RDK at the 2018
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo: the Recap

ATLANTA–Five years ago, in Atlanta, the RDK Community debuted to the industry’s technical brain trust with a workshop session and a small-but-dedicated roster of OEM and SoC partner booths. The occasion was the 2013 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, which typically attracts upwards of 9,000 attendees — making it the industry’s largest annual tech event.

At the time, it was a modest and tactical unveiling, bolstered by pragmatic commitments from Comcast, Liberty Global and (then) Time Warner Cable, as well as a pioneering vendor community. Since then, more than 350 companies joined in, and the RDK software stack is resident in 40+ million set-tops and broadband gateways around the world.

 That the RDK’s fifth anniversary happened to fall during the 2018 Cable-Tec Expo, again in Atlanta, was a meaningful springboard from which to debut our first-ever booth, and to participate in both a workshop and an on-the-floor element of this year’s Innovation Theater.

RDK in SCTE Sessions

The workshop was moderated Leslie Ellis, a familiar face in RDK and SCTE circles, with expert panelists Steve Heeb, President/GM of RDK; Ed Shrum, VP of Product Development & Management of Devices and Network for Cox; Fraser Stirling, SVP of Devices and Advanced AI Systems for Comcast; and Bill Warga, VP of Technology for Liberty Global. Here’s a link to coverage from Multichannel News, which landed the RDK session on the front of its Day 3 Show Daily; additional coverage from Light Reading is here.

Three of the five workshop participants had taken the stage at the 2013 Expo to talk about the emergence of the RDK — Ellis, Heeb and Warga. All noted the advancement of telemetry as a “killer app” for both broadband and video services as a favorite way to communicate the value RDK brings to overall business intelligence. Largely unexpected, back in 2013: That the RDK’s central code repository would be handling 4 million transactions per month.

The RDK session in the Innovation Theater, also moderated by Ellis, focused on RDK’s advancements from a supplier point of view, including Albert Dahan, Albert Dahan, Co-Founder & CTO of Metrological; Charles Cheevers, CTO of Customer Premises Equipment for ARRIS; and Rob Suero, Senior Director of Technology for RDK. All noted the heavy lifting and collaboration happening within the supplier community to solve for superior WiFi connectivity, beyond speeds, toward coverage and control. Control for operators, like an on-board “WiFi Happiness Index,” to apply machine level to WiFi performance; control for consumers by way of well-featured UIs, designed for deep and intuitive DIY troubleshooting.

RDK in the Booth

A giant thanks to all in the RDK Community who joined us in “the ATL” to spread the word about the RDK — and for all of you who stopped by to see us there! In particular, thanks to our booth partners:

  • Alticast, for the Ambient TV demo
  • ARRIS, for the Home Assure router management demo
  • Cognizant, for two demos — RDK for Video, by way of TV integration with Amazon Alexa and Google home for voice control, and RDK for Broadband, with a speed test integrated with Alexa and Google
  • Comcast, for the super-cool XM-1 and XM-2 signal level meters made with RDK for Broadband
  • Cox, for showing a syndicated voice remote integrated into its Contour UI
  • Humax, for the DOCSIS gateway demo and the Alticast-based UI
  • Liberty Global, for the (Dutch) Horizon UI demo
  • Metrological, for the App Store demo
  • RDK, for the demo of the new app SDK for RDK
  • Tata Elxsi, for two demos — RDK for video, by way of gateway/router management for Portuguese operator NOS, and RDK for Broadband with the data and telemetry demo
 As far as trade shows and conferences go, we’re wrapped up for the 2018 season. Thanks for helping to make it our best ever! Stay tuned to RDKCentral.com for details on where the RDK is headed in 2019.
 

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RDK Management is an open source consortium that manages the Reference Design Kit (RDK). RDK is an open source software platform for the connected home that standardizes core functions used in broadband devices, set-top boxes, and IoT. It enables operators to manage their devices; control their business models; and customize their apps, UIs and data analytics to improve the customer experience and drive business results. The RDK community is comprised of more than 600 companies including: CPE manufacturers, SoC vendors, software developers, system integrators, and service providers.  For more information on the tools, training, and events provided by RDK Management, please visit: www.rdkcentral.com.  

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