SCTE Touts ANSI Involvement

EXTON, Pa. -- Anticipating approval by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) of SCTE 18 2007, Emergency Alert Messaging and other recent standards submissions to ANSI, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) continues to establish itself as one of the more prolific ANSI-accredited Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs).

SCTE’s vigorous commitment to establishing much-needed standards to help the fast-paced cable telecommunications industry prosper has catapulted the SCTE Standards Program from a rank of 79th in 1998 to 15th as of September of this year among the current 207 ANSI-accredited SDOs.

ANSI facilitates the development of American National Standards (ANS) by accrediting the procedures of SDOs. These groups work cooperatively to develop voluntary national consensus standards. Accreditation by ANSI signifies that the procedures used by the standards body in connection with the development of American National Standards meet the institute’s essential requirements for openness, balance, consensus, and due process.

ANSI has approved 175 SCTE standards since the SCTE Standards Program became ANSI-accredited in 1995. In both 2002 and 2006, the SCTE program received more than 50 standards approvals by ANSI.

The SCTE Standards Program currently comprises 143 members, the program’s high-water mark, each of whom pays an annual standards membership fee to participate in the standards development process. The membership consists of Multiple System Operators (MSOs), hardware manufacturers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and an ever-expanding array of software developers and service providers, including Microsoft Corp. and Google.

“Embracing the standards process is more critical today than ever before, particularly as we expand further into new markets and retail,” said Charlie Kennamer, chairman of the SCTE Engineering Committee and vice president, engineering, standards, and industry affairs with Comcast Cable Corp. “Our accreditation with ANSI and our increasingly strong position within that organization lend vital credibility to the remarkable efforts of our many member volunteers.”

Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE)