Tampa – NCTC Winter Educational Conference – The Reference Design Kit is quietly making progress with pay-TV operators around the globe.
The number of service operators worldwide that have licensed the RDK, the pre-integrated software platform for IP and hybrid QAM/IP set-tops, has grown to 15, Jason Briggs, the senior director of licensing and strategic development for RDK Management LLC, said here last week on panel dedicated to IP video.
The RDK has not identified the entire list by name, but those on that list include Comcast and Time Warner Cable (the MSOs that are managing the recently formed RDK Management joint venture), Liberty Global, Rogers Communications of Canada, Japan’s J:COM, and Germany’s Kabel Deutschland. Of that group, Comcast is furthest along on deployment, using RDK-powered boxes for its X1 platform. The RDK has attracted more than 120 licensees, a group that also includes chipmakers, set-top suppliers, software firms and companies that provide testing and product integration services
Cox Communications has been weighing an RDK strategy and has been in talks with Comcast about licensing the X1 platform.
Charter Communications has also taken a look at the RDK and had engineers attend the RDK User Conference in Denver earlier this month, an event that drew participation from companies on multiple continents, industry sources said. But Charter has made no commitments as it appears to be following similar technology path blazed by Cablevision Systems. Charter’s current next-gen video plan, which includes the use of a cloud-based infrastructure and the use of a downloadable security platform, does not involve the RDK, according to people familiar with the project.
RDK Management, meanwhile, is working on a 2.0 version that will strip out U.S.-centric technology requirements and ensure that it’s compatible with cable systems around the world that use the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard.
