Online Video Services and DRM Technology

Major contemporary trends in online video services:

• Multiscreen: anytime access from any device.
  
  
• A variety of business models: many options to access video content (online viewing, pay-per-view, download, in-stream ads).
  
  
• Technological complexity – a variety of video platform modules and features (content load, processing, protection and delivery; video load balancing, video playback, etc.).
  
  
• Providing customers with access to the premium content and the related need in security tools: the major movie studios impose heavy demand on security as they offer very expensive content (multi-million-dollar budgets are common for today’s movies).

A simplified design of a modern video platform for Internet broadcast involves content preparation, protection and distribution to the end user devices. Usually, the source content first enters a transcoding system (ingestion) that generates a set of videos for different end-user devices and bitrates for each device (to enable dynamic bit rate). The prepared content is sent to the operator’s in-house video delivery network or the CDN provider external infrastructure.


A simplified online video platform design

There are several most popular options for delivery of content to the user:

• Downloading a video file to be viewed in a special application (HTTP Download).
  
  
• Live streaming using ad-hoc protocols and playback of the video stream (RTSP, RTMP, MPEG2-TS).
  
  
• Downloading a file in fragments, gluing of the fragments together in the video player and viewing of the video content in the process of download (Adaptive Streaming over HTTP).

If the content needs high-quality protection, prior to transferring it to the delivery network it has to be encrypted with a DRM solution. On the attempt of incoming content playback, the video player can detect the encrypted data and request authentication and a decryption key from the license server. At the level of a video player run on a client device, video analytics is very often implemented. It includes collection of detailed viewing data, monitoring of quality parameters, etc.

Specifics of Content Protection
Almost all DRM solutions are built on a unified architecture and consist of two parts: the server part (business logic) and the client part (player). The server part also consists of two modules: the encoder which prepares (encrypts) the content and the license server which issues content playback licenses to the users (players).

In terms of content delivery networks, there is no difference between the secure and open content. DRM solutions usually use asymmetric encryption algorithms, in this case, the content is encrypted with the master key, but users have to apply their unique session-specific keys.

In the case of LIVE streaming, to enable a more robust content protection, key rotation mechanisms are typically used. A key is changed at a predefined time interval. In case of VOD, different keys are used for different content units and, if the copyright holder has taken care of this, license caching is also performed. That is, the key is stored on the local machine for a certain amount of time or a given number of views, so that the application does not have to contact the license server at each viewing.

All these parameters usually mentioned as a Content Protection Policy which could be different for different major copyright holders and even for different content units.

Major DRM Vendors
There are many Digital Rights Management systems on the market. Each of them has its strengths and weaknesses. The situation is exacerbated by a high degree of segmentation on the end-user device market: Windows (with multiple browsers), MacOS, iOS, Android, TV sets and set-top boxes with their relevant operating systems and technologies.

With such a variety of market players, it is pretty difficult to agree on common standards and technologies. Therefore, multiple groups of technical solutions emerge, deferring creation of the universal technology for a certain while.

The most popular content protection tools used by the online video services are the following:

• Adobe Flash Access. Due to its popularity (most videos on the Web are based on Adobe Flash). This is the perfect solution to protect content in Web browsers, on PCs, and on the Android devices.
  
  
• Microsoft PlayReady is a successor of Windows Media DRM, one of the first content protection solutions. That’s why the Microsoft PlayReady SDK has got installed on most of Connected TV devices (LG, Samsung, etc.) and, of course, on the Windows operating systems (Media Player).
  
  
• Widevine, now part of Google, is a developer of content protection solutions. Its popularity is due to the support of a broad range of consumer devices (TVs, game consoles, iOS devices).
  
  
• Marlin is one of the few DRM solutions supported in Philips TVs, Sony PS3 and PSP devices. It is notable by its reliance on open standards and SaaS model support (paying per transaction for obtaining licenses).

Adobe Protected Streaming deserves special attention. It implements RTMPE (RTMP Encrypted) to enable secure streaming. This is an alternative to DRM. In contrast to DRM, security is implemented at the transport level rather than at the content level. It includes encryption of multimedia content between Flash Media Server and Flash Player.

However this is not the most reliable solution, but still it is approved by most major copyright holders. RTMPE involves additional mechanisms for content protection at the application level, such as: tokenization of links to content (i.e., preventing of direct content access bypassing the video service logic), and user authentication.

