HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFP - 8982 PROCUREMENT OF MOBITV-CAPABLE SET TOP BOXES FOR A FIBER-TO-THE-PREMISE (FTTP) BROADBAND NETWORKRFP 8982 MobiTV-Capable Set Top Boxes Page 1 of 8
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL #8982
PROCUREMENT OF MOBITV-CAPABLE SET TOP BOXES
FOR A FIBER-TO-THE-PREMISE (FTTP) BROADBAND NETWORK
The City of Fort Collins is requesting proposals from qualified firms (Firms) to supply Android TV
Operator Tier Set Top Boxes (STP) for the onsite video delivery component of a “Triple Play”
Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) Broadband Network. The City’s IPTV provider is MobiTV, an app-
based unicast solution. It is the intent of the City to offer IPTV services to each residence and
business customer in the community through a phased network construction program now
underway.
As part of the City’s commitment to Sustainable Purchasing, proposals submission via
email is preferred. Proposals shall be submitted in a single Microsoft Word or PDF file
under 20MB and e-mailed to: purchasing@fcgov.com. If electing to submit a hard copy
proposal we require one (1) hard copy and one (1) electronic copy on a jump drive to be
received at the City of Fort Collins' Purchasing Division, 215 North Mason St., 2nd floor, Fort
Collins, Colorado 80524. Proposals must be received before 3:00 p.m. (our clock) on July
22, 2019 and referenced as Proposal No. 8982. If delivered, they are to be sent to 215 North
Mason Street, 2nd Floor, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524. If mailed, the address is P.O. Box 580,
Fort Collins, 80522-0580. Please note, additional time is required for bids mailed to the PO Box
to be received at the Purchasing Office.
The City encourages all Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) to submit proposals in
response to all requests for proposals. No individual or business will be discriminated against
on the grounds of race, color, sex, or national origin. It is the City’s policy to create a level
playing field on which DBEs can compete fairly and to ensure nondiscrimination in the award
and administration of all contracts.
All questions should be submitted, in writing via email, to Gerry Paul, Purchasing Director
at gspaul@fcgov.com, with a copy to Project Manager, Brad Ward, at bward@fcgov.com,
no later than 5:00 PM MST (our clock) on July 15, 2019. Please format your e-mail to include:
RFP 8982 Procurement of MobiTV-Capable Set Top Boxes for a FTTP Broadband Network.in the
subject line. Questions received after this deadline may not be answered. Responses to all
questions submitted before the deadline will be addressed in an addendum and posted on the
Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System webpage.
Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System hosted by Bidnet
A copy of the RFP may be obtained at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado/city-of-fort-collins.
This RFP has been posted utilizing the following Commodity Code(s):
20854 Internet and Web Site Software for Microcomputers
20954 Internet and Web Site Software for Mainframe Computers
84084 Video and Audio Systems
91551 Information Highway Electronic Services
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Public Viewing Copy: The City is a governmental entity subject to the Colorado Open Records
Act, C.R.S. §§ 24-72-200.1 et seq. (“CORA”). Any proposals submitted hereunder are subject
to public disclosure by the City pursuant to CORA and City ordinances. Firms may submit one
(1) additional complete proposal clearly marked “FOR PUBLIC VIEWING.” In this version of the
proposal, the Firm may redact text and/or data that it deems confidential or proprietary pursuant
to CORA. Such statement does not necessarily exempt such documentation from public
disclosure if required by CORA, by order of a court of appropriate jurisdiction, or other
applicable law. Generally, under CORA trade secrets, confidential commercial and financial
data information is not required to be disclosed by the City. Proposals may not be marked
“Confidential” or ‘Proprietary’ in their entirety. All provisions of any contract resulting from
this request for proposal will be public information.
New Firms: The City requires new Firms receiving awards from the City to fill out and submit an
IRS form W-9 and to register for Direct Deposit (Electronic) payment. If needed, the W-9 form
and the Firm Direct Deposit Authorization Form can be found on the City’s Purchasing website
at www.fcgov.com/purchasing under Firm Reference Documents. Please do not submit with
your proposal.
