Tech4home unveils Voice Remote Controls for RDK, Metrological enabled STBs

Tech4home unveils Voice Remote Controls for RDK, Metrological enabled STBsJanuary 14, 2020 10.14 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul Tech4home has launched the first Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) voice remote solutions for RDK and Metrological enabled set-top boxes.Operators opting for the RDK platform will now be able to choose from Tech4home’s wide range of remote control units and benefit from a BLE voice remote control pre-integrated for RDK and the Metrological TV Application Platform.The new remote enables set-top boxes, including RDK Video Accelerator products, to use voice commands to change channels, launch an app from the Metrological App store, and more. Operators also can develop additional enhancements, such as universal voice search across live, on-demand, and apps, using the new RDK-enabled BLE remote control options from Tech4home. Commenting on the development, Miguel Oliveira, MD at Tech4home, said: “RDK is backed by a wide range of leading industry players. Another important aspect is that the system’s reference design allows operators to create cost effective solutions for the end customer.“With RDK, customers profit from a fully integrated and standardised BLE voice remote control. In addition, consumers gain access to a familiar voice remote experience they have come to expect. When it comes to Tech4home, all of our RCU products can be adapted to be RDK compatible.”Steve Heeb, president and GM of RDK, added: “RDK innovations are driven by our community, and Tech4home is propelling this mission by providing an intuitively integrated voice remote control for RDK devices.“With its BLE voice solutions, Tech4home is providing the industry with an innovative new remote and contributing to the RDK community a standardised BLE profile for voice integration.”Jeroen Ghijsen, CEO of Metrological, said: “Tech4home shares our vision that the future of TV will be about deploying simplified, integrated user experiences, and the remote is at the centre of that experience.“With Tech4home’s BLE voice remote solutions on RDK set-top boxes, voice commands can instantly control the user interface in real-time—to change channels or access a wide variety of premium OTT services as well as niche content and localised apps through the Metrological TV Application Platform.”Tech4home says that having been involved in earlier RDK remote control implementations based on ZigBee RF4CE, it worked with RDK to develop the first voice remote control using the RDK BLE APIs which relies on common BLE profiles for standard functions. In the development process, it took a leading position to create the BLE solution for the voice integration for the RDK community and will continue to do so.