) 327-6400 WATS (800) 448-7474 Power & Telephone . . ..(901) 324-6116 of America, Inc. 4562 Waterhouse Rd. Supply Co. WATS (800) 421-6450 Clay, NY 13041 FAX (901) 320-3084 FAX (201) 327-0963 PERSONNEL: Alan Devendorf, President; 2701 Union Extended, Ste. 500 FAX (201) 327-9379 Joseph Ostuni, VP/Sales and Marketing, Memphis, TN 38112 600 E. Crescent Ave. Chester Syp, National Sales Manager PERSONNEL: Sonny Dickinson, Director Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 DESCRIPTION: Eagle's traps and decoding of National CATV Sales; Derwin Otwell, PERSONNEL: 'Ibm Holder, Director of filters utilize advanced, state-of-the-art National Accounts Manager CATV Div.; John Unverzagt, Director of design, miniaturization, blocking capacitors, DESCRIPTION: We carry afull line of Engineering dual 0-rings, polyurethyene foam, single positive and negative trapping. DESCRIPTION: Pioneer offers PPV board construction for ground continuity, capability and provides aconfirmation feature soldered metal shielding and permanent to reduce unnecessary CSR calls. For IPPV, channel identification. Complete line of US, Pioneer offers PULSE, which upgrades the PAL and Secam encoders. Best delivery of Addressable Converters BA-6000 to two-way addressability with standard and custom units in the industry telephone and/or cable return. Pioneer's including the UHF spectrum. BA-6000 with the PULSE option offers the advantages of IPPV ordering technology, viewer statistics collection and status MIDWEST lireadDTC monitoring. MM. WWI/ IN CATV

A 010,50e of Mclvvest Corporeoo BradPTS (518) 382-8000 More than supplies. Solutions. FAX (518) 382-8452 Midwest CATV (304) 343-8874 1023 State St. A Division of UNR Industries Schenectady, NY 12301 FAX (304) 346-0624 PERSONNEL: Len Gigliotta, National Sales P.O. Box 271 Manager; Joe King, Manager National Power & Telephone . . ..(901) 324-6116 Charleston, WV 25321 Accounts Supply Co. PERSONNEL: Stephen R. Brazil; Penny DESCRIPTION: BradPTS is the industry's FAX (901) 320-3084 Ellis largest CATV equipment service and sales

46 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 ADVERTISEMENT

organization. With nine full service facilities Hatboro, PA 19040 strategically located throughout the U.S., PERSONNEL: Ed Ebenbach; Dan Moloney Non-addressable we service and sell the following products: DESCRIPTION: Jerrold manufactures afull Converters All major makes and models of converters, line of RF and baseband addressable amplifiers, trunk stations and headend converters. Jerrold's IMPULSE 7000 series equipment, IPPV accessories and afull line of RF and baseband addressable converters of exact replacement remote control units. offer such features as remote volume control, Factory authorized warranty services is favorite channel programming, last channel provided for Panasonic, Oak, Alpha recall, time control programming and impulse RwersilDTC Technologies, and others on aprearranged ordering. The TOCOM line of baseband MIMI UV WM III II basis. For additional information call (800) converters offer the same features, including 382-2723 (NY) or (800) 999-2723 (Ind.). store-and-forward impulse ordering.

BradPTS (518) 382-8000 FAX (518) 382-8452 1023 State St. Schenectady, NY 12301 CABLE EXCHANGE, INC. PERSONNEL: Len Gigliotta, National Sales Manager; Joe King, Manager National (11) Plc:me-En Accounts PIONEER COMMUNICATIONS OF AMERICA, INC. DESCRIPTION: BradPTS is the industry's Cable Exchange, Inc. . ..(303) 694-6789 largest CATV equipment service and sales WATS (800) 422-2567 organization. With nine full service facilities FAX (303) 290-9810 strategically located throughout the U.S., 5730 E. Otero Ave., Ste. 700 we service and sell the following products: Englewood, CO 80112-3064 Pioneer Communications .(201) 327-6400 All major makes and models of converters, PERSONNEL: Dennis Dwyer, VP Sales; of Arnerica, Inc. amplifiers, trunk stations and headend Astrid Ilinkhaus, Sales Coordinator equipment, IPPV accessories and afull line DESCRIPTION: Sales and purchasers of WATS (800) 421-6450 FAX (201) 327-0963 of exact replacement remote control units. New, Used and Refurbished addressable FAX (201) 327-9379 Factory authorized warranty services is converters manufactured by Jerrold, provided for Panasonic, Oak, Alpha Scientific-Atlanta, lbcom, Zenith, Regency, 600 E. Crescent Ave. Technologies, and others on aprearranged Pioneer, Oak and others. Supporting products Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 basis. For additional information call (800) include Addressable Computer Systems, PERSONNEL: Urn Holder, Director of 382-2723 iNY) or (800) 999-2723 (Ind.). Headends, Encoders, Compatible Electronic CATV Div.; John Unverzagt, Director of Engineering A/B Switches. DESCRIPTION: The Pioneer BA-6000 is a 550 MHz addressable converter providing compatibility with Jerrold, Oak, Hamlin, Regency and Sylvania scrambling methods. Cable Technologies Cable Technologies The BA-6000 offers advanced subscriber and International, Inc. operator features such as volume control, International, Inc. VCR program timer, clock display, PPV/ IPPV capability and downline loadable system parameters including output channel. Cable T?chnologies . . ..(215) 953-0100 Cable Technologies . . ..(215) 953-0100 International, Inc. International, Inc. FAX (215) 322-6127 FAX (215) 322-6127 1051 County Line Rd., Ste. 107 1051 County Line Rd., Ste. 107 Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 PERSONNEL: Pete Morse, President PERSONNEL: Pete Morse, President DESCRIPTION: Sale and purchase of DESCRIPTION: Purchase and sale of Scientific subscriber products including Plain, Pay subscriber products with emphasis on and Addressable converters, both refurbished addressable converters and entire addressable and new, all manufacturers. In addition CTI systems, both new or refurbished. Various offers subscriber video switchers and remote Atlanta control handhelds for most major manufacturers addressable products are available including PROMS. Plain and manufacturers. Consulting for cable operators descrambling "Pay" converters are also in the use of PPV and IPPV, addressability available as new or refurbished products. and other transactional services, marketing Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. . ..(404) 441-4000 CTI also offers subscriber video control services for cable operators, computer FAX (404) 925-6280 switchers and new or refurbished handheld software development for addressability. remote control units for all manufacturers. Box 105027 Atlanta, GA 30348 TM PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Andy Meyer DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta addressable set-tops are fully electronic with microprocessor-based control. They are Cabletenna designed with arange of superior subscriber JCOMMUNICATIONS and operator features such as volume control, where onovahon . a Imam., VCR timer, one touch IPPV buy key, extra surge protection, LED display, VCR Cabletenna Corporation .(201) 251-7733 FAX (201) 251-6903 Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 compatibility, and enhanced scrambling security. All models are available in an 401 Spotswood-Englishtown Rd FAX (215) 443-9454 Spotswood, NJ 08884 2200 Byberry Rd. attractive, high-tech package.

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 47 ADVFSTISFNIVNT CONSUMER INTERFACE CALLBOOK

PERSONNEL: Paul Libby; Leigh Mogil mute and volume control indicator. It provides manufactured and distributed afull line of DESCRIPTION: Cabletenna puts PDQ into 550 MHz, 83 channels, sleep timer, muted cable converter "compatible"wireless remote all its converters with acommitment for the channel change, parental control with remote control units. We feature product that is best possible converter money can buy. That override and favorite/last channel recall. compatible with OEM converters made by commitment is the best price, fastest delivery, Programmable features include the output Eastern, Hamlin, Jerrold, Oak, Panasonic, and finest quality available today. We also channel, frequency offsets, upper channel Pioneer, RCA, Regal, Regency, Scientific- manufacture splitters, AB switches, stereo limit and channel and spectrum allocations. Atlanta, Sylvania, Texscan, lbcom and decoders and taps. Zenith.

Cable Technologies JCOMMUNICATIONS International, Inc. *1-ere .nnovaten IS aWaddell

