SCTE•ISBE Training Instructors and Content Developers

SCTE continuously develops education training and content to stay ahead of the ever-evolving technology in today’s growing cable telecommunications field. The Society employs the knowledge of a core group of dedicated experts consisting of experienced SCTE instructors and technical consultants from across the industry.

SCTE Instructors
Dr.-Ing. Alexander C. Adams, Technical Consultant, Instructor
Rolando Barja Elías, Coaxial Networks Director, Cotas RL
Craig Chamberlain, Technical Consultant, Instructor
Dennis Brown, Director, Engineering Education
Michael Collins
Derek DiGiacomo, Senior Director, Energy Management Programs and Business Continuity, SCTE•ISBE
Ed Finger
Reynaldo Gonzalez
Bob Grant
Wayne Hall
Steve Harris, Senior Director, Technical Education, SCTE•ISBE
William Hocker
Daniel Howard
Justin (Jay) Junkus
Gene O'Neil
Lennie Pici
Leslie W. Read
Paul Rodrigues, Director, Field Education
Lamar West, Ph.D., LEW Consulting, LLC
Ken Williams

SCTE Technical Consultants
Steven C. Johnson, Technical Consultant, Owner/Operator, Johnson Telecom, LLC
Paul T. Schauer, Technical Consultant
Neil Serafin, Technical Consultant
Brady Volpe, President and Founder, The Volpe Firm, Inc.
George M. Wright, Technical Consultant

SCTE Instructors

Dr.-Ing. Alexander C. Adams
Technical Consultant, Instructor

Dr. Alexander Adams was born in Wittmund, Germany in June 1971. He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, where he received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees. He worked for the Boeing Company and the United States Department of Defense during his Master studies in Control Systems Engineering in the development of electric hybrid vehicles and aircraft control systems. He received his PhD from the Technical University Darmstadt in geoinformation systems.

Since 2001 Alex has been active in the cable industry as a project engineer and managing director of the companies Adams Consult and Adams Network Engineering in the design, upgrade and service of HFC-networks. He is auditor of dibkom – German Institute for Broadband Communications, a member of the US Cable Lab’s research group “Proactive Network Maintenance” and a geoinformation specialist for the SCTE as well as her official representative in Europe. Alex couples communication systems engineering with geoinformation systems in his daily work, focusing on increased operational efficiency in cable networks by correlation of informational attributes with geo-locations with respect to cable.

Contact Info: aadams@scte.org

MBA CWTS Rolando Barja Elías
Coaxial Networks Director - Cotas RL 
BPS / CWTS / DOCSIS 3.1 - Certified 
SCTE Adjunct Instructor

Eng. Rolando Barja was born in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia in March 1972. Since 1999 Rolando has been active in the cable industry initially as a field technician, signal operator technician, headend operations, HFC operations and maintenance and today transferred to a Coaxial Network Director. He has general knowledge from the reception, processing, and transmission of analog and digital signals, their distribution in the optical backbone network and the coaxial network, involving the CPE of the users.

He has been an SCTE member from 2001 and belongs to other telecommunications organizations such ATVC and CWNP, in 2013 he was inducted into the ATVC Technical Commission from Argentina. He is one of the foreign members and speakers of many of the seminars and telecommunication events around Latin-America, Central-America and United States. Rolando has a Master of Business Administration with General Manager Specialist earned in 2013 by the European Postgrad Institute and San Pablo University. In 2009 Rolando created the South and Central American Meeting Group with Latin-American SCTE members, to have the objective to spread knowledge and SCTE resources to all Latin American members.

In 2013 he joined the Spanish translators working group for white papers, primers, and live learning webinar archives, he has translated almost 33 documents, which were distributed and available to all SCTE members. Rolando has a great understanding of cable theory, trunk network experience and is able to leverage this knowledge to facilitate greater customer experiences inside and outside Bolivia, providing an excellent foundation for new technicians.

