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SCAT SHOW GETS POSITIVE
RESPONSE
The Satellite and Cable TV trade show
Scat '99 ended over the weekend. According to Scat Media
Consultancy director Dinayar Contractor, the show had
an even better response than last year. "We expect the
number of visitors to touch 12,500 as against 10,000
last year," he says. This was despite the fact that
hectic activity around the election results and the
following festival season in India had kept cable operators
busy. (Most cable operators have drawn up plans to telecast
local festivities that take place in various states
live on their networks over the next two months.)
Held over three days at Mumbai's World
Trade Centre, the show did not have much of a focus.
Contractor however says that the drift in the minds
of Indian cable TV operators is towards utilising fibre
in their networks. "One small group of cable operators
from the interior of Maharashtra placed orders for a
hybrid fibre coax network with an Indian supplier, Spacecom
during the trade show," he says. "There was also a keen
interest amongst cable TV operators about Internet delivery
though I do not expect much action on this front very
soon as they are very concerned on the technical capabilities
of their networks," he says.
The trade show attracted 65 exhibitors
and more than 150 brands. Among the names that attended:
the Alpha Zee bouquet (including Nickelodeon), Cartoon
Network, Discovery, Channel V, Scientific Atlanta, General
Instruments, Texas Cable, Gilbert, PPC, and Indian companies
such as Raju & Raju, Spacecomm, amongst many others.
Contractor believes that the next show
will display an even greater leaning towards optical
fibre with companies putting up demonstrations of their
optic transmitters, receivers and fibre. "The cable
TV industry is maturing as the smaller town operators
are also interested in sprucing up their networks,"
he ends on a bullish note.
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