Power & Telephone .. ..(901) 324-6116 Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 Supply Co. Cable Technologies . . ..(215) 953-0100 FAX (215) 443-9454 FAX (901) 320-3084 International, Inc. 2200 Byberry Rd. 2701 Union Extended, Ste. 500 FAX (215) 322-6127 Hatboro, PA 19040 Memphis, TN 38112 1051 County Line Rd., Ste. 107 PERSONNEL: Ed Ebenbach; Julie Kanter PERSONNEL: Sonny Dickinson, Director Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 DESCRIPTION: Jerrold's line of plain, non- of National CATV Sales; Derwin Otwell, PERSONNEL: Pete Morse, President addressable converters includes the digital National Accounts Manager DESCRIPTION: Sale and purchase of DQN model and the digital, remote volume DESCRIPTION: We distribute Antronix, subscriber products including Plain, Pay controlled DQNV7. Both models offer such non-addressable, 72-channel converters. and Addressable converters, both refurbished subscriber features as remote control, favorite and new, all manufacturers. In addition, channel programming and last channel CTI offers subscriber video switchers and recall. remote control handhelds for most major manufacturers. Consulting for cable operators Scientific in the use of PPV and IPPV, addressability and other transactional services, marketing services for cable operators, computer Panasonic Atlanta software development for addressability. Communications &Systems Company Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. .. .(404) 441-4000 FAX (404) 925-6280 Box 105027 Panasonic Comm. (201) 392-4709 Atlanta, GA 30348 & Systems Company PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Dave

FAX (201) 348-7549 Levitan where emovate, Sa t,a0dion One Panasonic Way 3E-7 DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta non- Secaucus, NJ 07094 addressable set-top terminals are designed PERSONNEL: Richard Strabel, General with arange of superior subscriber and Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 Manager; Jim Slade, Marketing Manager operator features, such as conveniently FAX (215) 443-9454 DESCRIPTION: Manufactures acomplete placed keys, stereo compatibility, infrared 2200 Byberry Rd. line of non-addressable cable converters, programmability, volume control, wide Hatboro, PA 19040 both with and without volume control bandwidth and descrambling capability. All PERSONNEL: Ed Ebenbach; Julie Kanter capability. The product features proven models of non-addressable set-tops are DESCRIPTION: Jerrold offers afull- reliability, astandard 5year warranty, and attractively packaged in the industry's featured remote control for its converters. an unmatched subscriber brand name smallest unit. Remote controllable features include volume recognition. control, last-channel recall, favorite channel programming, impulse ordering and timed Remotes recording. A modified version of the standard remote control also allows subscribers to turn on televisions, removing the need for Q) PIONEER two remote controls in the home. PIONEER COMMUNICATIONS OF AMERICA. INC.

CABLE Pioneer Communications .(201) 327-6400 of America, Inc. PRODUCTS (V) PIONEER WATS (800) 421-6450 PIONEER COMMUNICATIONS OF AMERICA, INC. FAX (201) 327-0963 ABC Cable Products (303) 694-6789 FAX (201) 327-9379 (Cable Exchange, Inc.) 600 E. Crescent Ave. WATS (800) 422-2567 Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 FAX (303) 290-9810 PERSONNEL: 'Pm Holder, Director of 5730 E. Otero Ave., Ste. 700 Pioneer Communications .(201) 327-6400 CATV Div.; John Unverzagt, Director of Englewood, CO 80112-3064 of America, Inc. Engineering PERSONNEL: Dennis Dwyer, VP Sales; WATS (800) 421-6450 DESCRIPTION: Pioneer offers the BC-4600 Harold Bjorklund, President FAX (201) 327-0963 remote converter providing volume control/ DESCRIPTION: Since 1986, ABC has FAX (201) 327-9379

48 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 ADVERTISEMENT CflMIJMELJJERFACE HANDBIalag_