Contact Info: rbarja@scte.org

Dennis Brown
Director, Engineering Education, SCTE

Dennis Brown started in Telecommunications by joining a contractor frim working with Cox Communications in Roanoke VA area in 1995. Dennis worked as an installer for the residential side of the HFC network. A few years later Dennis moved back to his home town of Atlanta GA where he still worked with same contract group as a Primestar satellite installer. Dennis’s Microwave career continued with a try at wireless cable service for Bellsouth in the Atlanta metro area. This venture was exciting but, Dennis wanted to get back to the wired side of cable. A door opened up at Cablevision of Duluth and allowed Dennis to be an installer again. A year later cablevision was bought by Charter. Dennis stayed at Charter for 16 years holding roles in Service, and system tech, then in 2005 Dennis took on the role of technical trainer and held that position until he reached the senior level in 2010. In 2013 Dennis and his family relocated to the Dallas Texas area and left Charter to join Time Warner Cable as their Business class trainer. In this role Dennis was able to train on IP and fiber optics. A bigger fiber opportunity came about in 2015 when Ericsson asked Dennis to join them in building Fiber to the home networks. In this Role Dennis helped setup training needed for the crews to build fiber backbones, fiber to the curb, and fiber to the home. Dennis is excited about joining the team at the SCTE and being able to share his knowledge with future engineers and techs in the cable industry. When Dennis is not at work he enjoys helping to coach his son’s baseball team and fishing.

Contact Info: dbrown@scte.org

Craig Chamberlain
Technical Consultant, Instructor

Craig Chamberlain has over 25 years in the cable television industry. He has spent time at CableLabs, Hewlett Packard/Agilent and Motorola. Until recently he was responsible for laboratory activities at CableLabs, which included certification testing for DOCSIS and PacketCable. He was also a part time instructor teaching electrical engineering communication theory at the University of Colorado Denver. Craig is co-inventor on 9 patents relating to cable networks. Craig has a MSEE from the University of Colorado with an emphasis on communication theory.

Contact Info: cchamberlain@scte.org

Michael Collins

Hello, I would like to introduce you to Michael Shawn Collins, Independent Telecommunications Professional.  

Michael resides in Riverview, Michigan.  He has lived in Michigan his entire life and city of Riverview for 50+ years.  Michael attended Riverview Community High School, received his high school diploma in 1967, and continued his education at Henry Ford Community College from 1967-1969. Michael was also a member of Henry Ford Community College Swim Team. 

Michael hired into Michigan Bell Telephone Company in 1969, as an Installation Repair Technician. During this time, he taught himself all the aspects required to perform excellence in the communication field.   In 1984, Michael was promoted into the Digital Operation Group, (DOG) turning up cell sites and remote fiber huts.  He was involved and oversaw the building of fiber backbones for Ford, GM, and Chrysler.  

Michael has attended several weekend college instructions through Ameritech, and because of his expertise in the field, promoted to management for Digital Operation, as an Area Manager of the Digital Operation Group (DOG), overseeing eight managers, and approximately 150 technicians covering the entire state of Michigan.

Michael retired from AT&T in June, 2006, and continued working as an Independent Telecommunications Professional, in both the telecommunication and cable television industries.

Contact Info: mcollins@scte.org

Derek DiGiacomo
Senior Director, Information Technology and Energy Management Programs, SCTE

Derek has been with SCTE for over 12 years and his primary responsibility is managing the cable industry’s Smart Energy Management Initiative (SEMI). The SCTE’s SEMI Forum is part of SCTE’s ongoing effort to drive meaningful and substantive applications of technology that lead to improved energy management, system availability, and the reduction of energy consumption and expense. Under Derek’s leadership, SCTE has seen a dramatic 46% reduction in the dependency of grid-supplied power. Key projects contributing to this savings include: installation of 17.04 kW DC solar photovoltaic (PV) system (including Power Purchase Agreement - PPA); LED lighting research and replacement; private cloud deployment via server virtualization; and power efficient computer deployment to all of SCTE’s staff.  Derek is also involved with overseeing the Sustainability Management Subcommittee (SMS) in the SCTE Standards program. The SMS team is responsible for writing best practices and standards pertaining to energy reduction and system availability in cable systems. 

Derek’s second responsibility is the direction of SCTE’s information systems where he sets the IT strategy and leads his team in daily IT operations. Business continuity is key consideration in all off IT projects he leads. He was responsible for the newly installed hybrid power hydrogen fuel cell/PV system (which also qualifies as a sustainable initiative) at SCTE’s Exton Pennsylvania headquarters, granting SCTE 5-7 days of runtime on critical systems in the office.

He holds a Master’s of Science degree in Telecommunications and Network Management from Syracuse University.

