Global adoption of the RDK (Reference Design Kit) software solutions that provide a common platform for powering customer-premises equipment (CPE) for TV and Internet service providers is up 67 per cent since the same time last year, now reaching 25 service providers, according to Steve Heeb, President and General Manager of RDK Management, a joint venture between leading pay-TV operators created to administer the software.

Addressing delegates at the 2017 Connected TV World Summit, Heeb said that as a result of the passion and maturation of its community, the RDK had become a prime software development platform, powering more than 25 million set-top boxes and broadband gateways used by pay-TV operators around the world “On both the video and broadband front, operators are actively embracing our transparency and open-source software, collaborating with leading technology companies, and contributing new innovations back to the RDK community. Together, we’ve embraced the best practices of the software industry, enabling operators to iterate faster than ever before,” he advised.

RDK Deployments and Community Usage

Since this time last year, the number of RDK devices deployed by operators globally rose to 25 million from 15 million, an increase of 67 per cent. Notably, over this period, NOS launched its next-generation 4K service based on RDK in Portugal. Liberty Global continued to deploy RDK devices throughout its global footprint. In Canada, Shaw launched a next-gen service which relies on RDK, and Rogers Communications announced plans to do so next year. In the United States, Cox Communications expanded its new TV service which runs on the RDK, and Comcast continued its RDK-Based X1 nationwide deployments. In Germany, new RDK deployments include both Vodafone (formerly Kabel Deutschland) which launched its new GigaTV video service, and Tele Columbus which launched its new advanceTV service. Most recently, in Switzerland, The Quickline Group, confirmed it was using a RDK-based STB software solution for its new TV service.

More than 25 total cable, satellite and telco providers across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia are members of the RDK community and are in various stages of evaluation, testing, trials, or deployment. There are also now more than 300 technology companies in the RDK community across CE manufacturers, SoC vendors, software developers, and system integrators. In general, new RDK software is released every two weeks, and member companies are downloading RDK software components more than one million times every month.

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