US cable operator Comcast has opened up its Cable Automated Test Solution (CATS), used to test new STBs and services, to outside developers. The company has launched the Open CATS (OCATS) open-source tool to enable anyone who builds STBs or creates STB features to test their products and services in a fast, automated environment. It can work for virtually any device in the marketplace. Principal Software Engineer Chad Frederick writes that the provision of an automated test framework as a cloud service is an industry first that will encourage innovation by making it faster and simpler to test new services and features.
OCATS provides companies a single framework for different video testing scenarios, including set-top manipulation, power/reboot, infrared, and video recording and playback. Using one flexible framework saves the time and expense of setting up different frameworks for each test. And automated testing makes it easier to spot defects earlier in the product lifecycle. OCATS empowers successful manual, semi-automated, or automated testing from anywhere in the world. The licensing agreement allows users to modify and use OCATS without any restrictions. Users can also write applications and tests for OCATS and distribute them freely.