Compared to full-scale DRM, this approach combines a several times lower cost and ease of launch (a minimum configuring complexity). In addition, no user actions to install the DRM component are required. However, as new distribution technologies are spreading (such as the Adaptive Streaming ove HTTP), operators use to give up this approach in favor of DRM that is more universal. In addition, there are certain tools capable of cracking RTMPE.

DRM Solution Architecture
Almost any DRM solution consists of three parts:

• The service of content encryption (server) pre-encrypts the content for distribution via the open Web channels in the protected format only. Most of solutions use AES-128. Many vendors have supported HSM modules to optimize encryption and offload the main CPU.
  
  
• Licensing service (server) is a solution making a decision whether to issue a video content decryption key, in accordance with the business logic (content distribution rules). This includes identification of a pending payment or checking of viewer balance sufficiency. In most cases, this is the application server (for instance, it can be Java-based).
  
  
• SDK (i.e., a set of software libraries) to handle protected content in the video player. It integrates the logic of interacting with the licensing service into the video player, and decodes the video before playback. Also, the SDK tools implement additional security features: control of access to the video player memory, protection of analog and digital outputs, and detection of hacker attacks. SDK validates all technical and logical restrictions set on the server for the content and a particular user, such as the ability to record to a disk or mobile device.

So, at the DRM input, the content is received and access restriction business rules are applied to it. The output video can then be played back on a wide range of consumer devices.

As it has already been noted above, DRM content delivery is independent of its protection method and is determined primarily by the business model. Hence, the same protected content can be made either downloadable (e.g., via the P2P networks, to minimize the cost) or presented for online streaming or viewing. However, when selecting a DRM system, you should check which delivery models and access restriction models are enabled by a given solution.


DRM algorithm for streaming video


DRM algorithm for downloadable video

The above figures show that, in terms of DRM there is no difference between streaming and video on demand. As a rule, it all comes down to using of different alternative authentication algorithms (identifying whether the download or just online viewing has been paid).

DRM Vendor Selection
A critical issue in choosing a content protection solution is the range of consumer devices supported. Each online video service has its own priority of consumer platforms. Here we would like to discuss just the very basics of running content security solutions on various platforms:

• Web browsers on Windows / MacOS / Linux
  
• Desktop applications
  
• Web browsers on Android
  
• Android applications
  
• Web browsers on iOS
  
• iOS-applications
  
• Connected TV

The key differences between the various content protection solutions consist in supporting the above technological platforms. For instance, Adobe Flash Access offers user-friendly tools of content protection that do not require installation of additional plugins, as Flash Player is already installed almost anywhere (according to Adobe, on 99% of computers and 80% of mobile devices).

The need to install additional plugins can filter off those potential service users that possess no administrator rights or have a low level of computer literacy. In addition, there is a great community of Flash developers leveraging the Adobe technology. They have multiple years of experience in creating of cross-platform applications with rich interactive interfaces (which is pretty important for online video services).

Other technologies rely on less abundant players and feel an acute deficit of technical experts. Still, it is worth noting that the Widevine based solutions provide efficient content protection for Samsung and LG TV sets and iOS devices. Historically, the solutions based on Windows Media DRM have been supported on an even greater number of Connected TVs. Also, Verimatrix is unequaled among the STB vendors.

Recently, Adobe has shook the industry by announcing discontinuation of Flash plugin in mobile browsers (in fact, this means Android mostly), explaining it by their focus on mobile AIR application development and HTML5. To clarify its stand, just the other day Adobe announced that it is now working on HTML5 DRM.

It looks like we are in for something fascinating to come. The rapid spread of the new HTML5 video format is prevented by absence of uniform standards of video codecs (such as H.264, WebM, Ogg Theora) across a variety of browsers and lack of a single reliable DRM system to meet the copyright holder requirements. Different DRM solutions are used to support various video containers (mp4, wmv, ogg, mkv). Now, most of video on the Web is using mp4, so all the DRM vendors are concerned with supporting mp4. But with HTML5, mp4 is far from ubiquitous support.

In the case of Desktop applications the situation is much simpler: the vendors offer various SDKs to integrate DRM into video applications.

