Scroll down to view the ATIS TechThink 2008 schedule.

ATIS TechThink brings you the future of communications technology-- straight from the minds that shape it. Key players and leaders in the communications industry come together to discuss and debate cutting-edge topics and key trends during 18 sessions divided into three knowledge tracks:

• IPTV

• Convergence

• Home Networking

IPTV is at the heart of a major change in communications as we know it. The living room has become the gateway to the communications experience, and the television is becoming an interactive device, no longer just delivering services but creating communities that interact with the content and with each other. And it is changing the way we make lifestyle choices and spend money.  At the same time, it is just the start – a component in the creation of an entire converged services environment. So now that IPTV is “out there,” what is next? What have we learned from implementing IPTV? How has it changed fundamental business models? And what about the role of content and advertising as they have become part of the value chain in delivering the consumer experience and generating revenue?  What are we doing with the challenges of Quality of Service (Qos) and Quality of Experience (QoE), given they are key service differentiators. The ATIS TechThink IPTV track will explore these questions and more, in the context of the industry having a little more IPTV experience under its belt.          

B1: IPTV Implemented and Deployed – NOW WHAT?
1:00-2:15 PM
Room S222

IPTV is deployed. It is competing with cable and satellite. It is capturing the market share of end-user television and video entertainment services that has been the mainstay of these competitive businesses for years. The technical questions of how service providers and the industry are grooming and advancing IPTV technology beyond the initial deployment phase – the architecture, interoperability and network requirements -- are more of a backdrop than a driver. Now, it is a matter of how to gain an even greater piece of the market share and grow the average revenues per user.

This ATIS Techthink session will focus on what’s next for increasing these numbers. What are the “gee whiz” features and functionalities that will tempt the consumer, capture and keep them – interactive gaming, video sharing, social networking? And what does the content strategy need to be? How will companies respond?

Moderator: Danny Briere
Chief Executive Officer
Telechoice, Inc.

Panelists: Andy Addis
Executive Vice President
Marketing
Hillcrest Labs

Edwin Lau
Group Product Manager
TV Business
Microsoft Corporation

Francis MacDougall
Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder
GestureTek

B2: Changing IPTV Business Models: What Happens to Real Time Programming and Advertising in a “TiVo World?”
2:30-3:45 PM
Room S222

Today, consumers are taking control of their television experience. They want to personalize it. They want an interactive experience that is transferable to other devices and on-demand. There is less of an interest in real-time programming. Couple this slow extinction of real time programming with the impact of changing consumer behavior will have on advertising and its revenue stream, and we face the need for a brave new day requiring fresh business models. Where will the personalized, interactive trend of IPTV lead? What are the impacts on advertising and how must its business model change? How will service providers ensure that advertising reaches the targeted audience? This ATIS TechThink panel will take on these challenging questions and discuss the range of paths forward.

Moderator : Danny Briere
CEO
Telechoice, Inc.

Panelists: Tim Schmidt
Executive Director
Technology & Service Requirements
Verizon

Paul Fahn
Alliance Manager
Samsung Electronics

Brian Ring
Senior Director of Business Development
Broadband Television Business Unit
TANDBERG Television, Part of the Ericsson Group

B3: The Reality of IPTV Deployments – The Successes, The Challenges, and Taking it to The Next Level
4:00-5:15 PM
Room S222

With over eight million subscribers worldwide, deployments more than doubling on an annual basis and projections by 2011 at 55 million IPTV subscribers worldwide, IPTV service has a real foothold in the market. We are beyond a number of the initial technology selections and key implementation challenges. There have been a lot of decisions made and a lot of lessons learned – both for the large and small service providers. This ATIS TechThink panel will share the lessons from deployment – the technology and system choices, the experience in the field, and the consumer feedback. What has worked? What are the plans for moving to a converged network and the responding to a swiftly changing market and consumer demands for more interactive services?

Moderator: Sarah Reedy
Associate News Editor
Telephony Magazine

Panelists: Steve Murray
Vice President
Product Management
Redback Networks

David Foote
Chief Technology Officer
Hitachi Telecom

Jonathan Hurd
Director
Altman Vilandrie & Company

Richard Brand
Director
IPTV Solutions Architecture and Applications
Nortel Networks

T1: Service Providers and Content Providers Talk The Digital Rights Management Language
1:00-2:15 PM
Room S221

Content is a key piece of the over all success formula for IPTV. As the IPTV marketplace announces the arrival of new service provider/content provider relationships every day, delivering high profile television, movies, sports, gaming, etc., how that content management becomes vital to these relationships. What we know is that service providers and content providers are talking, but are they speaking the same language on Digital Rights Management (DRM)? How can content be protected in a world where architectures vary significantly from cable? Can content provider requirements be defined in a way to support standardized architectures? Will the same DRM work in a converged world where content is handed off to mobile devices? Will it work in a shrinking world where content transits the world? This ATIS Techthink panel will explore the “vocabulary“of the service providers and the content providers on DRM.

Moderator: Dom Stasi
CTO
TVN Entertainment

Panelists: Dan O'Callaghan
Principal Member of the Technical Staff
Verizon

Robin Wilson
Vice President of Business Development
Nagravision

Matt Cannard
Vice President of Marketing
Widevine Technologies, Inc.

Bethany Gorfine
President and CEO
Federal Hill Communications

Jim Williams
Senior Vice President and CTO
Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.

T2: IPTV QoS and QoE – Service Differentiator in The Battleground of Competition
2:30-3:45 PM
Room S221

IPTV Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) are becoming a battlefield for competition -- a service differentiator. IPTV services seek to tightly manage performance to ensure a superior entertainment experience resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers and advertisers, while customers ultimately choose based on the quality of their overall experience, QoS and QoE. What QoS metrics are required to ensure this superior performance is provided and maintained? How can QoS and QoE be maintained at current levels in a cost effective way? What challenges are presented by a world where the consumer will have greater control in the home delivery of IPTV? How will these challenges be overcome? This ATIS TechThink panel will discuss the winning propositions for QoS and QoE.

Moderator: Steven Hawley
Senior IPTV Analyst
Multimedia Research Group Inc.

Panelists: Ralph Bachofen
Senior Director
Product Marketing and Management
Triveni Digital - An LG Electronics Company

Alan Clark
Chief Executive Officer
Telchemy, Inc.

Paul Connolly
Vice President, Business Development
Cisco
Service Provider Video Technology Group

Dr. Gowri Krishna
Vice President
Network Design and Engineering Competencies and Solutions Unit
Tech Mahindra

Paul Coverdale
Senior Consultant
Huawei Technologies Co.,Ltd

T3: IPTV Building Blocks: Back Office Support – Ordering, Billing, Provisioning, Customer Care – Are We There?
4:00-5:15 PM
Room S221

The success of any service depends on the systems that make customer service easy, user friendly and cost-effective for the provider. The back office support systems are a key building block of the consumers’ first exposure to IPTV service. These systems can cause a significant impact on the bottom line of the service provider. What is available to support IPTV service ordering, billing, accounting, and tracking? What about installation and provisioning? What lessons have been learned and what will these systems need to accommodate as we move to a service and network converged world ?

Moderator : Tim McElligott
Editor in Chief
Billing & OSS World Magazine

Panelists: Sean Yarborough
Director of Marketing for Strategy, Partnerships, & Field Test Solutions Spirent Communications

Laurie Spiegel
Director of Product Marketing
Telcordia Fulfillment Solution
Telcordia Technologies, Inc.

Michael Alexander
Global Architect for Service Delivery Platform
IBM

Jim McEachern
Vice President
The MultiService Forum

Tuesday, June 17

Convergence enables the delivery of a full spectrum of communications services including voice, multimedia content, communications, and data . . .  anytime, anywhere.  Today’s convergence is about the triple and quadruple play services that are being driven by consumer demand. Tomorrow is about the converged network - both when and how to utilize the existing network while moving toward seamless mobility and full-scale convergence in the business landscape. The technical realities are about choices - which service delivery platform, exploring open source applications as building blocks and securing the network in this new environment.  In the following sessions, ATIS Techthink will explore the full-range of business and technical perspectives, including today’s solutions and tomorrow’s delivery of full-scale, next-generation converged services.

