DENVER—CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney said that since taking the helm of the non-profit research lab last June, he has made some changes at the organization to make sure it is more transparent to vendors. In addition, he has restructured employees so there are more resources dedicated to fewer projects.
Speaking at the Light Reading Cable's "Next-Gen IP Strategies: Entering the Zettabyte Era" held here yesterday, McKinney said that when he started working for CableLabs last summer, there were 175 employees focused on 69 projects, leaving many projects without enough manpower to move them forward. He reduced the working projects from 69 to 28, which enables there to be enough resources on each project. "We have a higher impact on the industry," McKinney said.
The CableLabs exec also said the group plans to open an R&D facility in Silicon Valley in August. The facility will act as a testing and certification facility for developers that are building applications for cable operators. The facility will have about a dozen employees. Developers in Silicon Valley will be able to connect with cable operators through a virtual lab in Silicon Valley and plug into head ends in the CableLab's Louisville, Colo., headquarters.
McKinney, the former CTO of Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) personal computer group, joined the cable non-profit last June. The move was heralded as a chance for cable operators such as Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) and other CableLabs members to strengthen their ties with consumer electronics manufacturers.
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