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Sunflower Cablevision
Electroline's Addressable and CLEARPath systems combine
to
efficiently support the deployment of broadband services in MDUs.
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 About
Sunflower Cablevision
Founded in 1970, Sunflower Cablevision, a privately owned cable
services company, is a subsidiary of The World Company which also
owns the Lawrence Journal World, the Steamboat Pilot, the Baldwin
City Signal, and eight other local newspapers in the midwest and
southwest.
Sunflower
offers analog and digital video services to Lawrence and the surrounding
communities, as well as residential and business Internet access
through Datavision, an independent provider owned and operated by
Sunflower. With 31,000 total subscribers, this MSO is based in and
around the University of Kansas, where it provides approximately
25% of its cable and Internet services to the students residing
in the area during the fall and winter sessions. |
 The
Challenge
Sunflower was generating excessive costs from the high turnover
of services that it offered to its subscribers. Servicing University
of Kansas students renting apartments in multiple-dwelling units
(MDU), this problem was especially apparent during the start and
end of school sessions. As the school term would begin or end,
the Company found itself rolling a truck several times per week
just to activate or terminate service to its subscribers. A solution
was required to help turn around its inefficient use of manpower
and to decrease the costs involved with multiple truck rolls.
In addition, as an ISP, Sunflower also had the responsibility
to ensure that its high-speed Internet service remained reliable.
As a typical problem associated with this type of service, the
Company struggled to control the ingress found within its return
path network. Repairs could only be done by bringing down the
entire network for a considerable amount of time, taking from
several hours to several days just to fix the problem. This method
began to cause subscriber dissatisfaction in their services.
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The Solution
To help maintain a reliable network and to improve its profitability,
Sunflower chose to implement both Electroline's Addressable System
and its CLEARPath ingress management modules.
To decrease the number of truck rolls, a single tier addressable
system was implemented using Electroline's addressable SuperTap™
for single family units and its addressable CAT™ units forMDU
applications.
Through Electroline's Control Unit located at the head end, the
addressable taps and the CAT units are remotely switched to either
the "ON" or "OFF" position, depending on the
subscriber's status. This one-tier addressable system allows Sunflower
to considerably reduce the number of truck rolls and technicians
required for such simple operations. Manual labor is no longer required
to make disconnections in the Spring and connections again in the
Fall. Now, when students migrate to and from their apartment complexes
each semester, the Company can manage the workload without creating
a back log of service orders by providing instantaneous service
to its customers. With the addressable taps installed in various
MDU buildings surrounding the University, the cost of truck rolls
and on-site service calls have considerably improved. For instance,
Sunflower is now capable of servicing over 1,000 installations in
one month, in a University town, without rolling a truck.
Using the same Control Unit and a spectrum analyzer
at the head end, Sunflower can also quickly locate
and manage the ingress that occurs within its return
path. These two units work together with some 200
CLEARPath™ modules (CPMs) installed within its
coaxial distribution network, to perform extensive testing of the
return path. This set-up allows the
Company to detect and locate the exact location of the ingress out
in the field. For instance, if
ingress is detected at the head end, using one of the CPMs, a technician
can perform further
testing using a 6 dB pad to isolate the ingress. A technician can
then be dispatched and sent into
the field to correct the problem.
"It is a money-making system. We installed 300 addressable
outlets in an apartment complex a few
years ago and today, those units alone, have paid for themselves.
Now, they purely generate
revenues for us. Especially in the cases where the churn is 1200
outlets in one week, each outlet
has been paid for. We are now completely generating revenues by
providing cable services through
remote connections," explained James Risner, Director of Engineering
at Sunflower Cablevision.
"We're a small system and when a new MDU goes up, we automatically
install addressable taps
because we know that the benefits will definitely be larger than
the cost of the installation."
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The
Ongoing Benefits
Sunflower is in the process of completing the installation of a
100 node, 750 MHz HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) network. With this upgrade,
the CPMs will play a different, yet important role where the technician,
located at the head end, will monitor each one of the 100 nodes
to determine if ingress is present. If ingress is detected, the
technician is able to switch each CPM module located further into
the distribution plant to find exactly which leg is affected by
ingress.
The
CPMs have improved the Company's response to solving ingress locating
problems. This method provides a proactive approach that has allowed
for the creation of a reliable return path with its convenient troubleshooting
capabilities, helping maintain the Company's subscriber satisfaction.
Since
1993, Sunflower has installed over 6000 addressable outlets (an
installation of another 3000 outlets is planned for the year 2000).
These units have been extremely beneficial in its MDU applications
where revenues have improved through an 80% reduction in truck rolls. |
Comparison
of Time & Costs
Peak
installation period
of 1200 outlets |
Manual
Install |
Addressable
Subscription |
| Installation
Time Frame |
One Month |
One
Week |
Installation
Cost
$25.00 per outlet |
$30,000 |
$0.00 |
Another
way to look at it:
Overall
impact of implementing addressable equipment on Sunflower Cablevision's
revenues:
Revenue
source: 6000 service changes on addressable
taps per year
Cost per truck roll: $50.00
Truck
Roll Savings: $300,000 per year
This
translates into a great savings solution for Sunflower Cablevision
as revenues are generated sooner and customers are serviced faster.
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Overview
The
Sunflower Cablevision Success Story is available in PDF.