RDK To Strut Its Stuff at The Cable Show

Cable Show organizers said 20 licensee members of the Reference Design Kit (RDK) community will be showing off products and services based on the pre-integrated software bundle tagged for IP-only and hybrid QAM/IP set-tops, gateways and other devices at next week’s confab in Washington, D.C.

Initially led by Comcast, the RDK, which pre-integrates software at the chip level, aims to accelerate the development of new hardware and software. RDK backers estimate that the platform can shave as much as a year off the time it used to take to build boxes.

Event organizers have teed up a “self-guided tour and walking map” illustrating where show-goers can locate RDK info and demos.

On Wednesday at 1:45 p.m. ET at Imagine Park, several RDK licensees, including silicon makers, original equipment manufacturers, integrators and developers, will update their progress in a session to be co-moderated by Comcast execs Mark Hess and Steve Reynolds.

“At last year’s Cable Show, RDK was in its early stages – we described it during an Imagine Park session by PowerPoint and anecdotes,” said Steve Reynolds, SVP of premises technologies for Comcast, in a statement. “This year, we’re much more ‘show’ than ‘tell.’ It’s rewarding to see so much progress in a year’s time, because it’s what RDK is all about – service velocity, and getting compelling products and services out to our customers more quickly and easily.”

Comcast's next-gen X1 platform is the first product set to utilize the RDK. Other MSOs are evidently getting ready to adopt the RDK as well.

“As with other collaborative industry efforts, we’ve embraced RDK and support its rapid evolution,” said Matt Zelesko, SVP of the converged technology group at Time Warner Cable. “RDK offers an innovative and transparent way for our developers and those across the consumer electronics industry to work together efficiently and introduce new services to market with speed and superior quality.”

RDK demos are on tap from the following companies:

  • Arris Group
  • Alticast
  • Broadcom (offsite demo)
  • Cisco Systems
  • Comcast
  • Ericsson
  • Espial Group
  • Hillcrest Labs
  • Humax Americas
  • Intel Corp.
  • Itaas
  • Liberty Global
  • MStar Semiconductor (offsite)
  • Myriad Group
  • Pace
  • S3 Group
  • SeaChange International
  • STMicroelectronics (offsite)
  • Tata Elxsi
  • Technicolor