TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 29, 2023 – Today at the OpenSync Summit, Evolution Digital announced that its EVO FORCE 1 set-top box (STB), powered by Android TV, has been integrated with OpenSync®, the fastest growing open-source framework for the home network. This integration brings intelligent Wi-Fi statistics, network insights and diagnostics from Plume’s Frontline™ back-office tool. EVO FORCE 1 is the first Android TV STB to make the OpenSync framework available.
Through Evolution Digital’s eDM™ Android TV management platform, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) can take advantage of device management, analytics and control actions. Now, via OpenSync, operators can get deeper, real-time insight into the wireless access network and how the box and applications perform from a streaming perspective. With Plume’s SaaS Experience Platform that leverages OpenSync, service providers have access to intelligent and remote support tools that enable them to reduce unnecessary OPEX costs spent via truck rolls and customer care center calls.
“The marriage of EVO FORCE 1 and future Android TV roadmap devices with the OpenSync framework delivers a truly optimized experience for the end customer, and offers best-in-breed cloud intelligence to CSPs worldwide that are looking to deliver high-quality IPTV video offerings,” said Marc Cohen, Chief Revenue Officer. “We feel very confident that OpenSync presents the right solution having already been adopted by a significant number of service providers. The combination of OpenSync, Plume’s state-of-the-art services, and our top-of-the-line hardware is a powerful proposition.”
“With in-home 4K UHD multi-streaming putting increased loads on home networks, service providers must turn to intelligent cloud-managed solutions to ensure optimal set-top box connectivity and an impeccable customer experience,” said Liem Vo, Chief OpenSync Officer at Plume. “By opting for OpenSync and Plume’s SaaS Experience Platform—including whole-home adaptive WiFi—Evolution Digital has taken an important step in providing a future-proofed and highly scalable platform that will fulfill the consumers’ streaming needs into the future.”
In the coming months, EVO FORCE 1 will undergo further OpenSync enhancements and expansion of capabilities to unlock further features including mesh extender functionalities to reduce the amount of customer premise equipment in the home, zero-touch onboarding for seamless network self-install, as well as advanced functionalities including Plume’s Guard™ cyber security service and advanced user and parental controls.
To learn more about Evolution Digital’s EVO FORCE 1, powered by Android TV, please visit https://evolutiondigital.com/android-tv/.
Android TV is a trademark of Google LLC.
About Evolution Digital
Evolution Digital L.L.C. is a leading provider of a broad portfolio of integrated video products and whole-home Wi-Fi offerings for the global industry. Our customers include service providers and their subscribers who use our products daily to enhance their lives. We take an aggressive approach to product innovation to embrace new technologies and ever-evolving connected lifestyles that require high-performance, reliable, and user-friendly solutions. Visit www.evolutiondigital.com.
About OpenSync
OpenSync is the only open-source software-defined networking framework to reliably and dynamically deliver and modify programmable services at scale from a cloud control plane. Today, OpenSync connects over 2.5 billion devices. Harmonized with SDKs such as RDK-B and OpenWRT—and broadly deployed by leading global CSPs and device makers—the framework is critical to residential and small business WiFi and IP-delivered services. Chipset suppliers, device makers, system integrators, internet service providers, and operators can benefit from OpenSync’s open, interoperable, and multi-vendor interfaces that help deliver and modify services quickly, scalably, and reliably from the cloud.
For more information, visit www.opensync.io.
About Plume
Plume® is the creator of the world’s first SaaS Experience Platform for Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and their subscribers, deployed in more than 48 million locations globally. As the only open and hardware-independent, cloud-controlled solution, Plume enables the rapid delivery of new services for smart homes, MDUs, small businesses, and beyond at massive scale. On the front end, Plume delivers self-optimizing, adaptive WiFi, cyber-security, access and parental controls, and more. CSPs get robust data- and AI-driven back-end applications for unprecedented visibility, insights, support, operations, and marketing. Plume leverages OpenSync®, an open-source framework that comes pre-integrated and supported on the leading silicon, CPE, and platform SDKs.
Visit plume.com, plume.com/homepass, plume.com/workpass, plume.com/uprise, and opensync.io.
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Plume, OpenSync, Frontline, and Guard are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Plume Design, Inc.
Proprietary software is dead
Four years ago we launched OpenSync based on the belief that the battleground for the hearts, minds and revenues of the home consumer sits between Service Providers’ connectivity and the smart devices of the internet giants.