Contact info: 610-594-7310, ddigiacomo@scte.org

Ed Finger

With over 20 years of widespread experience instructing and consulting on a variety of solutions, Ed has become a sought after Subject Matter Expert. He has spent most of his career educating himself and others on Cisco products and solutions focused on advanced network technologies and has a multitude of multilevel Cisco certifications, including the notable, Certified Cisco Systems Instructor (CCSI) certification.

Ed has extensive experience in Consulting and Instructing of, DOCSIS 1.x- 3.0, WAN (Wide Area Network), IP Networks and 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wireless technologies. He has been responsible for integration and solutions teams, for Wi-Fi, SP Wi-Fi and DOCSIS.

Ed and his family resides in Boise ID.

Contact Info: efinger@scte.org

Reynaldo Gonzalez

Reynaldo Gonzalez is a Senior Network Engineer that has been involved with various projects in the USA, Europe, Central and South America. With over 10 years of networking experience since 2003, Reynaldo continues to self-develop in the networking industry. Reynaldo graduated with a B.S with Honors in Applied Networking & System Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and has plans to pursue his Master's Degree. Reynaldo holds several Cisco certifications such as CCNA R&S/Security/Voice/Data Center/Design, CCNP R&S/Security/Design, CCIP and is currently working on his CCIE R&S and CCDE. On his free time, Reynaldo teaches Cisco Networking classes through the Cisco Networking Academy Program and is a Cisco Certified Academy Instructor as well as a Cisco Certified Instructor Trainer. Reynaldo lives with his family in Houston, Texas.

Bob Grant

Bob Grant is a cable professional specializing in RF technical training from the fiber node to the customers equipment.

Bob received his post-secondary education as an Electronics Engineering Technician from Niagara College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ontario, Canada. After graduation, Bob held several positions before settling in the CATV industry. Starting out as a service technician, Bob worked his way through the ranks doing service, maintenance and service inspections before moving into Management. Bob has over eight years in management at various locations throughout Ontario, Canada which included a role as a Quality Management Specialist, responsible for buried service wires throughout the Niagara Region in Ontario, he also did more inspections as well as coaching and being utilized as a Subject Matter Expert in litigation cases. Bob moved into training in 2016, utilizing some of his past knowledge to train new hires into the industry and he also did some technical writing and review for various training organizations. Most recently Bob has been working as a project manager responsible for liaisons with OSP’s from the local MSO’s and organizing new build, electric pole transfers, fiber out-build and node splits.

Bob has a great understanding of cable theory and test equipment and is able to leverage this knowledge to facilitate greater customer experiences. Bob also has an ability to pass this knowledge on in an easily understood manner. Working with other professionals or in a teaching capacity, Bob has been able to provide excellent foundations for new technicians.

Bob maintains residence with his family in a small town in Southern Ontario which he fondly refers to as the centre of the Universe.

Contact info: bgrant@scte.org

Wayne Hall

Wayne’s career in the broadband industry has been one of engineering leadership of professional teams engaged in network engineering and operations for several companies.

He joined C-Cor Electronics as a lineman in 1977 as part of a turnkey new system construction team and then joined ATC (evolved into TWC) in 1978 later that year as an installer. In his fifteen years with TWC Wayne held Chief Technician, Chief Engineer and General Manager positions and worked his way to Division VP Engineering/Technical Operations for Raleigh-Durham, Kansas City and Houston, TX divisions.

Wayne joined Harron Communications in 1992 as VP Engineering and then Comcast in 1996. With Comcast he initially served as RVP Engineering, followed by Sr Director-Engineering at corporate in 1999 and then corporate VP Engineering in 2001. In 2005 Wayne became VP Quality Assurance for the National Engineering &Technical Operations followed in 2007 by a return to the field as RVP Engineering for Comcast’s Keystone Region until 2015.

At Comcast he was selected as a Comcast Core Business Champion and later became a member of the Comcast Engineering Hall of Fame.

Active in SCTE, he has been a Chapter President three times, a Region Director for 6 years and Chairman of the SCTE Board of Directors for 2 years and is a Senior Member.

In 2006 he was recognized by the industry as a Cable Pioneer.

He received a B.S. in Engineering and officer commission from the United States Military Academy at West Point, receiving an honorable discharge after 5 years of Army service in infantry and military police units. 

