South Korean electronics vendor Humax has announced a new line of devices targeted to the cable operator market and built around Reference Design Kit (RDK), the open-source software stack favored by Comcast, Liberty Global and other cable companies.

The devices include a new RDK Video Accelerator, 4K video set-top, that includes pre-integrated apps with RDK app framework and access to the Metrological App Store.

There are two gateways: a DOCSIS 3.1 wireless voice gateway supporting 5 Gbps downstream; and a 2.5G GPON wireless voice gateway supporting 2.5 Gbps downstream.

Also included in Humax’s RDK product line is the 4K Soundbox, which features an integrated microphone for far-field voice recognition.

The RDK products signal an emerging strategy for Humax to compete directly with vendors including CommScope and Technicolor for the cable CPE market.

> “Humax is committed to continuous innovation, and that is especially true when it comes to RDK devices,” said Jeff Kim, executive VP of worldwide sales of Humax, in a statement. “For many of the leading video and broadband providers around the world, RDK is their software platform of choice, and we’re excited to deliver them this portfolio of new products. From our 4K IP set-top box and 4K Soundbox, to our GPON and DOCSIS gateways, we have RDK-powered solutions to meet the growing market demands.”

Added Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK: “Humax has been a leading contributor to the RDK community for years, and today’s announcement is another powerful case in point. On the video side, their stylish new RDK Video Accelerator IP set-top box will enable service providers to quickly test and launch new video applications for deployment. On the broadband side, Humax’s state-of-the-art RDK gateways for fiber and cable are designed to serve the needs of our community today, and into the future.” 

Technicolor said its struggling set-top and gateway division rallied to a 4.9% year-over-year sales increase in the second half of 2018.

This good news came after the Paris-based technology firm experienced a 13.6% decline in sales in the first half of the year. The division was subsequently put up for sale.

For the year, connected home saw a 4.7% revenue drop to $2.52 billion.

Technicolor said its CPE business was hurt by lower video demand from clients Charter Communications and AT&T, as well as severe component shortages on deliveries.

However, the vendor claimed to be the sole supplier of DOCSIS 3.1 gateways to Comcast and its various technology syndication partners. The company also started shipping DOCSIS 3.1 equipment to Charter last year.

Technicolor has had talks in recent months with a number of potential suitors for its connected home division, including private equity firm Bain Capital. 

After abandoning plans to launch a new advanced IPTV platform, Verizon has rolled out on a limited basis a new CPE upgrade for its existing pay TV system, which it’s calling Fios TV One.

The upgrade, which Verizon said has been deployed to a limited number of Fios subscribers in upstate New York and New York City; Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pa.; Massachusetts markets; Richmond, Va., and several other markets, includes a voice remote and secondary receivers that are WiFi connected, meaning they don’t have to be placed near coax.

There’s Netflix integration directly into the user interface. And the platform is 4K/UltraHD-capable.

Verizon said other Fios TV One markets will be announced later in December and January.

New Fios TV One subscribers will receive a 1 Gbps internet connection and landline phone for $79.99 a month. They’ll also receive a year of Amazon Prime service and a second-generation Amazon Echo device. Existing customers can upgrade at no additional uptick to their service charge, although they will be charged for equipment.

The upgrade is sorely needed, with Verizon’s once industry-leading pay TV platform lagging behind such similarly monikered next-gen systems as Comcast’s X1 and Altice One.

Related: McAdam: No Content Buys for Verizon

And the investment is a little surprising, given Verizon’s recent emphasis on 5G and vocalized abandonment of traditional pay TV bundling.

This stance was made clear in by exiting former CEO Lowell McAdam in 2017, when he told the company’s Yahoo Finance media division, “We made our bet several years ago before we bought AOL and Yahoo and combined them together to do Oath that we weren’t going to be investing in the linear TV model I’ve said this a couple of times, I think the linear model is dead, it’s just going to take a long time to die.”

