RDK Management LLC said the Reference Design Kit, the common, pre-integrated software stack for IP-capable devices, has tacked on more support for Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), a standard that is popular with pay-TV operators in regions such as Europe.
RDK Management, a venture headed up by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, said it has added in-band DVB Service Information (DVB-SI) to the platform for use by the RDK community, citing “significant contributions” by Arris Group. The announcement comes on the eve of the 2015 RDK Users Conference, slated to take place February 24 in Denver.
The inclusion of DVB-SI will enable RDK-based set-tops, gateways and other devices to support critical, in-band table of contents and other data required for electronic program guides and other services. That in-band capability provides reliable data to MVPDs that operate one-way networks or are in the process of transitioning to interactive networks, “a common situation across Europe and other global regions,” RDK Management said.
The contributions, it added, will extend the RDK Media Framework to provide a common method for extracting DVB streams and to provide an open source reference DVB implementation that can be adopted by operators and suppliers that rely on DVB technology.
Aiming to expand its global scope, RDK Management announced last June that it was moving ahead with a plan to make its platform compatible with DVB technology, noting at the time that it was on a path to integrate in-band DVB-SI.
“Given the RDK’s global reach and appeal, it was imperative to deliver DVB-SI functionality to support legacy networks,” said Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management, in a statement. “Thanks to a dedicated working group led by ARRIS and Liberty Global, operators in Europe and other parts of the world can more easily adopt the RDK across their markets.”
RDK Management said it now has more than 200 licensees, a group that includes CE manufacturers, SoC vendors, software developers, and system integrators and more than 20 operators. MVPDs known to be part of that latter group include Comcast, Rogers Communications, Japan’s J:COM, TWC, Liberty Global, and Kabel Deutschland.