Contact info: whall@scte.org

Steve Harris,CCNP, CCIP, CWNA, IPEP
Senior Director, Technical Education, SCTE•ISBE

As a subject matter expert and sought-after speaker in the telecommunication and information technology industry, Steve develops engineering technical curriculum, adult learning content, industry certifications, career progression programs, operational practices, symposiums, webinars and other technical resources at the SCTE/ISBE. He is responsible for industry networking, and outreach; strategic business development, academy and corporate partnerships; instructor-led vendors and instructional delivery across all disciplines.  He has written a number of articles for industry trade magazines, moderated various technical panel discussions and participates at ANGA in Europe, along with Jornadas in South America.

Prior to his current position, Harris was responsible for the development of adult learning curriculum and customized technical content for regional and national markets of Comcast.  At Comcast, he evaluated the effectiveness of training programs, provided experienced leadership for growing technical training initiatives which led to his distinction of being the inaugural recipient of the SCTE/ISBE Excellence in Cable Telecommunications L&D Award.

Prior to joining Comcast, Harris spent more than thirteen years in higher education, serving as a continuing education professor, adjunct faculty, curriculum developer and network administrator, for Camden County College and Rowan University.  In his early years he worked in the field of electronics at a small TV repair shop.

Harris holds a degree electronics and telecommunications.  In addition, Harris holds more than 45 industry and instructor certifications, such as the CCIP, CCNP, CWNA, Motorola, Linux, IPv6 and Business Services.  Harris is top 10% of Certified Cisco Academy Instructors (CCAI) globally.  He has extensive experience FTTx/PONs, broadband installation, DOCSIS, headend, IP, video, RF HFC access networks and wireless technologies.  He is also is an alumnus of the SCTE-Tuck Executive Leadership Program at Dartmouth and the SCTE-Georgia Tech Management Executive Development Program.  

In the past he has served on the SCTE NJ Chapter Board of Directors as VP and the chair of the Camden County College computer club.

Contact Steve at 800-542-5040, ext. 7324 or sharris@scte.org. 

William Hocker

As a Cisco Academy Instructor, William Hocker has extensive experience in delivering Cisco education since 2003.  He has delivered many courses for several colleges in the St. Louis Region and is currently a faculty member at St. Louis Community College. While working as a technical instructor for New Horizons and St. Louis University (SLU) Workforce, William has also delivered many CompTIA and official Cisco boot camp training courses.  Currently he provides Cisco training for the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Society of Cable and Telecommunication Engineers (SCTE). His field experiences have included providing infrastructure support for the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in New York; was a VoIP technician on the State Farm Insurance VoIP project through World Wide Technology and was a Senior Conversion Engineer for Bank of America's (BoA) VoIP project in Missouri and Charlotte, NC corporate headquarters. William holds several degrees in Computer Networking including a Masters from Fort Hays State University and has completed several certifications including the CompTIA A+, Network+, Cisco CCAI, CCNA R&S, and CCNP VOICE. 

Contact info: whocker@scte.org

Daniel Howard
SCTE Fellow

As SCTE Fellow, Daniel Howard focuses on on helping SCTE, SCTE’s International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE) and corporate and individual members to operationalize forward-looking new technologies in such next-generation areas as Wireless, Cybersecurity, DOCSIS 3.1 and the SCTE Energy 2020 program.

 Daniel, who co-founded and served as CTO of Broadcom acquisition Digital Furnace, is a veteran of two decades in the cable and technology sectors. Since joining SCTE in 2010, he has significantly expanded the scope of the organization’s Professional Development programs, accelerated the development of Standards for energy management, video quality and other areas, and helped to enhance the quality and quantity of educational offerings at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo and other industry events.

A leader in recognizing the potential of IP technology for cable system operators, Daniel co-authored the industry’s DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0 specifications, and while with Broadcom was a lead inventor on the company’s primary DOCSIS 3.0 patent. Additional contributions include the development of broadband growth models for cable system networks, evaluation of such new technologies as IPTV and Synchronous CDMA (SCDMA), and the writing of more than 50 articles, reports and international technical specifications.

