Blog
May 20, 2020
ATX GainMaker-Compatible Amplifiers: Accept no Substitutes
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | The English language is rife with idioms about authenticity. Advertisers scream at us daily to “accept no imitations” or “purchase no substitutes.” Even common surnames, like “McCoy,” have morphed into catchphrases to distinguish the “real” from the wannabe. Why the obsession with originality? One reason might be as [...]
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May 13, 2020
What will be the Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 WFH Policies on MSOs?
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | Over the next couple of months, ATX Networks will roll out what we are calling the 2050 Project, a vision and technology roadmap designed to assist MSOs in extending the longevity of their HFC networks for the next 30 years. It’s an ambitious plan, and one we hope [...]
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April 23, 2020
Why Satellite-to-IP Transition is only First Phase of Audio Distribution Revolution
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | Is the radio industry’s era of satellite-based audio content transmission coming to a close? Many radio networks around the world are involved in serious investigations of the many merits of moving their audio distribution operations to an Internet-based model. The article covers a few of the remaining hurdles [...]
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April 22, 2020
Start Building the HFC Network of the Future – Today
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | Futurists, looking ahead to the technology landscape of the year 2050, envision a communications environment that looks like something out of a science-fiction movie. Think holodecks and other deeply immersive experiences that blur the boundaries between humans and machines. Nobody, of course, can predict with any accuracy what [...]
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January 13, 2020
Long Live the HFC Network!
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | Legend has it that Mark Twain, after encountering his obituary in a newspaper, quipped that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. Given voice, the Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) network that brings video and high-speed Internet into millions of homes and businesses might have something similar to say. HFC, [...]
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August 23, 2019
An Ode to the Outside Plant
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | I’m not suggesting that the run of coaxial cable that makes up the last mile of your network is a work of art or an awe-inspiring technological achievement that merits immortalization in verse. But, all in all, it’s not exactly chopped liver, either. Much of the hardline cable [...]
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July 17, 2019
What Factors are Contributing to DAA and other Deployment Delays?
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | It’s not exactly a secret that much of the momentum behind the real-world installation of Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) has diminished over the past year or so. Numerous and recent media accounts, like this one, correctly identify a slowdown in DAA adoption for 2019 and point a finger [...]
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July 10, 2019
How Next-Gen Taps & Passives Can Help Tune Your Network to Perfection
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | Like nearly everyone these days, I can fit what amounts to all of my music-playing equipment, along with my entire music collection, into my back pocket. That wasn’t always the case, of course. Not that long ago, I could easily consume an entire wall of a good-size room [...]
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April 17, 2019
A New Mantra for MSOs: Agility Matters
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | Choices are the hinges of destiny. Most scholars say the above quotation from American poet Edwin Markham suggests that the decisions we make today will have a significant impact on the future. Despite being penned long before the digital revolution was even a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye, [...]
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April 2, 2019
Why Radio’s Future Requires a New Approach to Audio Distribution & Content Management
By Joe McGarvey, Senior Director, Marketing | Despite predictions of its demise, beginning with the introduction of television in the 1950s, radio has adapted and persevered. It continues to serve a larger audience than newspapers, magazines, television and the Internet. But the continued success of network operators depends heavily on their ability to cut operational [...]
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