Verizon lost 63,000 Fios TV users in the third quarter, lowering its subscriber base to 4.497 million.

Notably, Verizon just took a $4.5-billion writedown on its Oath assets. 

DENVER -- Liberty Global plans to introduce DOCSIS 3.1-based services in Q4 of 2017, but the expectation is to target those services to higher-end customers due to the current high costs of D3.1-based consumer premises equipment.

Those CPE costs are still too high to justify a broader rollout, Balan Nair, Liberty Global’s SVP and CTO, said Tuesday here at Light Reading’s Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference in a discussion with independent analyst and Multichannel News contributor Leslie Ellis.

For now, Liberty Global’s “bull’s eye” broadband service, for the mass market, is at about 250 Mbps downstream, he said. He said Liberty Global’s D3.1-based offering will likely offer speeds of 500 Mbps to 750 Mbps that costs an additional 10 to 15 euros more per month.

He said Liberty Global is well down the path of having its network ready for D3.1, but the economics of the service will hinge on better CPE pricing.

Factoring into that equation is the need for integrated D3.1 gateways that also require advanced WiFi and other home networking technologies that rival that of the DOCSIS silicon residing in the device.

RELATED: DOCSIS 3.1 Grappling with Gateway Gap

Once those CPE economics improve, Nair said he could envision a “phase II” of the rollout that includes a wider deployment.

But Nair also talked up a major priority at Liberty Global that includes new construction in areas where the company is not overbuilding another cable company.

He said Liberty Global has built new networks passing north of 2 million homes passed in the past two years, has  plans to build across another 1.7 million more this year in parts of Europe and Latin America, with another 2 million on deck for 2018. 

“We are putting money where our mouth is,” Nair said, noting that these aren’t trivial projects given their need for the ramping up of engineering, vendor support and construction contractors to pull it off. “We are putting actual facilities in the ground.”  

For those builds, Liberty Global is going with a mix of fiber-to-the-premises and fiber deep HFC networks that don’t put any amplifiers between the node and the home. The latter example, is also referred to as “node + 0.”

Nair also said Liberty Global is testing distributed access architectures that rely less on monolithic Converged Cable Access Platform chassis as electronics are moved closer to the edge of the network.

DAA is “not ready yet” but inching toward deployment, he said, adding that the operator will later look to add Remote PHY architectures.

Nair was also asked about Liberty Global’s embrace of OTT apps and services at the set-top box. He said Liberty Global has a “very good business relationship” with Netflix, which has already been integrated in set-tops in several Liberty Global service markets.

RELATED: Liberty Global: Netflix for All

He said Netflix has quickly become the top app on the MSO’s set-top box platform. In the Netherlands, for example, Netflix is followed by Videoland, another SVOD service, and YouTube.  

Nair Netflix makes for a good partner because they can spend more on content. “They live on a different set of economics than we do.”

Technicolor  said it has appointed Luis Martinez Amago as president of its Connected Home division for the North American market.

That division, which support cable, telecom, satellite and OTT operators in the region, will also include  the set-top and CPE division of Cisco Systems that Technicolor is in the process of acquiring for $600 million. That deal is expected to close by the end of 2015.

Martinez Amago joins Technicolor after 27 years with Alcatel-Lucent, where he served in roles including CEO of the Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell joint venture, and president of its Europe, CIS, Middle East and Africa regions. As president of the Alcatel-Lucent’s Fixed Broadband Access Networks Business Division, which included IPTV and consumer premises equipment, he was responsible for major deals with US customers such as AT&T and Verizon, Technicolor said.

“Luis Martinez Amago is a highly skilled international executive with an impressive track record in key roles from Sales to General Management, in different technological areas and in several challenging markets,”  Frederic Rose, CEO of Technicolor, said in a statement. “Luis will be tasked with growing our Connected Home market position in NA and his decades of valuable experience in CPE and network will serve him well in his exciting new role.”

Martinez Amago holds a technical degree in telecommunications engineering from the University La Salle, Barcelona.