RDK, the open software stack backed by Comcast, Cox Communications and Liberty Global, among others, is now in 60 million devices worldwide, an 20% increase over the 50 million devices announced a year ago.
The announcement was made by RDK Management, the group that manages the Reference Design Kit technology consortium. RDK software stacks power pay TV set-tops, broadband gateways, IP-connected cameras and other operator-supplied customer premises equipment.
“RDK now powers more than 60 million devices deployed by service providers around the world that require flexibility and control over their CPE software and diagnostics data,” said Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK, in a statement. “The new RDK App Framework enables them to develop and manage apps easily, and RDK broadband software is capable of powering next-gen gateways across DOCSIS, DSL and GPON. Over the past year, the RDK community has been actively working to develop open source software for connected cameras, which we expect to make available soon, to provide a new avenue of growth for operators.”
RDK Management said that more than 480 companies are now part of its open-source software community.
For video, RDK provides common methods to manage video tuning, conditional access, DRM, stream management, diagnostics, and more, for set-tops made by CommScope, Humax, KAON, Technicolor and other vendors. Pay TV operators can use the RDK App Framework to build and manage their own OTT apps. Meanwhile, a wide assortment of OTT apps are available through the Metrological App Store.
Also read: Android TV to Become Dominant Global Pay TV Set-top Platform: Research Group
The purchase of Dutch tech vendor Metrological and subsequent integration of the Metrological App Store into RDK has “made RDK a realistic alternative for integrated broadcast/broadband services to Android TV Operator Tier with its admittedly superior Google app store,” Rethink Technology Research wrote in a report published this week.
Rethink Technology said last year’s launch the RDK Accelerator was another “key move in responding to the dominance of Android TV operator tier.
The RDK Lab Accelerator is based on the Arris VIP5202W UHD IP set-top and provides the RDK community an application development platform that uses the latest RDK application framework and the pre-integrated Metrological App Store.
The research company predicts that the Google-backed Android TV will dominate the global pay TV set-top business over the next five years. But RDK will maintain a market share of 57% fo the U.S. market over the next five years, with the biggest cable companies choosing to use the software stack.
