Mark Coblitz, Comcast's senior vice president of strategic planning, will deliver the keynote address for Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers' Smart Energy Management Initiative (SEMI) Forum 2012 on March 15 in Philadelphia.
According to SCTE, Coblitz will urge cable operators, programmers, vendors and others to work together to adopt comprehensive energy-management strategies.
"The value of energy management goes far beyond the public relations and financial benefits of ‘green' solutions," Coblitz said in a statement. "Increasingly, cable needs to adopt strategic approaches that include the efficiency, availability and reliability of power, so that new services can be deployed when and where they are required."
SCTE launched the SEMI initiative in February 2010 and has held several members-only events since. The all-day March 15 conference at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown is the first SEMI event to be open to attendance by all interested parties.
Coblitz, who joined Comcast in 1989, has played a key role in many cable technology initiatives, including the development of cable modems and DOCSIS specifications. He has represented Comcast on numerous corporate boards, and currently is a member of the management committee of Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), the developer of the UltraViolet digital-rights locker system.
"Mark Coblitz's thought leadership has played a major role in shaping how the cable industry adopts new technologies," SCTE president and CEO Mark Dzuban said in a statement. "His vision of energy management in the context of new business development significantly expands the horizons of how energy-related decisions can benefit our industry."
Attendance fees for March 15 SEMI event range from $350 to $550 depending on SCTE membership and registration cutoff date. Additional information is at www.scte.org/events/scte_semi_forums.aspx.
