RDK Management has a plan to make it easier for pay TV service providers to build and launch apps for RDK set-top boxes.
The program will let operators choose from an RDK pre-integrated app store solution or an RDK App Framework to build and manage their own solutions.
“Today marks a significant milestone in the history of the RDK,” said Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management, in a statement. “Since inception, the RDK community focused on bringing transparency and standardization to certain technical functions of video set-top boxes and broadband gateways, enabling service providers to focus on their consumer-facing applications and UIs. Thanks to the RDK community, this new open source RDK App Framework will make it even easier for service providers to develop, launch, and manage apps in a consistent way across RDK set-top boxes. To be clear, RDK Management is not in the ‘app business’ itself, but rather ‘app enablement’ with our partners.”
The framework includes onboarding and life cycle management tools, and enables app portability across various set-top box models. Using the framework and RDK Firebolt App SDK, operators can make HTML5 or native apps. The RDK open source community, along with contributions from Metrological, have essentially set up a common technical framework to support video apps like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video, along with third-party HTML5 apps.
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Metrological’s app store is the first pre-integrated solution for RDK’s new program.
“Metrological is very proud of our contributions to the RDK App Framework and to be named the first RDK pre-integrated app store,” said Jeroen Ghijsen, CEO of Metrological, in a statement. “The Metrological App Store has a small footprint suitable for new or legacy implementations, with a back-office that allows operators to personalize the TV viewer experience by quickly responding to changing consumer interests. Our App Store gives operators complete control over which apps they wish to support and promote on their platforms.”
Metrological, along with Arris, also contributed to a support tool and IP STB reference integration for operators getting into development, testing and service deployment.