Sales Prohibited/Conflict of Interest: No officer, employee, or member of City Council, shall
have a financial interest in the sale to the City of any real or personal property, equipment,
material, supplies or services where such officer or employee exercises directly or indirectly any
decision-making authority concerning such sale or any supervisory authority over the services to
be rendered. This rule also applies to subcontracts with the City. Soliciting or accepting any gift,
gratuity favor, entertainment, kickback or any items of monetary value from any person who has
or is seeking to do business with the City of Fort Collins is prohibited.
Collusive or Sham Proposals: Any proposal deemed to be collusive or a sham proposal will
be rejected and reported to authorities as such. Your authorized signature of this proposal
assures that such proposal is genuine and is not a collusive or sham proposal.
The City of Fort Collins reserves the right to reject any and all proposals and to waive any
irregularities or informalities.
Utilization of Award by Other Agencies: The City of Fort Collins reserves the right to allow
other state and local governmental agencies, political subdivisions, and/or school districts to
utilize the resulting award under all terms and conditions specified and upon agreement by all
parties. Usage by any other entity shall not have a negative impact on the City of Fort Collins in
the current term or in any future terms.
Sincerely,
Gerry Paul
Purchasing Director
RFP 8982 MobiTV-Capable Set Top Boxes Page 3 of 8
City of Fort Collins
Request for Proposals (RFP) #8982
Procurement of MobiTV-Capable Set Top Boxes
For a Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) Broadband Network
Section 1 – Project Background
Fort Collins is nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and alongside the banks of
the Cache La Poudre River. With an estimated population of 170, 000 (approximately 70,000
premises), Fort Collins is among the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan areas. The City
includes many assets and amenities that provide a competitive advantage including Colorado
State University, abundant natural resources and agricultural land, highly educated and creative
workforce, a historic downtown, and many miles of trails, parks and bike paths. Fort Collins has
one of the highest rates of patents per capita in the world with a major research institution –
Colorado State University – a cluster of federal laboratories and such high-tech companies as
Hewlett-Packard, AMD, Intel and Broadcom.
During the Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) community outreach in 2014, the community
prioritized and identified a need to address the lack of reliable, universal and affordable
broadband services. The City of Fort Collins addressed the broadband situation by identifying
the following strategic objective in the 2015/2016 & 2018 Strategic Plans:
“Strategic Objective 3.7 –Deploy reliable, high-speed internet services throughout the
community.”
The overall objective is to bring reliable, high speed internet to the city of Fort Collins, while
making an informed decision through evaluation of risk and opportunities. The FCC formally
defines broadband as internet download speed of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload
of 3Mbps or faster. However, a popular benchmark of high-speed broadband is commonly
known as gigabit speed (Gbps), and is seen in many cities across the country including
Longmont, CO. More information about the City’s Strategic Plan can be found at:
https://ourcity.fcgov.com/update-the-citys-2018-strategic-plan.
In November 2017, the citizens of Fort Collins approved ballot measure 2B, giving the City the
authority to provide high-speed broadband services to the community. In July 2018 Fort Collins
Connexion was unveiled as the City’s answer to Strategic Objective 3.7 to provide gigabit
broadband triple-play services.
Section 2 – Product Requirements
The City of Fort Collins is soliciting proposals to purchase Android TV Operator Tier Set Top
Boxes (STBs) for the onsite video delivery component of a “Triple Play” FTTP Broadband
Network. The City’s IPTV provider is MobiTV, an app-based unicast solution. It is the intent of
the City to offer IPTV services to each residence and business in the community through a
phased network construction program phased network construction program now underway.
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Overall Requirements
The proposed solution shall meet the following requirements:
• Provide all pricing options for available product and service offerings meeting and
exceeding the City’s hardware requirements with available support contracts and
management tools. Include quotes for minimum order quantities and volume price
breaks. Delineate whether support contracts are required or optional.
• Provide a description of support and escalation paths for any service impacting issues
for each device and management service proposed.
• Describe the proposed device’s update roadmap and patch compliance history.
