The following video is really a commercial, as TVS, Transparent Video Systems, paid for its production. Having said that, the concept, script and all of the editing was yours truly, so in that sense it is my report of what I saw in my visit last week to Coax, a small Pennsylvania cable operator. I tend to be skeptical of anything and everything. In the case of this video, I came away impressed with the performance and the video was relatively easy to assemble because the system worked so well.

It is more than a commercial. Part of the reason I took this project was out of my long-time friendship with Norman Gillaspie, the founder of TVS. Norman can see both long and see wide. That is he saw the rise of things like the potential of the Internet and the need for the connected home well before most of the technocrats. He also has an amazing knack at finding applications in different industries and applying them to what he is doing at the time.

He has been a pioneer in many fields and was a pioneer in the home satellite business (Gillaspie & Associates was a peer of Charlie Ergen’s Houston Industries). He did what experts said could not be done in the mid-1980s by pushing the concept of the agile modulator (ISS Engineering) into cable; something that became necessary for today’s CMTS laden cable systems. Along the way, he also received a patent for tuners in the PC and built out a satellite-based data network.

It appears that Norman and his team have a good solution for the rural and low-subscriber count operator looking for a cost-effective digital solution. With the transition to all digital networks, he may have a solution that will take off like his agile modulators did after the 1984 deregulation. It should be an interesting time for Transparent Video Systems.