Motorola Mobility Licenses Comcast Reference Design Kit

The software bundle will help speed up the set-top box development cycle and deployments of next-generation video services

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/22/2012 2:13:37 PM

Motorola Mobility is licensing Comcast's Reference Design Kit (RDK), a development that the MSO is referring to an important step forward in their efforts to speed up the deployment of innovative new services to their subscribers.

"Accelerating the cycle of innovation for video solutions, and specifically set-tops, is a common industry goal," said Steve Reynolds, senior VP, CPE and home network for Comcast in a statement. "We are thrilled that an industry innovator such as Motorola is embracing this cooperative effort to provide operators, developers and device vendors the foundation required to innovate at a fast pace -- a requirement in today's rapidly-changing multiscreen TV environment."

The RDK software bundle, which was developed by Comcast as a community-based project with developers, vendors and operators, creates a common framework for powering tru2way, IP or hybrid set-top boxes and video gateway devices. It allows developers to use a defined stack of software on one layer in order to provision set-top boxes and video gateways with standard interfaces and shared source code model are interoperable on multiple platforms.

By licensing the RDK to equipment manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers, software vendors and multichannel video programming distributors, Comcast hopes to create a community of developers that will speed up the process of bringing rich, multi-screen TV home entertainment experiences to consumers.

"Our goal is to work closely with our operator customers to provide consumers with simple and intuitive entertainment experiences so they can enjoy their content anytime, anywhere, on any screen," said Larry Robinson, Motorola Mobility senior VP and general manager of Home Devices. "We've worked closely with Comcast as a strategic and innovative partner for many years, and we're excited to license the RDK as a smart, integrated solution to help move the industry forward in the evolution of TV."