• Provide a brief overview of the potential customizations and branding offerings as
provided by the manufacturer and/or distributor, along with their pricing options.
• Provide a brief overview of the capabilities and required infrastructure to support the
management of the STBs and the one-time and recurring pricing for the management
software license and annual maintenance.
• Describe the provider’s capability of delivering diagnostic tools.
• Provide estimated launch timelines, including time to demo units, set up time for support
infrastructure (e.g. management software), and typical order lead-times for hardware
purchases. The City of Fort Collins expects to launch our Broadband service (including
Video services) in August 2019.
• Hardware and software must be white label and include no independent third-party
branding or advertising.
• Provide numbers of STBs and deployments with MobiTV.
Hardware Requirements
MobiTV Unicast IPTV Delivery Devices – the City requires STB hardware that can provide
television service to our customers given the prerequisites of our existing infrastructure to
deliver a MobiTV app-based solution. Such devices must meet the following requirements:
• Describe the remote. The STB shall include (or have an option for) a physical remote.
Describe how the remote meets the following sub requirements:
o The remote shall have voice search capabilities.
o The STB and remote shall also be brandable via silk screening.
o The remote shall have physical buttons as the primary interface, including but not
limited to programmable middleware specific hotkeys (example: MobiTV Guide,
Live TV) out of the box as well as traditional number buttons.
o The remote shall be both Bluetooth and IR capable for interfacing with the STB.
o Describe whether the remote is programmable to deal with external devices (A/V
equipment, TV) and, if applicable, how it works.
• Describe any testing performed on 3rd party universal remotes related to the proposed
solution. Include a list of universal remotes that have been tested for use with the
proposed solution.
• Describe the networking capabilities of the device. Networking interfaces on the STB
shall at minimum provide Ethernet and 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi Radio connectivity.
• Describe the A/V connectivity of the device. The STB shall include an HDMI 2.0 or
greater compliant interface as well as legacy device connectivity (i.e. analog video for
non-HDMI TVs).
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• Describe any third-party certifications such as UL certification, Energy Star, etc.
• Describe the codec support of the device. The STB shall be H.265 Main10 decoding
capable. At minimum address the following:
o Describe the simultaneous decode capabilities of the STB. The decoder shall be
capable of at minimum a 2x simultaneous decode of HD content for Picture-In-
Picture (PIP).
o Describe the dynamic range conversion capabilities of the device. STBs with no
BT.2100 (HLG and/or HDR10 HDR) implementation shall be capable of dynamic
range conversion from HDR to SDR.
o Describe further audiovisual standards, proprietary or otherwise, that are
available on the STB (examples: Dolby Vision, Atmos, etc.).
• Describe the Digital Rights Management (DRM) implementations on the device. The
STB shall be capable of Widevine DRM at minimum. As applicable, describe your
additional DRM offerings (for example: PlayReady/FairPlay, Verimatrix VCAS).
Software & Licensing Requirements
It is the understanding of the City that the STBs involve multiple licensed technologies and
certifications. It is a requirement that the responsibility for licensing and certifying these
technologies, whether software or hardware including but not limited to H.264 and H.265
decoders, Android TV licensing, Certification of Android TV hardware with Google, etc. shall be
solely the responsibility of the device manufacturer or distributor. It is the City’s goal to purchase
a finished product that is correctly licensed and certified for the City’s use case.
• Provide a list of all licenses and certifications that are included with the proposed
solution.
• If a required license/certification is not included with the proposed solution, is the
license/certification provided by MobiTV or by the City of Fort Collins?
STB bundled software shall meet the following requirements:
• Describe the software platform of the device. The STB shall run an Android TV Operator
Tier firmware, preloaded with the City’s branded MobiTV application.
o Software must be a “zero screen” interface launch in which the City’s branded
MobiTV application loads immediately and first upon power up of the device.
• Describe your Firm’s relationship with MobiTV. The STB vendor shall understand how to
ship a device using MobiTV’s middleware platform on top of Android TV.
o Describe the Google certification status of the Operator Tier device with MobiTV
middleware, and if it must be (re)certified for the City’s use describe how that will
impact the City’s startup time if that is the case.
