SCTE’s Balkan Broadband Success
SCTE’s sell-out 2012 Balkan Broadband Conference and Exhibition was held in the Hotel Continental, Belgrade (Serbia) on 29 March 2012. Key support was given by the Serbian Cable Operator Association (PUKOS) which was established in 2002 and now has over 45 members. The exhibition was fully booked and the event attracted around 400 visitors and 30 exhibitors from 27 countries. Main sponsors of the event were PUKOS, Cisco, HMConsult and KlasikTV.
The SCTE’s fourth Balkan Broadband Conference offered top-level Keynote speakers and exhibition floors where investors, operators, technicians and installers ‘Meet & Greet’ the international exhibitors. The conference featured a number of technical presentations from speakers such as the CEO and founder (Tibor Blogh) of the Hungarian company, Holografika KFT, who addressed the audience on how his 3DTV system works without using 3D glasses. A cruise on the Dona river, arranged by PUKOS, for 170 delegates followed the closure of the exhibition.
Serbia is an EU candidate member with more than 7 million inhabitants and over 1.5 million cable subscribers. The dominant MSO, SBB (Serbian Broadband), services over 700,000 subscribers and PUKOS (Business Association of Cable Operators of Serbia), with its 47 small and medium-sized members, claims to cover around 50% of the total market. PUKOS celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, coinciding with SCTE’s decision to select Belgrade as the location for the 4th edition of the SCTE Balkan Broadband and Conference 2012.
Mrs. Jasan Matic, State Secretary, Digital Agenda and former Minister of Telecommunications, opened the conference with an exiting overview of the Serbia telecommunication market. After Mrs. Matic, a variety of interesting keynote presentations followed, including:
- Professor Zoran Jovanovic, AMRES Director, on the broadband gigabit network as a part of the European GEANT network
- France Presetnik, President of PUKOS, with an overview of 10 years of PUKOS
- Chris Bailey, FSCTE and member of the SCTE Executive Committee, on the values and benefits of SCTE membership
- Djordje Vulovic, CISCO Systems’ engineer, on Cisco’s vision of the future of Broadband
- Ulrich Boes, owner of URSIT, explaining European financing of Broadband Communications.
After the coffee break, sponsored by the Croatian KlasikTV (cable+IPTV channel specialising in feature films, documentaries and animated programmes), the conference continued with technical keynotes from:
- Jason Dando, Business Development Asheridge Communications Ltd., on HDMI technologies
- Tibor Balogh, owner of the Hungarian Holografika Hft, on 3DTV viewing without glasses
- Jan Ariessen, CTO Technetix Group Ltd., with research results on how DOCSiS 3.0 bonded channels affect upstream and downstream characteristics
- Velimir Godec, Teleste VP Sales for the CEE Region, on the evolution of Cable TV services beyond broadcast TV.
All presentations were simultaneously translated into Serbian and English and the audience listened to the presentations using wireless headphones.
Every year, the SCTE organises the Balkan Broadband conference and exhibition. Last year’s event was held in Skopje, Macedonia, with support from high-level sponsors. SCTE training courses have achieved wide acceptance as the standard for young technicians wishing to enter the field of cable telecommunications and for those wishing to advance their knowledge and career prospects. They are used in-house by a number of operating companies and SCTE engineers can be found working in a variety of international organisations. SCTE training courses in the Balkans have netted the Society many new members and a reputation as a leading broadband trainer in the region.
See www.thescte.eu for further details and images from the event. SCTE members can download full presentations from the Members section of the SCTE website at http://www.thescte.eu/index.php/downloads/cat_view/22-members-only-content/24-balkans-conferences-and-exhibitions/86-2012?start=10