Accelerating the accelerator – the first RDK Video Accelerator with an Amlogic SoC

The issue:

Skyworth, the world’s largest manufacturer of STBs, has an impressive track record in delivering Android TV and propriety middleware STBs. But when they looked to develop their first RDK product they needed an experienced partner to help.

They chose Consult Red. With Europe’s largest RDK R&D team and several product launches under our belt we had experience in depth. Skyworth wanted a flexible engagement model – they had considerable resources that they could bring to bear but needed a partner who could work with them and utilise their team where appropriate.

Using our knowledge of the RDK-M way of working, we set up the code configuration, build scripts and recipes enabling subsequent work to be easily up streamed and down streamed with the RDK Code Management Framework (CMF).

We worked with Skyworth and Amlogic to ingest their code and generate a baseline build that all parties could work from. We followed an agile approach where daily stand ups were used to co-ordinate work between the Skyworth and Consult Red teams. Collaboration tools, especially issue tracking were used to orchestrate and track work as it moved between stakeholders – in this way Consult Red and Skyworth were able to build an extended and effective team.

We undertook the initial integration of the RDK middleware with the Skyworth and Amlogic platform code, testing and resolving issues until baseline functionality was achieved. This involved liaising we the RDK technical authorities before upstreaming any changes to RDK.

How we did it:

To successfully deliver RDK projects you must be able to work efficiently with multiple stakeholders in this case there were parties from Skyworth, Amlogic, RDK-M, and other technology providers.

Our experience, collaborative approach and strong communications helped ensure effective project delivery across all the stakeholders and facilitated knowledge transfer to Skyworth.