By Graham S. Stubbs, OAK Industries Inc.
Theft of equipment and services is of growing concern to CATV system operators, in particular to those using converters and other devices which are installed in the houses of subscribers. Cases of theft of services range from illegal tap connections to attempts to defeat or bypass existing Pay TV security devices. The high rate of loss of terminal equipment appears to be directly related to its inaccessibility once installed in private homes.
To deal with these problems, it is evident that many operators are convinced that terminal equipment must either be installed in such a way as to be difficult to remove illegally, or perhaps, ultimately, installed entirely outside the home.
A simple inexpensive method has been developed for attaching terminal devices to interior walls, requiring the use of a special tool for removal. Ultimately, most of the functional requirements of terminal equipment will be met using an outdoor installation requiring only an inexpensive, replaceable selector to be installed inside the home.