What we said then—and still believe—is that the biggest market opportunity is in that space in between. The space in the home that Communications Service Providers (CSPs) need to protect and grow. The space where a truly smart, managed WiFi solution can become the CSPs’ trump card.
A solution like our then-proprietary device middle layer—now OpenSync. It makes the “smart” possible by communicating with all of the devices in the home and with the Plume Cloud where data analytics, insights, and control messages are created to help improve services and drive personalization. Proprietary software, however, was not the answer. Like hardware, it creates vendor lock-in, starves innovation, and kills time-to-market in a world where winners need to curate and deliver new services fast.
So we made OpenSync available as an open-source, silicon-to-service framework, and set out to change the market dynamics, making it easier for developers and operators to work together to grow the overall market. Has it worked?
Since it launched, OpenSync has been adopted by over 22 CPE designers and makers around the world and deployed by over 350 CSPs including some of the largest: Bell Canada, Charter Communications, Comcast, Deutsche Glasfaser, J:COM, and Liberty Global. It is now the cloud-based framework that the industry is rallying behind. And this week we celebrate surpassing an important milestone: more than 2 billion connected devices have been managed on OpenSync-powered networks.
A platform for the future
In a competitive market where subscribers are looking for more value, OpenSync offers CPSs a key to providing an improved quality of experience, data security, and total network control. Furthermore, OpenSync helps Providers reduce their environmental footprint and build more eco-friendly strategies by extending the lifetime of their existing CPE. All OpenSync-powered CPEs—including gateways, extenders, and pods—can coexist on the same network, irrespective of device maker or WiFi generation. CSPs leveraging OpenSync create numerous business advantages, from the ability to push new services to existing hardware, deployment flexibility, and the capacity to respond to subscriber demands with unparalleled network insight.
“We’ve monitored OpenSync’s expansion closely since its inception four years ago,” said Anirudh Bhaskaran, Industry Principal from Frost and Sullivan. “The overwhelming support for the ecosystem—from standards creators such as Telecom Infra Project (TIP) to world-leading service providers including Bell, Charter Communications, and J:COM—has created significant momentum; OpenSync has quickly established itself as the global standard to enable service providers to deliver cloud-driven experiences to their subscribers.”
The promise of the smart home and intelligent small business has long required a brand-agnostic delivery platform on which this new world will be constructed—fulfilling the promise of simplicity, speed, and scale for all. Device makers and operators have been waiting for, in essence, an operating system to enable smart spaces to deliver the hyper-personalized services that consumers are coming to expect. This is exactly what partners have found through the OpenSync platform. And because an open-source network is only as good as its measurable inputs and outputs, we’re taking this milestone anniversary as an opportunity to look back on the last four years of OpenSync.
The data is in
No other industry initiative is as scaled as OpenSync. What we believed could be achieved in 2018 is now a reality: a massively rooted ecosystem which will lead to exponential growth year-over-year as we move into the future.
A thriving ecosystem
As with any open-source initiative, the best way to measure success is through a diversity of players: contributors, creators, and adopters working together to enrich the initiative. A flourishing ecosystem requires participation from all types of partners including app developers, hardware manufacturers, and operators.
OpenSync has developed a fully-functioning and thriving environment in its four years:
Operators are adopting and contributing scale and experience.
The critical mass of OpenSync’s expansion comes from CSP operators who have adopted and contributed to the codebase, fueling its enormous scale and development. Over the last four years, OpenSync has not only been adopted by some of the world’s largest carriers; it’s also been adopted by NCTC, a consortium of carriers that are collectively the third largest in the US, and by many independent carriers, including Armstrong, C3, and All West Communications. Some CSPs using OpenSync, such as All West Communications, have seen an average threefold increase in the adoption of managed WiFi services. As more Providers around the world integrate with OpenSync, the more intelligent the platform becomes, resolving customer issues proactively and remotely, reducing latency, and affording subscribers the seamless connectivity they expect.
Making the adoption of OpenSync easier to accelerate innovation
As we move into the next era of OpenSync, we are devoted to making it cost-effective, enabling the creation of new and cutting-edge applications, advancing personalization and efficiency for device makers, and making it faster and easier for CSPs to introduce and support those services and devices in the home or small business. OpenSync remains the only platform of its kind, providing the critical building blocks to enable the ecosystem to deliver data-rich, cloud-controlled services to broadband subscribers at scale, and there’s no sign of slowing.