Content protection for iOS devices is a separate big topic. The issue is that Apple went its own way and preferred Flash to HTML5 with H.264 video. For video service developers, only one method of content protection is available: blockwise stream encryption with AES-128. This scheme is supported, for example, in the latest version of Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5.

However, the developers have to implement their own license management mechanisms or use an SDK from Widevine or other vendors. In case of browser playback, license management has to be implemented in JavaScript, which posits a substantial vulnerability. In case of playback from an application, Objective C SDK has to be used to enable a much higher level of protection.

In the world of music, DRM solutions showed no viability, especially after Apple iTunes abandoned FairPlay DRM. In our opinion, this is due to a significantly lower cost of audio content as compared to Hollywood blockbusters. As a result, copyright holders take a substantially harder stand with videos. The well-known western movie studios present a long list of technical requirements to companies seeking to distribute their digital content. Practically all solutions of IPTV operators and the major Runet websites with premium content are the examples of content protection systems.

All DRM solutions are scalable and consume roughly the same resources, as the encryption algorithms used are uniform. When choosing the DRM solutions, we recommend you to make a list of user devices based on their priorities. Supported devices (as well as containers and codecs), price, user experience, business models and technologies for content delivery: all these make up the applicable selection criteria.

Source: DENIVIP Media

DLNA Premium Video Support Big Step for Connected Home

The DLNA’s support for streaming of premium content within the home, announced at IBC and initially for Europe only, is a major milestone in the evolution of connected home services. The move might have come sooner, but DLNA was waiting for maturation of the key underlying technology, DTCP-IP (Digital Transmission Content Protection over IP) to ensure safe and yet transparent delivery of content over IP networks. DTCP itself evolved in the mid 1990s, developed by chip maker Intel in conjunction with four major CE (consumer electronics) companies, Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba.

Collectively known as 5C, these five companies appreciated early on the impending need for a protocol capable of protecting audio/video entertainment content from illegal copying, interception and tampering as it traverses digital interfaces, such as USB ports.

The extension to IP came later, as did the crucial support for mechanisms designed to prevent content from being transmitted from a device inside the home to another device somewhere else. This was a vital step in persuading major rights holders such as Hollywood studios that they can trust home networks for delivery of their valuable premium content.

Apart from satisfying content owners, there is another important reason for DLNA’s adoption of DTCP-IP for copy protection around the home, which is to enable consumers to exercise their digital rights to the full. To do this, DTCP-IP enables operators to enforce multi-level rights dependent on the content.

Until now consumer devices have displayed video via either analogue interfaces, or the digital HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface), which incorporates a copy protection mechanism developed by Intel called HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) precisely to prevent consumers copying or recording. This allows no rights beyond immediate display of the content.

DTCP-IP on the other hand allows consumers to copy and record content subject to permission from the operator or rights holder. The rights are specified in a licence issued by the Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA), details of which can be obtained from its website. The idea is that the licence encodes rules into the content, so that, for example, free-to-air terrestrial broadcasts could be recorded and copied without any restriction. In the case of subscription channels, consumers may be allowed to record content for their own subsequent viewing, but not copy it for sending to friends. Then premium content such as movies or live sports purchased on demand or pay-per-view via a specific transaction would probably be fully protected against recording and copying.

This begs the question of how these rights are robustly enforced, given that DTCP-IP is a software-only mechanism, as a result of the decision by CE makers that it would be impractical and too expensive to enforce hardware protection on the whole constellation of CE devices since unnecessary incremental costs must be avoided. The idea then is that hardware protection is confined to the set top box or gateway linking the home network with external delivery network via the operator’s Conditional Access (CA) system. Such boxes may well have SoCs (System on Chips) incorporating security hardware blocks such as Cryptography Research’s Crypto Firewall.

But then, from the gateway or set top onwards through the home network, the DLNA platform will take over with the software based DTCP-IP, although this will operate in cooperation with the CA and DRM, enforcing whatever rights they specify. In order to provide robust security without hardware, the developers of DTCP-IP, spearheaded by Intel, have developed some clever tricks.

First, and most obviously, DTCP-IP requires the devices at each end of a link to validate each other’s DTLA licenses via a joint authentication procedure comprising a sequence of data swaps and key calculations. This is designed to prevent pirates from inserting a circumvention device that would record a copy protection data exchange or strip out the protection, since such a device would first have to be authenticated before any communication with it could take place.

