The US National Cable Center has inducted Scientific Atlanta's former chairman, president and CEO Sidney Topol into its Cable Television Hall of Fame.

Topol was Scientific Atlanta's president from 1971-83, CEO from 1975-87, and board chairman from 1978-90. Company revenue grew from $16 million to over $600 million during Topol's tenure, according to an official release from Scientific Atlanta, a leading supplier of digital content distribution systems, transmission networks for broadband access to the home, digital interactive set-tops.

Topol has spent over forty years in the field of telecommunications and cable related work. His contribution to the cable industry shaped its direction and flow. He developed the satellite-to-cable interconnection for delivering programming to cable headends. His vision and ability to lead from the front helped the cable industry progress in leaps and bounds, the release says.

As far back as 1982, Topol had predicted the direction set top boxes would take. "I think eventually there are going to be three boxes in the home. The three boxes may be incorporated all in one big box - the addressable 100-channel set-top terminal with tiering and pay-per-view, an interactive terminal for shopping, banking, security and that sort of thing, a modem which interconnects the cable system with personal computers - at high speed," he had noted at the time.