A Perfect Score for CommScope’s Innovative Edge QAM Solution

“A Five Diamond score is a rare honor and a perfect five, even more so,” said Rob Stuehrk, president and group publisher, Broadband Technology Report. “In the history of the Diamonds program, only five products out of approximately 200 submissions have received a perfect score. CommScope’s wideband edge QAM solution earned both honors in this year’s reviews, an impressive accomplishment indeed.”

Several of the judges, which included board members from the Society of Cable Telecommunication Engineers (SCTE) and other leading industry engineers, said the following about the LxS-16016 wideband edge QAM:

“Amazing QAM density and low-power consumption combined with extraordinary modulation error ratio specs makes this a power edge device.”
“Simply awesome. Sixteen ports of 160-QAM generation with individual channel control is a future state requirement available today. Great density and power advantages.”

“We thank the judges for this tremendous honor,” said Ric Johnsen, senior vice president, Broadband, CommScope. “CommScope continues to expand and evolve our technology solution offerings that allow multi-system operators to cost effectively deliver key services that are important to their subscribers. This perfect score speaks volumes to the investment CommScope made this year when we introduced this solution in June. In four months, CommScope is helping to move the cable television industry forward by providing innovative solutions that help multi-system operators increase their bandwidth capabilities and dynamically deliver advanced services.”

The LxS-16016 wideband edge QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) solution is believed to be the industry’s first all-digital, carrier grade wideband edge QAM. It is a dense, scalable solution that is vital to supporting additional advanced and next-generation services over HFC (hybrid fiber coax) networks. The LxS-16016 offers up to 160 QAM channels on each of its 16 RF (radio frequency) ports totaling 2560 QAMs in a small, fully redundant 4 RU chassis. This increased density provides cable operators with the flexibility to roll out future deployments of video on demand, switched digital video, broadcast video, DOCSIS® and cable Internet Protocol television on the same physical redundant RF port without the need for headend reconfiguration or service disruption.

By directly digitizing the entire 1 GHz band, the LxS-16016 achieves superior RF and enhanced remote management flexibility. The density of this new solution also helps operators reduce capital and operating expenses by significantly lowering the price per QAM, power consumption, cabling complexity, rack space and cooling.

The Broadband Technology Report Diamond Technology Reviews (the “Diamonds”), a renowned industry program now in its sixth year, was developed to recognize some of the top products and solutions available to the cable industry as determined by a stellar panel of multi-system operators engineering experts. Engineering executives from Bright House, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Suddenlink, Sunflower Broadband and Time Warner Cable served as third-party judges for the 2011 Diamonds. Every year, Broadband Technology Report invites vendors to submit written information about products/solutions that have been released or upgraded since the previous year’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo (October 2010). Criteria used in the Diamonds rankings include, first and foremost, unique technology or application thereof, innovation, ease of use, efficiency, reliability and contribution to profitability.