Daniel holds a BS in Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Contact info: 610-594-7319, dhoward@scte.org

Justin (Jay) Junkus

Jay Junkus is the author of the three textbook DigiPoints series on cable digital technology, and retired President of KnowledgeLink, Inc., a training and consulting firm he founded in 1992. During his tenure at KnowledgeLink, he trained thousands of technical personnel in data communications and telephony, and published numerous articles that discuss digital technology applications in telecommunications systems. He has been a consultant and trainer to several cable company multiple system operators and communications equipment vendors and developed one of the first SCTE courses for SCTE data training and certification. Over his career, he has taught numerous SCTE courses in communications theory, installation, and applications, and was the lead consultant to NCTI for their "IP Voice" course.

Jay’s instructional style is to present technical material in everyday language that everyone can understand. Because of this, he is an excellent resource for training delivery to management and non-technical audiences, as well as technical personnel. In addition to his work at KnowledgeLink, Jay has also served as a member of adjunct faculty at DePaul University, College of DuPage, and DeVry University, and has written numerous articles on digital cable telephony.

Jay is a senior member of SCTE and is currently a member of the board of the SCTE Central Florida Chapter. He has a BSEE degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MBA from Loyola University.

Gene O'Neil

Gene O'Neil is a Data-Over-Cable industry veteran of more than 30 years. Gene joined the Applitek Corporation in 1985 after serving in the USAF as a Radar Technician. Gene's role at Applitek was that of QPSK Modem Steward. Gene worked as an RF Electronics Technician for 9 years before moving in to a position as a Field Engineer/Trainer for LANcity. Gene worked on a team of Deployment Engineers responsible for the deployment of LANcity Cable Modems establishing Block Synch at MSOs across North America. In 1997 with the advent of DOCSIS 1.0, Gene helped MSOs to transition from proprietary solutions to DOCSIS compliant technology. In 1999 Gene was the Founder of DTI, Deployment Technologies, Inc. He worked as President and CEO until its sale in 2008. Since that time Gene has worked as a consultant to the industry delivering and developing DOCSIS training, both CMTS product training as well as Specification training.

Lennie Pici

Lennie Pici has been in the telecommunications industry for over 24 years and has lead successful learning and development departments and content development teams for all positions from the new hire to top executives. He has been a catalyst for driving innovation and creativity in educational programs, LMS platforms including content and career assessment development and facilitation.

Prior to his telecommunications career Lennie grew up in the Tampa Bay Florida area while he attended Saint Petersburg College and The University of Florida.

Lennie has a daughter that serves in the US military and he loves spending time in the Florida outdoors enjoying the beaches and boating.

Contact Info: lpici@scte.org

Leslie W. Read

Les began work in the cable business as a Field Service Engineer for Sammons Communications in 1980. During his tenure at Sammons he was responsible for compliance with FCC technical regulations, evaluation of test equipment, and managing Sammons’ first fiber optic project in Dover. N.J. in 1989. Following Sammons’ sale in 1996 he worked briefly as a contractor, then joined MasTec Corporation as the National Trainer, training new hires, working with field personnel to upgrade their technical skills, and helping MasTec maintain OSHA compliance. He retired from MasTec in 2006. Since then he has been performing on-site training, writing training manuals for NCTI, and contributing to SCTE certification manuals.

Les holds a B.A from Rhodes College (Memphis, Tenn.), and the BS and MS Degrees in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech.

He is a Senior Member of the SCTE, holds BPI, BPT, BDS, and Engineer level certifications. He is a member of the SCTE Circle of Eagles, and has received the Hall of Fame award.

Les is a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of Cable TV Pioneers. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

Contact info: lwread@scte.org

Paul Rodrigues
Director, Field Education, SCTE

Paul Rodrigues has over 23 years of experience in the Telecommunications industry and has worked for TKR Cable Co., Cablevision, AT&T and Comcast before joining SCTE in 2017. He has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology degree from Kean University.

Throughout his career, Paul has had many positions in the industry including Information Technology, Management and Learning and Development. Prior to joining SCTE, he was a part of the Comcast University team as a Sr. Technical Trainer. He has been responsible for developing and delivery training programs for team such as Technical Operations and Workforce Management. For his contributions to the team he was nominated multiple times for Comcast’s Circle of Success award.

