The RDK Global Conference… above par, but certainly not a bogey.

Recently I had the great pleasure of attending the RDK Global Summit. One of the things that struck me is how the “RDK Community” continues to coalesce for the betterment of the wider user and development community. In many ways it reminds of The Solheim Cup (the best woman pro-golfers from the US against the best that Europe has to offer) and the Ryder Cup (the best men pro-golfers from the US vs the best from Europe).

Kudos to the woman’s European team for taking the 2021 Solheim Cup on US soil, incidentally with very few European fans in attendance due to the travel ban. On the men’s side, Team USA put on an inspiring performance and wrestled the 2021 Ryder Cup back from Team Europe.

RDK Community and Teamwork

Why might an open-sourced software community remind me of golf … well, for 23 weeks out of a year, most golfers are in it for themselves.  Golfers are basically self-employed contractors, either they do well, or they don’t get paid. So, in the end its all about themselves. However, once every two years, when it is Solheim or Ryder Cup time, it all changes. Team before self. This was very evident in both the Solheim and Ryder Cups this year.

It was also quite evident in the recent RDK Global Summit. Such a great exchange of information from the community, even those companies that may compete outside the RDK Community, just like the pro golfers outside the Solheim and Ryder Cups. Look how Nagra, Synamedia, and Broadcom came together to introduce OCDM security, and option not being adopted within the core Comcast RDK stack.

What is the OCDM Framework?

The OCDM framework allows DRM solutions to plug into a browser and provide the Encrypted Media Extensions required by HTML5. It means that any CAS vendor can now bring their solution to RDK at a low integration cost, providing the community with more options and flexibility when choosing a CAS solution. This also brings the added benefit of leveraging multiple SOC vendors.

The three companies, two of which often compete with each other for business outside the RDK community, worked together to design a way for the OCDM plugin architecture to work with Linear Sources.  This in turn benefits both the RDK community and its users by offering multiple CAS alternatives on multiple SOC options.

It is tremendous to watch the pros put aside their individualism and compete as a Team.  For the golf fans of Europe and the USA, it is an entertaining and fun weekend of watching a sport we love.  The same can be said for the RDK Community, albeit without all the media hype and TV coverage of course.

For more information about the RDK Community, visit RDK Central or Synamedia eRDK.