Advanced Television

RDK Community Expands Worldwide

April 28, 2015

In advance of the The Internet & Television Expo 2015, RDK Management has provided an update on the continued global progress and adoption of the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a pre-integrated software bundle that provides a common framework for powering customer-premises equipment from TV service providers.

“The RDK provides a modern software platform on which pay-TV providers worldwide can provide new video services to customers,” Steve Heeb, President and General Manager of RDK Management, LLC. “The 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.”

The RDK was created to accelerate the deployment of next-gen video products and services. It enables TV service providers to standardise certain elements of these devices, but also to easily customise the applications and user experiences that ride on top. Technically, the RDK acts like a universal SoC (system on chip) adaptor across customer-premises equipment from various suppliers. It provides a common method to manage complex video functions such as tuning, conditional access, third party DRM, and stream management.

Growing RDK Community

Since last year’s Cable Show, the number of RDK licensees has grown more than 63 per cent and now stands at more than 220 total licensees across CE manufacturers, SoC vendors, software developers, system integrators, and pay-TV service providers. During this same period, the number of pay-TV operators that have directly licensed the RDK has grown by 60 per cent and now stands 25 total cable, satellite and telco providers across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Notably, the RDK’s impact on the operator community exceeds the number of operator licensees. Pay-TV service providers also have the option to receive the software through a third party, such as a RDK-licensed systems integrator, set-top box supplier or software vendor.

Global Device Deployments

The RDK is now deployed in more than 5 million devices around the world and growing rapidly. The RDK provides the technical foundation for a wide range of STBs from leading manufacturers. Companies including ARRIS, Cisco, Humax, Pace, Samsung, and others have developed RDK-based STBs that are in various stages of testing, trials, or deployment with operators globally.

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