From his early days working in IT through his career in Learning and Development, Paul has leveraged his strong technical knowledge and ability to grasp new concepts. He has conducted training programs from new hire technicians all the way up to Cisco CCNA prep classes while at Comcast. He was regularly called upon to roll out new technologies to not only technicians in the field, but also the teams that supported the technicians. While at AT&T he was part of a team that rolled out new technologies such as DWDM to the field. He has certifications including Six Sigma, Nortel Optera, Ciena Metro, Nortel SONET and from Comcast as a Sr. Trainer.


Contact Info: prodrigues@scte.org

Lamar West, Ph.D.
Technical Consultant, LEW Consulting, LLC

Lamar West has over thirty years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Twenty-eight of those years were spent at Scientific-Atlanta (Cisco Systems) where Dr. West was a Principal Engineer.  During that time he worked on all phases of CATV / HFC technology, including headend, RF transmission, set-top terminals, fiber optics and satellite earth stations. Lamar has participated in numerous conferences and symposia, with an emphasis on those concerning upstream issues.

Lamar is cited as inventor on 42 US patents and numerous international patents. He has published 19 papers and articles in the field of CATV and HFC engineering. He is currently an independent system consultant and owns LEW Consulting, LLC.

Lamar is currently participating in the effort by the SCTE to develop an "Upstream Best Practices" document. He is also actively participates in SCTE training with emphasis on fiber optic technology.

Contact Info: lwest@scte.org

Ken Williams 

Ken is a 34 year veteran of the cable industry, starting his career with Cox Communications in 1982 after graduating from Southern Technical Institute. His first assignment was to one of Cox’s most advanced networks in Omaha, NE providing new services such as INDAX, Interactive Data Services to residential homes and Commline, Cox’s competitive access company serving businesses with high-speed data and T-1 circuits over cable networks.  Ken managed the technical operations of Commline until the divestiture of “Ma Bell” at which point he was asked to develop a national Preventive Maintenance program based on demonstrated performance to deliver commercial grade services over cable networks.  
In 1988 he accepted the position of engineering director for the Central Florida systems, where he oversaw Cox’s first two deployments of fiber optics to reduce long cascades.  In 1995 he was asked to return to corporate for help in deploying fiber throughout all of Cox’s networks in preparation for the launch of residential telephony.  Ken was instrumental in Cox’s unique Ring-in-Ring fiber networks, refining techniques to manage costs through the development of a GIS tool that optimized fiber routes.   
Ken was entrusted to provide strategic and operations guidance as director of HFC network architectures for new and existing networks positioning these architectures to meet the requirements of increased bandwidth, operational efficiency, and network availability.  Ken has a strong belief in the viability of HFC networks to meet industry demands far into the future.

Contact Info: kwilliams@scte.org   

Steve Wolszczak
 Steve Wolszczak has delivered Fiber Optic technical training for numerous MSO’s and Telco’s over his 32 years of industry experience.  He has been a speaker at a number of SCTE Expo’s and other technical conferences.  He is a Certified Fiber Characterization Engineer (CFCE) and recently received his Broadband Transport Specialist (BTS) Certification.  

 
His first fiber project, installed in 1984, was a 4 fiber cable carrying 45 Mb/s voice traffic in rural North Dakota. Steve supervised several of the first fiber cable pulls into oil pipeline for Williams Pipeline (Wiltel). He has worked as a field engineer, product specialist, product manager, and solution specialist, for manufacturers of fusion splicers, OTDR's, OSA's, Power meters, Light Source, PMD and CD testers, Fiber amplifiers, Solid state lasers, and AM-VSB transmitters. He was confronting PMD issues and SBS issues in the lab and field, years before many of them became common industry terms. His career has given him the opportunity to learn from some of the most respected and talented scientists and engineers in the industry.  

He's performed testing and troubleshooting on HFC, Fiber to the Home, Fiber to the Antenna, RFOG,  DWDM, CWDM, and Raman systems. He's helped to develop test and troubleshooting techniques for these systems, and has created job aids related to testing these systems. Steve is a co-author of the JDSU, Guide to Fiber Optic Testing Volume 1. Steve is primary Trainer and Consultant for Midwest Lightwave.

Steve's passion and expertise reside in his ability to package his knowledge and experience, and to share it in a meaningful way to both technicians and managers, specifically to help them accomplish their tasks more effectively and efficiently. 
 
Steve Wolszczak is an Army Veteran and West Point Graduate. He has served as a Brigade Communications Officer and was deployed to various posts including Fort Benning, GA and SETAF, Northern Italy.  He lives in central Indiana with his wife and two dogs.

