S3 Group said Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s largest cable operator, has selected the vendor’s StormTest Development Center to provide service validation testing on a range of consumer premises equipment.
Under the deal, KD will tap the test platform for both test and product environment, including live service monitoring, channel lineup validation, and A/V and caption quality assurance. S3 noted that its platform will interface with Kabel Deutschland’s headend to validate video service configurations, and integrate with CPE to test services and simulate subscriber viewing experiences prior to deployment.
“S3 Group’s end-to-end service validation platform enables us to replace time-consuming manual tests with more accurate, efficient and repeatable test cycles across our device platforms and software configurations,” said Bernd Hansen, KD’s teamleiter, service management.
KD, which supplies services to about 8.4 million homes passed, announced in February that it had licensed the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a preintegrated software stack for IP-capable set-tops and gateways being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.
In addition to KD, S3 Group’s customers also include Astro, BSkyB, BT, Comcast, Liberty Global, Mediacom, Swisscom, Time Warner Cable, Videotron and RDK Management, the joint venture of Comcast, TWC, and Liberty Global that is managing the Reference Design Kit for IP-capable set-tops and gateways. Of recent note, Dublin-based S3 opened a new office in Philadelphia to support new and existing business in the region and to accommodate growth it’s seeing in the domestic cable sector.
