Ball pythons do better with a heat gradient. I'm certain that he can keep HIS snakes with no heat gradient, because I've seen people keep ball pythons alive without heat, although how LONG they stay healthy is debatable.
If it's a ceramic pad that goes under the vivarium, vs a UTH(which is a heating pad that goes under the vivarium) I don't get the difference?
If you mean, does the snake REALLY need a cool side and a warm side, I would say yes, it does. You can still heat one end of the cage, but you'll still be using a thermostat to control the temps. How hot does the ceramic heat pad get? Hot enough to burn your snake?
If the heat is on one end of the cage, you should have a cooler side and a hotter side. Whether you can get the PROPER temps doing this with the set-up you are talking about is something we cannot tell you. We don't know what sort of vivarium, what sort of ceramic heatpad you're talking about, or what your natural ambient tempurtures are.
If you're just wanting someone here to go "Oh sure, do what that guy does, it's great!" you'll probably be out of luck. Generally the care of the pythons means trying to give them a temputure gradient, so they can move from warmer to cooler as needed.
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