By Michael Grotticelli

While the debate about the end game for the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger rages on, the two companies have been working behind the scenes for at least a year on a common platform for supporting two-way interactivity and video on demand services. About nine months ago, the two operators—along with several others in the U.S. and Canada—entered into a multi-year, joint venture called the RDK Management LLC, whose mission has been developing special set top boxes with integrated software that supports both IP and QAM signals in the same hybrid box.

Bob Harrison, Solution Architect at a systems integration firm called Symphony Teleca, participated in the design and implementation of the Reference Design Kit (RDK) used by these operators. The RDK represents an integrated bundle that can be accessed by operators in need of a software stack for set-top devices. The field-tested and integrated system runs on QAM, IP and Hybrid devices.

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