RDK Management and Netherlands based App development specialist Metrological have announced the availability of a development environment for app developers, so they can remotely develop and test apps which are to run on the RDK platform. This idea is to broaden the number of developers who can develop apps for RDK set tops.
Metrological joined the RDK just back in September but has in the past won great favor with one of the key RDK members, at Liberty Global, where its software is used as an App Store for its Horizon box.
RDK management says Metrological has combined its application framework with RDK to create its RDK App Emulator and Metrological will administer and distribute the emulator so that developers can start working on apps to run on top of RDK, whether they are RDK licensees or not.
RDK has attracted over 200 RDK community members from chip suppliers to equipment manufacturers, app developers and system integrators. RDK is intended to provide a common underlying technology layer on set tops to shorten the development cycle for new devices and new services.
Over the past year it has broadened to include the home gateway in a development referred to as RDK-B (where the B presumably stands for broadband). This was perhaps because home gateways were in the process of merging with set tops out in the marketplace, and adding the broadband management side to the video side as a new crop of merged products were due to hit the market. Also with the emergence of DOCSIS 3.1 this would likely make its arrival more rapidly and orderly, and potentially cheaper for many cable operators.
However RDK-B throws away any disguise of RDK being there for just about any set top developer, given that RDK-B is no good for telco home gateways and not really much help if you are a DTH firm. It makes RDK Management more and more like a software repository for cable, rather like CableLabs is its R&D role.
The new app developer environment uses RDK and RDK Emulator to enable developers to prototype, develop and test RDK applications remotely on a laptop, without using a physical RDK device or set-top box.
Steve Heeb, President and General Manager of RDK Management said, “Thanks to Metrological, RDK can attract an even larger base of app developers who can provide apps to operators. Our long term goal is for the app developer community to view the RDK as the premier platform that brings new levels of innovation to the video industry.”