Technical Consultants

Steven C. Johnson
Technical Consultant, Owner/Operator, Johnson Telecom, LLC

Steve Johnson’s 34 years in cable television include stints with United Cable, Cotten and Associates, independent consulting, and with ATC/Time Warner Cable. At Time Warner Cable, he was the company’s representative to Cable Lab’s Open Cable Initiative and oversaw FCC technical compliance, among other standards related responsibilities. Steve is the National Cable & Telecommunication Association’s (NCTA) liaison with the National Electrical Code, serving on NEC Panel 16, which reviews proposals to change telecommunications requirements within the code. He has been active in standards work with the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC), and National Electrical Code (NEC). He has served as a member of the Federal Communications Commission’s Technical Advisory Group on Emergency Alert Systems (EAS).

Steve is a past National Chairman of the Board (1997-1998) of the SCTE, member and past Chairman of the SCTE Engineering Committee, and Chairman of the SCTE EAS Subcommittee. He has served a total of 10 years on the SCTE’s Board of Directors representing Regions 2 and 10. He is a Senior Member and holds certifications as Broadband Communications Engineer Emeritus (BCE) and Broadband Premise Specialist Emeritus (BPS) with the SCTE and Television Engineer with the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He has written numerous papers and articles in the cable-engineering field.
 

Paul T. Schauer
Technical Consultant

Paul T. Schauer has worked for several North American CATV operators and service and product vendors over the past 30-years.  Paul has experience in the disciplines of engineering, operations, and project management and in the technologies of headends, outside plant, high-speed Internet, and digital video. Paul had coordinated deployment of large and complex broadband applications and networking projects for client companies, involving resources across multiple internal departments and other support vendors.

Paul is currently working to deploy complete digital video systems targeted for smaller CATV systems, utilizing a unique downloadable CAS developed by BBT. Paul is a Registered Professional Engineer in Michigan and Colorado, is a member of the SCTE, and has represented his CATV employers on committees at CableLabs.

Neil Serafin
Technical Consultant

Neil Serafin is a 42-year veteran of the Cable industry. He provides technical training to cable industry operators and original equipment manufacturers. Neil trains cable technicians, supervisors and managers in software upgrades and broadband services. Curriculum includes: software set-up of modem and set-top boxes, troubleshooting methods, safety training, service levels, AC/DC Fundamentals, in-home sales, channel bonding, National Electric Code, Telephony, Wireless and home theatre connections. Neil performs "hands-on" training in the classroom and in the field. He Instructs technicians on customer interaction (soft-skills) and critical thinking.  Neil evaluates technicians and creates instructional design programs for Adult Learning in software use.

Brady Volpe
Technical Consultant, President and Founder, The Volpe Firm, Inc.

Brady Volpe, President and Founder of The Volpe Firm, Inc., is involved in providing technology consulting services and products to cable and telecom operators & vendors World-Wide. Brady has over 20 years of broadband cable and telecommunications industry experience specializing in DOCSIS, VoIP, Video, IPTV, RF, Digital Design, IP Security, EPON, SIP, Capacity Planning, Fiber Optic Transport and Matlab Design. He earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering, graduating with Honors (4.0/4.0) from John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.

A highly respected speaker and industry thought leader, Brady is a frequent presenter at industry trade shows, conferences and regional seminars. He has published numerous articles in worldwide trade journals and authored several white papers on DOCSIS protocol and VoIP test and analysis. Brady lends his expertise to industry associations and protocol bodies and is often sought out as an authority on DOCSIS, PacketCable, and VoIP. In addition, Brady is a long time IEEE, SCTE and SCTE standards member. He holds patent number 7,885,195, "Test System With User Selectable Channel."

George M. Wright
Technical Consultant, Broadband Premises Professional Training

In the past three and a half decades George Wright has worked as a cable TV field technician, in plant construction, splicing fiber optics, as a technical trainer, in technical operations and in general management roles for Cox Cable, TCI, AT&T Broadband, in cable systems previously operated by Time Warner Cable and for a couple of smaller MSO’s in the Midwest and in the Southeastern portions of the USA. He has been a member of various SCTE chapters since 1984. George has worked with SCTE staff members and volunteers to update the Broadband Premises Professional training program.