In pictures: Airtel’s new Made in India Set-Top Box

Bharati Telemedia’s Direct to Home (DTH) arm Airtel Digital TV had recently announced plans to shift its all set-top box manufacturing to India by end of this year. The company has partnered with Skyworth and the manufacturing process has already begun. DreamDTH now has the new made in India HD set-top box. 

Airtel has partnered with Skyworth Electronics for the domestic production in Noida. All set-top box boxes including SD, HD and Android hybrid Xstream are going to be manufactured locally. Skyworth is a globally recognized brand which delivered set-top boxes earlier also to both Airtel and Tata Sky.

Previously, the set-top boxes were made in Thailand by Cal-Comp electronics for Smart Choice Store Company based in Hong Kong, China. After manufacturing and quality checks these STBs were then imported from China to India by Airtel. 

The new Indian set-top boxes are being manufactured for Skyworth by KHY Electronics India Private Limited that was founded in 2019 at Noida, Uttar Pradesh under the “Make In India” initiative by the Government of India. It is an ISO certified company that also has partnerships with some operators like Sun Networks, GTPL, Hathway, Siti Network and DEN. 

The design of STB has not changed and bears the same model number HS3CO2. On the front, there are LED indicators and Airtel, Dolby Digital branding. A power button is present on the top along with ventilation cuts. The backside of the set-top box has ports for antenna cable, power input, USB, audio/video and HDMI.