• Describe the remote management capabilities of the device, including the cost of the
management solution. The product shall have a remote management interface.
o Describe support hardware requirements and recommendations in the case of an
on-premise hosted remote management solution.
o Provide a description of how users may interact with your STB without a Google
account. (SSO solutions, pushing updates from the remote management client,
etc.)
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Support Requirements
The City requires an STB provider that supports its hardware and software solutions. The
requirements for support are as follows:
• Describe the device warranty and its cost. The STB hardware’s warranty shall meet a 2
years minimum parts and labor coverage.
o Provide STB warranty details, in-warranty device replacement procedures, and
expected support lifetime of the devices offered.
• Describe the support lifetime of the product. The supportable product lifecycle of the
device shall meet 5 years minimum.
o Describe the Firm’s commitment to software updates to the device and
management software for the lifetime of the product.
• Describe available training and/or relevant documentation for the use, troubleshooting
and maintenance of the devices, and applicable management software.
• Describe the support infrastructure that the City will have access to and its pricing. At
minimum address the following:
o Describe the support ticketing system.
o Describe the ability to access support technicians, their location, and their
capacity to take tickets via email, chat, and/or calls during our 24x7x365 time of
operation.
o Describe the average response time of your support network for common
troubleshooting scenarios.
Demonstration Requirements
The City requires that Firms who participate in the RFP provide demo STB hardware and
software to evaluate. This demo shall meet the following requirements:
• Provide hardware required for testing: remote, set top box, power supply, and A/V
cables.
o Firms that have multiple product offerings that fit the City’s baseline requirements
shall provide a minimum of one device; a full suite of devices is not required.
o The STBs shall come preconfigured with the MobiTV’s Android TV core image.
• Provide test environment management console(s) for determining the usability and
capabilities of the STB remote management software.
Section 3 - Response Format
RFP response must contain answers to the following questions in this order and format.
Response Requirements:
1. Provide volume pricing reduction scales and your hardware cost reduction roadmap
for the STB product(s), and if applicable any further discount provided to National
Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) members.
2. Respond to each itemized question above on how your product offering meets
and/or exceeds each requirement stated in Section 2.
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3. Provide a detailed list of any cancellation penalties or early termination fees as
applicable.
The City reserves the right to purchase any, all, or none of the products and services offered in
responses. City of Fort Collins will not pay charges that are not specifically defined within the
RFP submittal.
Section 4 – Other Details
Anticipated Schedule
The following represents the City’s target schedule for the RFP. The City reserves the
right to amend the target schedule at any time.
• RFP issuance: July 3, 2019
• Question deadline: 5:00 PM MST on July 15, 2019
• Proposal due date: 3:00 PM MST (our clock) on July 22, 2019
• Interviews/Demos via Webex: Week of July 22, 2019
• Notice of Award: Week of July 29, 2019
Interviews/Demonstrations
In addition to submitting a written proposal, the top-rated Firms may be interviewed and
provided an opportunity to demonstration the proposed solution(s) for the project team.
Subcontractors
Firms will be responsible for identifying any subcontractors in their proposal. Please note
that the City will contract solely with the awarded Firm, therefore subcontractors will be
the responsibility of the Firm.
Laws and Regulations
The Firm agrees to comply fully with all applicable local, State of Colorado and Federal
laws and regulations and municipal ordinances.
Section 5 – Review and Assessment Criteria
Proposal and Interview/Demonstration Criteria
Firms will be evaluated on the following criteria. These criteria will be the basis for review
and assessment of the written proposals and optional interview session. At the discretion
of the City, interviews of the top-rated Firms may be conducted.
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WEIGHTING
FACTOR
CRITERIA
50% Assessment of the proposed solution(s)
15% Time and resources required to implement and support
35%
Proposed value including costs for implementation, licensing,
and recurring annual maintenance
Reference Evaluation Criteria
Prior to award, the City may check references and negative responses from references
may impact the award determination.