Modern Cable Television Technology, Second Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) (Hardcover)

by Walter Ciciora (Author), James Farmer (Author), David Large (Author), Michael Adams (Author) "Cable television is an industry and a technology that has outgrown its historical name..." (more)
Key Phrases: optical modulation index, dynamic service flow, intercarrier frequency, New York, North America, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Modern Cable Television Technology should be in the library of any company contemplating video services."
-Ezine.com -- Review

Review
"Modern Cable Television Technology should be in the library of any company contemplating video services. It combines thorough coverage of its subject with a moderate amount of technical detail, resulting in a volume that both engineers and non-engineers alike will find useful. Although the book is clearly intended for readers having technical responsibilities related to networks providing video services, much of the material will be helpful as general background for non-technical personnel. In addition to the chapters we note below, the book provides two excellent appendices detailing channel allocation plans as variously implemented and video waveforms, a comprehensive glossary and an index. Each chapter provides helpful end notes for readers wishing to delve further into any specific question. The book is written by four authors, each of whom carries the highest engineering credentials within the cable television industry."
--EZine.com

"For those in search of a truly comprehensive cable engineering reference volume, you simply won't find anything better...Bottom line: If you don't yet have a copy, get one." - Ron Hranac - Communications Technology

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1052 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 2 edition (December 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558608281
• ISBN-13: 978-1558608283
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #323,034 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coverage of current cable issues., September 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Cable Television Technology: Video, Voice, & Data Communications (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) (Hardcover)

The text covers the subject of cable television from an introductory level up to engineering levels. I particularly liked the coverage of current issues in cable, such as Impulse pay per view. The chapter on modulation was informative. With my physics background I was happy to see the book has a good scattering of equations. An equation is indispensable in many situations.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars comprehensive but major reservations, November 23, 2006

By	Bruce D. Wilner "Bruce David Wilner" (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This encyclopedic reference appears to do a good job of spanning the tremendous range of technology comprising satellite transmission and reception ("transception"); head-end organization; regional and "last mile" distribution; and set-top box technology, steering (unfortunately) way clear of the hardware, firmware, and software issues associated with providing modern unidirectional and bidirectional digital services atop multiple tuners in home network (including up-and-coming IPTV) environments supporting slavable hard drives. HOWEVER, being an electrical engineer and, therefore, having naturally started with the chapter on modulation and analog detection, I was WOEFULLY disappointed. It is fine to author mathematical treatments with a heavy hand ("It is imperative that one understand ...," etc.), but one had better know what one is talking about. This is clearly not the case. Where mathematics are presented as putative groundwork for some forthcoming exposition, they are erroneous and weak. Irrelevant theorems from high-school trigonometry are cited as if they are the be-all and end-all of signal analysis. The description of run-of-the-mill Fourier analysis is flawed and terminologically imprecise. The Nyquist theorem is casually referred to as "Harry Nyquist's rule" and cited as if it were a side-effect rather than a vital principle--a principle that is clearly way beyond the authors' understanding, insofar as I never saw any development of the sampling theorem or the expansion of bandlimited functions in terms of sinc (no, NOT sync) pulses. Now, when I studied communication systems, it was critical to have a crystalline understanding of how the signal and power spectra morphed as one proceeds from block to block throughout the (analog or digital) system. Yet, the authors are unable to do this, muffing through vague mention of "X Hz of single sideband and Y Hz of double sideband" and obfuscatory, misleading diagrams of time-domain phenomena accompanied with similarly vague notions of orthogonal this or quadrature that but--you guessed it--steering clear of any precise mathematical exposition (a la Hilbert transforms or diagrams that clearly indicate signal spectra, satellite spectra, aliased sidelobes, etc.) while fumbling through discussions of "two layers" of filtering that attempt to lump transmission "filtering" and reception "filtering" into one logical task without asserting or fully executing any conceptual paradigm whereby the one logically inverts the other. Where is the sampling theorem? Where is the fundamental mathematical expression of amplitude modulation? Where is a clear diagram that demonstrates how the I, Q, and L analog TV signals are multiplexed? Why is there discussion of envelope detection without any mention of the Schwarz inequality? "Constellations" of QAM, QPSK, etc., "signals" are diagrammed without the merest mention of what one is actually looking at, viz., message vectors in Kotelnikoff space based upon an eigenvalue expansion achieved via Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization. What really blew me away, though, was--brief though it was--the most nonsensical statement of all: The authors were discussing various directions in digital compression, and I saw a subchapter heading entitled, "Fractals." I said to myself, "Wow! That's great! I wonder what they've managed and how." Well, the "explanation" was nothing more than, "Fractals are really useful; the only problem is in figuring out the equations." That's like a math student telling his teacher, "I've got the solution to the problem! The only thing I'm missing is the detailed algebraic expansion!"

14 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars comprehensive, well organized, complete, a must have, December 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Cable Television Technology: Video, Voice, & Data Communications (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) (Hardcover)

Every technical library should include this easy to understand volume explaining all aspects of cable television. The authors have drawn from their years of education and practical experience in the Cable industry to produce an excellent reference guide for anyone interested in television and cable technology. Included are chapters on Analog TV, Digital Compression, Cable Data Transport,Headend Signal Processing, Coax, Fiber, Consumer Interface and Equipment Compatability, and other topics. Great minds have produced a fine book!