600 E. Crescent Ave. audio services. DESCRIPTION: BradPTS is the industry's Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 largest CATV equipment service and sales PERSONNEL: TM Holder, Director of organization. With nine full service facilities CATV Div.; John Unverzagt, Director of strategically located throughout the U.S., Engineering we service and sell the following products: DESCRIPTION: Pioneer offers the All major makes and models of converters, SmartRemote", one remote which amplifiers, trunk stations and headend consolidates functions from multiple remote JCOMM Ll NICA TIONS equipment, IPPV accessories and afull line controls. The easy-to-program Smart Keys of exact replacement remote control units. learn up to eight different functions from a Factory authorized warranty services is consumer's TV, VCR or other consumer provided for Panasonic, Oak, Alpha electronic equipment. All eight functions Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 Technologies, and others on aprearranged can be programmed within minutes. A FAX (215) 443-9454 basis. For additional information call (800) comprehensive marketing support program 2200 Byberry Rd. 382-2723 (NY) or (800) 999-2723 (Ind.). is provided. Hatboro, PA 19040 PERSONNEL: Dave DelBeccaro; Charles Dougherty DESCRIPTION: Jerrold offers adigital audio service over cable, Digital Cable Radio, which features 16 channels of CD- Scientific quality audio. Jerrold also manufactures a BTSC stereo encoder, the COMMANDER MTS, which encodes satellite-delivered stereo audio into BTSC format for stereo televisions. Atlanta CABLEABLE EXCHANGE. INC. All Jerrold converters pass stereo signals IEC transparently to stereo televisions and VCRs. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. .. .(404) 441-4000 FAX (404) 925-6280 Box 105027 Atlanta, GA 30348 PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Andy Meyer DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta offers both standard remotes and aComplete Remote Cable Exchange, Inc. . ..(303) 694-6789 Control. Standard units are available with LF—AMING INDUSTRIES WATS (800) 422-2567 and without volume control with duplication FAX (303) 290-9810 of Scientific-Atlanta set-top keypad functions 5730 E. Otero Ave., Ste. 700 as well as direct channel entry. The Complete Englewood. CO 80112-3064 Remote Control (CRC) unit consolidates PERSONNEL: Dennis Dwyer, VP Sales; functions of several remotes into asingle, Learning Industries (714) 727-4144 Harold Bjorklund, President easy to use unit. All remotes are designed FAX (714) 727-3650 DESCRIPTION: Compatible Electronic A/B with tactile feel keys and convenient key 15339 Barranca Parkway switches for Addressable and non-addressable layout. Irvine, CA 92718 converters. Mechanical A/B switches, PERSONNEL: James Learning, President; splitters, traps and other indoor and outdoor Robert Learning, Vice President; Keith passive components. Distributors of the Audio/Stereo Rauch, Senior Engineer, Kim Litchfield, UNiWAND and One-for-All Universal Sales Wireless remote control units. DESCRIPTION: Audio transmission equipment for satellite cable and broadcast. Product line includes STL and SCPC equipment, stereo processors, BTSC generators and audio automatic gain control Ca ble Technologies amplifiers. Int ernational, Inc.

FM Systems (714) 979-3355 Accessories Cable Technologies . .. .(215) 953-0100 WATS (800) 235-6960 International, Inc. FAX (714) 979-0913 FAX (215) 322-6127 3877 S. Main St. 1051 County Line Rd., Ste. 107 Santa Ana,CA 92707 Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 PERSONNEL: Frank McClatchie, President; PERSONNEL: Pete Morse, President Larry Morris, National Sales Manager RoreadIDTC DESCRIPTION: Sale and purchase of DESCRIPTION: Audio Level Master: =FM 110‘1111/11 subscriber products including Plain, Pay ALM673, automatic absolute TV audio and Addressable converters, both refurbished loudness control; Modulation Measurement and new, all manufacturers. In addition CTI System: AMM, measures loudness of TV offers subscriber video switchers and remote audio modulation; VVM, measures video BradPTS (518) 382-8000 control handhelds for most major sync & white level; VMM, measures video FAX (518) 382-8452 manufacturers. Consulting for cable operators modulation depth; CSPM-1, measures BTSC 1023 State St. in the use of PPV and IPPV, addressability stereo performance in cable system; FM Schenectady, NY 12301 and other transactional services, marketing Processors: FMC664CC, translates off-air PERSONNEL: Len Gigliotta, National Sales services for cable operators, computer FM to cable FM; Stereo Processors: Manager; Joe King, Manager National software development for addressability. FMU622/FMU623, Galactic Radio & other Accounts

CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 49 ADVERTISEMENT ,DONSUMER MENACE CA14,0001(...

DESCRIPTION: Complete line of consumer interface switches such as: VCR Switch Kits, Antenna Switch Kits, High Isolation A/B Switches, Video Control Centers, Multi- UNICATIONS input Video Switch Boxes, Interface where .11nOvaloOrl IS a »chum Accessories for impulse pay-per-view. E Manufacturers of complete line of drop CABLE EXCHANGE, INC. splitters, wall taps, connectors, adaptors, jumper cables, telephone/video wall plates, Jerrold Communications .(215) 648-4800 and amplifiers. FAX (215) 443-9454 2200 Byberry Rd. Cable Exchange, Inc. .. .(303) 694-6789 Hatboro, PA 19040 Related Services WATS .(800) 422-2567 PERSONNEL: Ed Ebenbach; Dan Moloney FAX (303) 290-9810 DESCRIPTION: Jerrold offers agroup of 5730 E. Otero Ave., Ste. 700 A/B switches for subscribers wishing to Englewood, CO 80112-3064 switch between cable television signals and PERSONNEL: Bill Hammond, Local off-air signals on antennas or between cable Manager; Dennis Dwyer, VP Sales and some accessory such as acomputer. The DESCRIPTION: Full line addressable switches can also be used to switch between glireadDTC converter repair. Authorized Zenith, Jerrold, aconverter and VCR or between two cables. Scientific-Atlanta, out of warranty service station, Panasonic in/out of warranty service.

