More than 220 companies, including a group of 25 made up of cable operators, telcos and satellite TV service providers, have licensed the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the preintegrated software stack for IP-capable set-top boxes, video gateways and, soon, broadband devices.
RDK Management, the joint venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, announced the updated figures Monday (April 27) ahead of next week’s INTX: The Internet & Television Expo in Chicago.
RDK Management said community membership and operator licensees have grown about 60% over the past 12 months. More than 5 million devices with RDK have been deployed so far. The bulk of that total has come way of Comcast and its X1 platform .
RDK licensees include a mix of CE manufacturers, chipmakers, software developers, system integrators and pay TV operators. Of the latter group, Comcast, TWC, Liberty Global, Rogers Communications, Kabel Deutschland, and J:COM are among the known MSOs to license the RDK. RDK Management said providers from North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia have all inked licenses.
Expanding beyond the initial video-centric set-top box solution (RDK-V), companies backing RDK are developing a version for broadband devices called RDK-B. RDK-B is currently being developed by “key” operators, SoC companies and OEM companies, with an anticipated release in the second half of 2015, RDK Management said
“The RDK provides a modern software platform on which pay TV providers worldwide can provide new video services to customers,” Steve Heeb, president and GM of RDK Management, said in a statement. “he community is starting to take advantage of the benefits of having source code access for their STB software, and the RDK continues to gain traction around the globe – as will be showcased prominently at INTX 2015.”
Multichannel News will feature a Q&A with Heeb in the April 4 issue, along with a snapshot of RDK-powered demos expected to appear on the INTX show floor.
Some of the RDK member companies exhibiting at next week’s show include:
- ActiveVideo (soon to be part of an Arris/Charter Communications joint venture)
- Arris Group
- Alticast
- Cisco
- Cognizant
- Comcast
- Ericsson
- Espial Group
- Humax Americas
- Intel
- Metrological
- Pace (in the process of merging with Arris)
- Samsung
- S3 Group
- SeaChange International
- Symphony Teleca
- Technicolor
- ThinkAnalytics
- UXP Systems
- ValueLabs
- Visible World
- Wipro