B4: Full-Scale Convergence: What Does it Look Like and How Do We Get There?
1:00 - 2:15 PM
Room S220

Femtocell, WiMAX, WCDMA, the Networked Car - each of these technologies has made its debut, demanding attention by delivering connectivity in new ways and in new spaces. How will each of these emerging technologies afford full-scale converged service offerings? And what will those services be? From home base stations, to metropolitan networks, to the drive to work, what opportunities arise from consumers being continually connected and on the move? What are the business models that make these technologies and the services they support attractive? Are we, as an industry, ready to change the way we think about all of this and respond to the new ways consumers are behaving and what they want. Learn from the industry’s leading technology futurists, vendors and innovators as they offer their views on what the future holds for services delivered any time, anywhere, via any access technology.

Moderator : Paula Bernier
Editor-in-Chief
xchange Magazine

Panelists: Paul Mankiewich
Chief Technology Officer, North America
Alcatel-Lucent

Fred Kemmerer
Chief Technology Officer
GENBAND, Inc.

Steve Zimba
Managing Director, Global Telecom Business
Microsoft Corporation 

Jim Orr
Principal Network Architect
Wireless Market Development Group
Fujitsu Network Communications

B5: The Road to Network Convergence
2:30-3:45 PM
Room S220

While convergence-like services are offered today, service providers need to gauge when and how network convergence is warranted. When will operators expand convergence offerings beyond voice to more advanced services? What timelines are in place to migrate towards an all-IP core network? Do fixed operators need a mobile asset to be successful in the FMC market? Service providers and network operators offer their insights on the road to full convergence, including what milestones will appear along the way.

Moderator: Susan Schramm
Head of North America Marketing
Nokia Siemens Networks

Panelists: Fred Kemmerer
Chief Technology Officer
GENBAND, Inc.

James Glover
Senior Product Manager
Redback Networks, Inc.

Ron Raffensperger
Director, Core Network Marketing
Huawei Technologies Co., LTD

Jonathan Hindle
Director, Mobile Service Provider Marketing
Cisco

B6: Capitalizing on Existing Networks to Deliver The Converged Services of Today
4:00-5:15 PM
Room S220

Today’s market and consumer demands are driving the introduction of “convergence-like” services and applications. At the same time, taking the steps to achieve full–scale convergence and deliver the innovative services that it will afford is underway. Exactly what services are consumers demanding?  How are these services delivered and managed  today within the existing network infrastructure? This session will share first-hand insights and experiences from the service providers offering these converged services today. It will lay the ground work for the session to follow on what full-scale convergence will look like tomorrow -- both the emerging technologies that will invite the arrival of the future and the services that will be offered in response to ever-growing consumer demand. 

Moderator : David Waite
Director
Altman Vilandrie & Company

Panelists : J.S. (Jake) MacLeod
Chief Technology Officer
Bechtel Communications, Inc.

Kevin Sheehan
CEO
Hatteras Networks

Sarvesh Sharma
Director – Network Solutions
CTO Office
Huawei USA

William L. (Lonnie) Martin
Chief Executive Officer
Aktino

T4: The Service Delivery Platform: Innovation In Offering Next-Gen Services with IMS, SOA, and Web 2.0
1:00-2:15 PM
Room S219

The Service Delivery Platform (SDP) is grabbing hold as a revolutionary concept, a horizontal approach to delivering next-generation, converged services. Recent solutions for the SDP offer the ability to support voice call continuity and converged voice services. By utilizing the existing core network infrastructure, the SDP’s role in the provision of real-time agility for the delivery of services via Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Web 2.0 will bolster the ability of industry players to make cost-effective decisions about network infrastructure - while maintaining converged service offerings for their customers in the short term. A cross industry panel will explore the what, when and how of the Service Delivery Platform.

Moderator: Ibrahim Gedeon
Chief Technology Officer
TELUS Communications Inc.

