Technology allows on-demand content providers to keep video highly secure along entire distribution chain
(Reston, Virginia--April 1, 2008) Cinea, Inc., a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), today announced that its Running MarksT technology now enables traceable, stream-specific forensic watermarking of encrypted content.
The new approach allows Running Marks to embed a unique serial number into individual customer video streams, without requiring providers or system operators to expose the high-value content in an unencrypted format. The new functionality enables distributors of on-demand content in the cable, telecommunications, satellite, and video-download markets to provide a secure distribution chain that minimizes cost, time, and exposure to theft and piracy.
Content protection has become a vital element of distribution for today's content holders and system operators, especially as premium Hollywood content is increasingly released simultaneously on DVD and video-on-demand (VOD) systems. Until now, applying a unique forensic watermark to already-encrypted (AKA pre-encrypted) content required several operations, including decryption, watermarking, and re-encryption, before being released to the VOD customer.
Cinea's Running Marks solution for pre-encrypted on-demand content is both practical and efficient. Using a unique replacement-based architecture extends Running Marks' watermark information to encrypted compressed content for on-demand delivery. A watermark unique to each VOD stream is embedded into the encrypted video content as it leaves the VOD server environment. This watermark aids in pinpointing vulnerable touch points in the distribution chain in the event that the copyright-protected content is compromised.
"Our customers have inquired about watermark deployment within an encrypted environment, since many motion picture studios and other high-value content providers mandate encryption as a part of their overall content protection requirements," said Rob Schumann, General Manager of Cinea, Inc. "Running Marks allows system operators to meet content providers' stringent security requirements in an efficient and secure manner."
"With developments like this, Cinea makes it easier and less costly for premium video content providers to adopt transactional watermarking, which should reduce content misuse," said Bill Rosenblatt, President of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and Editor of DRM Watch (
www.drmwatch.com). "Service providers and device manufacturers who are concerned about the complexity of advanced watermarking should look to Cinea for its leadership in lowering barriers to adoption throughout the content value chain."
Cinea's Running Marks replacement-based architecture offers a variety of compelling advantages, including extensive flexibility to mark compressed content anywhere during the content distribution path as well as on delivery to a home media gateway. Running Marks' ultra-light message inserter consumes very few resources so that it can be implemented in VOD systems with little impact on the streams supported. Additionally, the watermark system can be renewed at the content ingest points with no need to update the VOD or edge servers.
About Cinea
Cinea, Inc., a Dolby company, develops and commercializes a broad variety of content-protection solutions for the motion picture and television industries. Current customers include many of the major film studios as well as leading service vendors in the entertainment industry. The company's forensic watermarking technology, Running Marks, allows content owners to track pirated content to specific devices, from set-top boxes to PCs to portable video devices to mobile phones. Cinea's executives are well-known authorities on content protection and forensic watermarking. The company is also a founding member of the Digital Watermarking Alliance. For more information about Cinea, Inc. or Cinea® technologies, please visit
http://www.cinea.com.
###
