Scientific Atlanta, Inc.

Founded in 1951, Scientific Atlanta has evolved into one of the leading providers of end-to-end networks used by programmers, broadcasters, and cable, telecom, wireless and satellite service providers around the world. The company is widely recognized for its expertise in video delivery, which many view as an art as much as it is a science.

As we pass the midpoint of the first decade of a new century, the rapid convergence of technologies and markets (cable, wireline, mobile and “over the top” video) is driving service providers to transition from offering connectivity, to becoming “experience providers.” They offer rich, personalized, on-demand, multi-media services that meet the consumer’s desire for what they want, when, how, and where they want it. Because video is a strategic application in the service provider voice/video/data/mobility bundle of consumer entertainment, communication and online services, Cisco acquired Scientific Atlanta in February 2006.

Scientific Atlanta’s rich heritage of innovation reaches back into the early 1950s when the company began in suburban Atlanta.

1950s – 1960s
In its early days, Scientific Atlanta was a very diverse company, manufacturing a wide range of products including electronic test equipment for antennas and electronics, plastic injection molded food and beverage packaging, and electronics equipment cabinets. The US Government and NASA were two of the company’s primary customers during our first two decades. We played an integral role in helping NASA establish its ground stations for communications with astronauts orbiting the planet and on the moon, and helped test the two-way communications equipment used by Project Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts.

1970s
By 1972 sales to the up-and-coming cable television industry had grown to 15 percent of total revenues and pioneering landmark events for Scientific Atlanta and cable providers were imminent.

At the NCTA’s National Show in 1973, Scientific Atlanta teamed with Teleprompter Corporation, the nation’s largest cable operator at the time, and a little known pay channel called Home Box Office (HBO) to demonstrate the cable/satellite interconnection. The live boxing match delivered to the HBO customer party was over in only two minutes and meant little to the boxing world, but those short on-air moments marked the beginning of satellite-delivered programming for the cable industry.

Things progressed into 1974 and 1975 when Scientific Atlanta was asked by RCA and HBO to help them launch a new cable service. Scientific Atlanta installed earth stations at cable systems in Mississippi and Florida, RCA provided the satellite transponders, and HBO provided the programming, the Ali/Frazier “Thrilla in Manila” heavyweight championship bout. Viewers witnessed the launch of the first satellite-delivered cable television service as we know it today. This innovative programming delivery breakthrough provided the momentum that has resulted in the hundreds of channels of programming available today.

1980s
As the 1980s dawned, Scientific Atlanta was under the leadership of eventual Cable Hall of Fame inductee and industry pioneer Sid Topol. Topol’s vision of the cable industry of the future and the role of the set-top were expressed in a 1982 interview with CableVision magazine where he said:

“..I think eventually there are going to be three boxes in the home. The three boxes may be incorporated all in one big box…the addressable 100-channel set-top terminal with tiering and pay-per-view…an interactive terminal for shopping, banking, security and that sort of thing...a modem which interconnects the cable system with personal computers — at high speed.”

Today, Scientific Atlanta’s digital interactive set-tops deliver all of the services Topol foresaw, plus digital video recording.

Throughout the 1980s, Scientific Atlanta’s ties to the cable industry strengthened. Our first set-tops, known as cable converters in their early days, began to expand their role in our product mix. Delivering 54 channels in 1980, by 1983 our Model 8500 could support 128 channels. Satellite delivery of programming began to expand and we sold our first satellite encoders in 1985 to a customer in Australia. Always on the leading edge of innovation, Scientific Atlanta deployed an analog high-definition system in Canada in 1989, nearly two decades before digital HD service became popular.

1990s
Jim McDonald’s leadership of Scientific Atlanta began in 1993 as the company began to expand its leadership role in our development of the cable industry’s future – the interactive digital network. We launched the PowerVu® digital compression system in 1995, sponsored the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, and established our Sugarloaf corporate campus in 1997, the same year we rolled out our first digital set-top, the Explorer® 2000™. Manufacturing moved to Juarez and the Scientific Atlanta Foundation was established as the company headed toward a new millennium.

2000s
With the pace of our business at an all time high, sales topped two billion dollars in 2001 as digital technology began to spread across cable systems. In just a short time, the company has helped launch hundreds of digital cable systems, shipped more than 30 million digital set-tops, become a leader in the cable modem business and helped to pioneer the rollout of digital video recorder (DVR), high-definition (HD) and Video on Demand (VOD) services for cable operators.

The acquisition of BarcoNet (Europe) helped established Scientific Atlanta as a major player in the global video, voice and data marketplace, and the completion of our Atlanta campus helped to focus the talents of our people as never before. Now, poised to continue its video delivery leadership by helping telecom operators launch IP television service, Scientific Atlanta is expanding its reputation as a company where “Innovation Never Stops.”

Scientific Atlanta Today
The sun never really sets on Scientific Atlanta. At any give time, our people, our products and systems, or the customers we serve are busy delivering reliable entertainment, information and communications experiences to millions of consumers around the world.

The portion of the market that we serve is best described as “network-delivered services.” In general, these services don’t involve the physical distribution of consumable products. Instead, services are provided to consumers over optical and electronic networks. Since the mid-1990s, the delivery of these services has undergone tremendous change — from analog to high-definition digital video systems, from broadcast to on-demand services, and from a single service to bundled entertainment, information and communications services. We serve these markets indirectly by providing the products and professional services that allow our customers to deliver services to consumers.

Network-delivered services are growing rapidly in the United States and around the world. Consumer interest in on-demand television services, higher resolution video content, high-speed data and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services is strong. And, as technological change accelerates, service providers that previously delivered one or two services are now seeking to offer many services over a single network.

Our in-home products and end-to-end video, voice and data delivery networks are helping service providers deliver the services consumers want – DVR, HD, VOD, high-speed data, IP television and voice over IP (VoIP) service. In addition, our decades of video delivery experience make us a preferred choice for systems integration support when service providers create new networks, launch new services or enhance the capabilities of existing networks.

Digital video recorders have become very popular with consumers, and according to Forrester Research, over 28 million U.S. households are expected to have DVRs by 2008. Increasingly, consumers around the world choose Voice over Internet Protocol technology, which offers significantly more features, often at a lower price.

Today’s consumers demand choices: they expect a bundle of video, data and voice services at attractive prices, and they want them now. To meet those demands, service providers also need choices — the types of service delivery choices Scientific Atlanta can provide. Increasingly, our customers rely on us to help them take advantage of consumer demand, while improving their competitive position.

The Cisco/Scientific Atlanta Advantage
Cisco provides leading-edge thinking about what companies and countries can achieve with networked communications and IT. We have also had a unique ability to anticipate transitions in the marketplace and build the products and services to enable these transitions. The combination of Cisco and Scientific Atlanta fills an important void in a key market transition as video, data, voice and mobility converge and our customers begin to transition to delivering an entertainment, information or communications experience rather than seeing themselves as merely providing access to a service. Together, we have a unique opportunity to capture this next wave in networking and communications as the market transitions to integrated services offerings.