Panelists: Richard Cornetti
Director of Product Marketing
Spirent Communications

Cindy Mills
Managing Principal
Global Practice for Communications Applications
Alcatel-Lucent

Andrew White
Director
Network Application Architecture
Qwest Communications

Dr. Brenda Connor
Portfolio Manager
Service Creation, Delivery, and Management
Ericsson, Inc.

T5: Open Source -- Innovation for Converged Services
2:30-3:45 PM
Room S219

The Industry use of open source, which provides a framework of underlying principles and practices on how to write software, is expected to lower the costs of handsets and network elements alike.  Mobile handsets are appearing on the market which utilize a variety of open source software, allowing third party applications to customize the user’s experience -- as well as changing the business landscape of small and medium sized business customers and enterprises to enable unified communication with enterprise business applications. Panelists will discuss the use of open source to provide greater flexibility, customization and speed to market for converged services in the mobile and the enterprise space.   

Moderator: Sean Buckley
Editor-in-Chief
Telecommunications Magazine

Panelists: Maria Pardee
President
Global Integration for BT Design

Mark Spencer
CTO and Founder
Digium®, Inc.

Rakesh Radhakrishnan
Senior Principal IT Architect
Sun Microsystems

T6: Securing Your Converged Network
4:00-5:15 PM
Room S219

Convergence drives the need for ever greater security and innovative, cost-effective ways to achieve it. In the converged network, security takes place both vertically and horizontally, from a single-layer focus to a multi-layer security matrix, as well as across network types. In the converged environment, security will require not only secure access technology but also extensive policy enforcement. ATIS TechThink vendor panelists will explore the security challenges and the methods and solutions used to keep networks secure both today and in the fully-converged environment.

Moderator: Hakan Millroth
Chief Executive Officer
Tail-f Systems

Panelists: Steven Teitzel
Global Solution Executive
IBM Global Telecommunications Industry

Seamus Hourihan
Vice President
Marketing & Product Management
Acme Packet

Michael Frendo
Senior Vice President
High-End Security Systems
Juniper Networks

Wednesday, June 18

As services move across the threshold into the customer premise, service providers, network operators and consumer electronics vendors face a set of challenges to support the deployment of Internet Protocol (IP)- based Services in the Home Network. The end consumer demands universal plug-and-play devices and a home network that is easy to install, integrate and manage. The industry must consider its options and ability to use multiple wired technologies such as coax, telephone and electrical wiring, plus wireless technologies to establish and maintain the high bandwidth needed to deliver these advanced services. The ATIS TechThink Home Networking sessions present what happens when consumer electronics, habitats and social networks converge.

B7: Capitalizing on the Home Network: Is There A Viable Business Case?
1:00-2:15 PM
Room S219

As the home network becomes increasingly complex, network service providers, equipment vendors and consumer electronics and device manufacturers have new opportunities. How can these opportunities be transformed into sustainable revenue generating products and services? Senior industry executives will offer their perspectives on the home network and how to maximize revenue potential.

Moderator: Patrick Hurley
Director of Research
Telechoice, Inc.

Panelists: Peter Linder
Director End-to-End Network Solutions
Business Unit Networks
Ericsson Inc.

Bill DeMuth
Vice President - Chief Technology Officer
SureWest Communications

Bob McIntyre
Chief Technology Officer
Service Provider Group
Cisco

B8: Enhancing the Consumer's Lifestyle: The Home Network Will Change How We Live
2:30-3:45 PM
Room S219

The connected home will dramatically enhance consumer’s day-to-day experiences including managing the physical assets of the home (energy, home security), digital entertainment (gaming, social networking, interactive television services, dynamic content delivery, photo/video sharing) as well as telecommuting for work (telepresence). New technologies and services will improve the consumer’s quality of experience as they manage their home and lifestyle more efficiently. Learn from the industry’s leading technology futurists, vendors and innovators who will discuss what the consumer can expect as we move into the future.

Moderator : Patrick Hurley
Director of Research
Telechoice, Inc.

Panelists: Nandhu Nandhakumar
Senior Vice President
Advanced Technology
LG Electronics

Donna Campbell
Executive Director
Ericsson Mobility World
Ericsson, Inc.