Cable Technologies (V) PK] Neen BradPTS (518) 382-8000 International, Inc. PIONEER COMMUNICATIONS OF AMERICA, INC. FAX (518) 382-8452 1023 State St. Schenectady, NY 12301 PERSONNEL: Len Gigliotta, National Sales Manager; Joe King, Manager National Cable Technologies . . ..(215) 953-0100 Accounts International, Inc. DESCRIPTION: BradPTS is the industry's Pioneer Communications .(201) 327-6400 FAX (215) 322-6127 largest CATV equipment service and sales of America, Inc. 1051 County Line Rd., Ste. 107 organization. With nine full service facilities WATS (800) 421-6450 Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 strategically located throughout the U.S., FAX (201) 327-0963 PERSONNEL: Pete Morse, President we service and sell the following products: FAX (201) 327-9379 DESCRIPTION: Sale and purchase of All major makes and models of converters, 600 E. Crescent Ave. subscriber products including Plain, Pay amplifiers, trunk stations and headend Upper Saddle River, NJ 07456 and Addressable converters, both refurbished equipment, IPPV accessories and afull line PERSONNEL: Tam Holder, Director of and new, all manufacturers. In addition, of exact replacement remote control units. CATV Div.; John Unverzagt, Director of CTI offers subscriber video switchers and Factory authorized warranty services is Engineering remote control handhelds for most major provided for Panasonic, Oak, Alpha DESCRIPTION: Used with the BA-6000, manufacturers. Consulting for cable operators Technologies, and others on aprearranged Pioneer's VCR Filter provides asolution to in the use of PPV and IPPV, addressability basis. For additional information call (800) the consumer problem associated with the and other transactional services, marketing 382-2723 (NY) or (800) 999-2723 (Ind.). interface of VCRs and cable television services for cable operators, computer converters. The inexpensive VCR Filter software development for addressability. allows asubscriber to view and record different channels without the inconvenience and confusion of switches, splitter and extra jumpers. Scientific CABLE BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, INC. Atlanta /MI IM /11/111/ MR /11 al1.11 NNW 11.61•11‘ NNW 1116r. QUALITY SYSTEMS .FOR TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. . . (404) 441-4000 Cable Business Associates .(213) 424-9253 FAX (404) 925-6280 (Cable Exchange, Inc.) Box 105027 FAX (213) 424-0284 Atlanta, GA 30348 2446 Palm Dr. PERSONNEL: Steve Necessary; Angela Long Beach, CA 90806 Bauer PERSONNEL: Bill Hammond, Local DESCRIPTION: Scientific-Atlanta offers eIntar (800) 252-7889 Manager; Dennis Dwyer, VP Sales repair, replacement parts, emergency parts, FAX (805) 523-1491 DESCRIPTION: Full line addressable project management, technical support and P.O. Box 8060 converter repair. Authorized Zenith, Jerrold, technical training services for its line of Moorpark, CA 93020-8060 Scientific-Atlanta, out of warranty service cable television products. PERSONNEL: Michael D.; Norm Dubuc station, Panasonic in/out of warranty service.

50 CED Consumer Interface Handbook April 1990 Why BradPTS is #1: We service more addressable converters than all competitors combined. BradPTS services and sells more addressable, plain and pay converters than anyone in the industry. Send your converters to BradPTS for the same fast, quality service that made us #1 in the nation. Call your nearest customer service representative at any of the BradPTS facilities listed. IllyeadDTC MIR III Mr

NATION'S #1 SALES AND SERVICE SOURCE.

Arvada, CO Fenton, MI Seattle, WA (800) 624-7289 (313) 750-9341 (206) 244-5770 (in state) Longview, TX Tampa, FL (800) 331-3219 (800) 443-8522 (800) 759-2288 (out-of-state) Sarasota, FL Ventura, CA Bloomington, IN (813) 351-6700 (805) 644-2598 (800) 333-PTS-1 Schenectady, NY (800) 284-2787 (800) 999-2723 (800) 382-2723 West Columbia, SC Cherokee, NC (out-of-state) (803) 794-3910 (704) 497-3314 (518) 382-8000

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