Tushar Saxema
Director
Home Networking Technology
Verizon Communications

Jim Strothmann
Director, Product Strategy and Managment
Service Provider Video Technology Group
Cisco

B9: Many Options: What Device Will be the Command Center of the Home Network?
4:00-5:15 PM
Room S219

The consumer’s home is filled with multiple devices offering a wide array of services and capabilities. As these devices become integrated into the home network, which device can be considered the central controlling device of the home network? Will the managed home network stem from a PC, Set Top Box, Home Gateway or even a gaming console? Panelists from the competitive consumer electronics (CE) space will offer their perspective on the necessary features and functionality of a central controlling device.

Moderator: Brad Kayton
Chief Operating Officer
4HomeMedia, Inc.

Panelists: John Yoon
Vice President of Marketing
Control4

Jeff Crews
Former General Manager
Home Monitoring & Control Services
Bell Canada

Martin Manniche
Chief Technology Officer - Connected Home
Linksys - A Division of Cisco

Ken Haase
Senior Director Product Line Management
Broadband Solutions Group
Home and Networks Mobility
Motorola, Inc.

T7: As Easy As 1-2-3: Can We Achieve True Plug-and-Play?
1:00-2:15 PM
Room S220

As more devices are integrated into the home network, the industry faces the challenge of ensuring consumer electronic devices seamlessly interoperate - a critical aspect to the end-user’s quality of experience. This panel will identify and discuss important interoperability issues related to gateways, middleware, end-user devices, security, UPnP and various media formats and other topics that are at the forefront of the interoperability challenge.

Moderator: Brian Henrichs
Vice President Business Development
Teleco Division
Actiontec Electronics, Inc.

Panelists: Brad Kayton
Chief Operating Officer
4HomeMedia, Inc.

Natasha Tamaskar
Vice President Product Management and Marketing
NextPoint Networks

Dr. Ken Morse
Vice President, Client Architecture
Service Provider Video Technology Group
Cisco

Travis Leo
Director
High Speed Internet Product Management
Qwest Communications

T8: Minimizing Cost in Managing the Home Network: Enabling the Virtual Truck-Roll
2:30-3:45 PM
Room S220

The increasing number of entertainment options, video services and consumer devices within the home has made connecting all these systems more complex than ever. Where does the home network begin and where does it end? Whose responsibility is it to diagnose, monitor and/or troubleshoot the home network in order to ensure a quality user service and experience – the service provider or do-it-yourself installer/consumer? More times than not, the consumer calls the service provider when problems occur, so how can service providers effectively manage the home network while minimizing costly truck-rolls? Panelists include executives from service providers and leading equipment vendors who will offer their perspective on both the virtual “tool-box” required to manage the home network as well as the challenges facing the industry as the home network becomes more complex.

Moderator: Gene Lew
Vice President Products and Strategy
Integra5

Panelists: Mowaffak Midani
Senior Manager
Network Solutions Architecture
Motorola

Peder Ulander
Vice President of Product Strategy
Pure Networks

Jaime Fink
Vice President
Technology and Strategy
2Wire, Inc.

T9: Provisioning The Home Network: Untangling the Wire
4:00-5:15 PM
Room S220

Getting bandwidth to the home from your service provider is only the beginning - once inside, now what? There are many choices for the type of connection technology that can be used within the home to deliver the service (coax, wireless, WiFi, Femtocell), electrical wiring (BPL, Cat 5/e and/or fiber). How do you provision the home network to deliver the bandwidth-rich services consumers want such as video delivery, photo sharing, and gaming? What steps are consumer equipment vendors taking to help unravel the tangled mess? What do service providers need to reduce the 4-to-6 hour installation process? This panel will address these questions and provide their perspective regarding how to provision the home network and manage bandwidth demands.

Moderator: Sean Yarborough
Director of Strategy and Field Solutions
Spirent Communications

Panelists: Christoph Inauen
Head of Network Solutions
Nokia Siemens Networks

Mowaffak Midani
Senior Manager
Network Solutions Architecture
Motorola

Adam Powers
Principal Engineer and Architect
Embedded Solutions Business Unit
Macrovision