Secondly the 5C consortium have implemented specific measures that act in combination to prevent a device in a home transmitting content, whether previously recorded or streamed, to any other device outside the home even next door, unless the rights allow this. One of these measures involves limiting how many routers any IP packet that is part of the protected video can traverse before being deleted, which itself is effective in preventing transmission outside the home. Another measure involves measuring the delay between source and destination before allowing video to be transmitted.

Between them, these measures enable the operator to determine whether a DTCP device is trying to communicate with another device in the same home, with a near neighbor’s, or a more remote one, and act accordingly depending on the rights. This is a significant advance in software-only security and is the reason DTCP-IP has been embraced by DLNA and welcomed so warmly by pay-TV operators, including BSkyB and Orange in Europe. However, the full response of major rights holders has yet to come, and will ultimately determine whether the industry has hit on the right content protection solution for the future digital home.

The DLNA has emerged as the universal standards body defining the overall platform for the digital home, embracing standards developed by others, including Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for device discovery and the lower level physical networking standards such as MoCA, as well as DTCP-IP.

By Philip Hunter, Broadcast Engineering

DLNA Now Supports Premium Video

The announcement by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) of support for premium video during IBC2011 heralds the coming of age for home networks. The extension of DLNA’s Interoperability Guidelines to include premium video including HD content plugs an important gap in the standard, which previously was confined to streaming user generated content (UGC) between connected devices within the home.

DLNA has emerged as the ‘standard of standards’ for the connected home, providing the framework for interoperability, communication and automated discovery among devices. It makes use of existing standards such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for device discovery, as well as underlying physical connectivity technologies such as Wi-Fi and MoCA. DLNA has been closing on its vision of enabling any device to access any form of digital content no matter where it resides within the home network, without requiring any complex set-up or configuration by the user. DLNA was started by CE (Consumer Electronics) vendors but has since been joined by service providers who have been pushing hard for the premium video support.

One such service provider is Orange of France, which has already deployed DLNA on its Livebox residential gateway, its IPTV and media centre set-top box and the home library NAS (Network Attached Storage). The new support for premium video will boost Orange’s connected home offering and provide a full multi-screen experience, according to Paul-François Fournier, Executive Vice President at Orange Technocentre. “It will enable us to deliver TV services over numerous screens inside the home, such as tablets, Web phones and connected TVs,” he says.

The key enabling technology for DLNA’s premium video support is Digital Transmission Content Protection over IP (DTCP/IP), which was developed by five companies: chip maker Intel and CE giants Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba. This group, referred to collectively as 5C, formed an entity called the Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator to license the DTCP technology.

Designed specifically for the home network, DTCP encrypts content between devices within the home after checking that they both support the standard. Crucially, the content itself can carry information defining its rights and indicating whether it can be copied and to what extent, with the hope this will satisfy the big rights holders such as Hollywood studios. For example, some content may only be played, while other content might be recordable but still protected from copying.

In this way DTCP/IP is a mechanism for enforcing rights defined by whatever DRM is used by the service provider, but it is not a DRM itself. “It is assumed the content is DRM protected, and DLNA is agnostic to DRM schemes,” says Nidhish Parikh, Chairman and President of DLNA. “When streaming that content, DLNA takes the trouble to make sure it is protected using DTCP-IP. Premium video is building on that protected stream layer.”

More than 12,000 products are now DLNA certified , including TVs and PCs but also other devices such as cameras, tablets and even appliances like fridges which, according to Parikh, will increasingly feature inset monitors for watching TV in the kitchen. The total number of devices now certified is 500 million, and will top 2 billion cumulatively by 2014, according to Parikh.

By Philip Hunter, Videonet

TV Anywhere Will Need Hardware Security

The debate over whether pay TV security is best done in hardware or software may now finally be resolved with the answer being that both are needed, especially if premium content is on offer. This is the thrust of some recent industry developments, such as the announcement by Verimatrix, vendor of the software-based VCAS system, that it is licensing Cryptography Research's CryptoFirewall security core technology to help build advanced solutions protecting video delivery revenue streams.

This seems to be recognition that some form of hardware security is needed to augment the Verimatrix public key-based approach to content delivery and provide an extra layer of defence. In fact Cryptographic Research itself acknowledges that even this may not ultimately be enough to enable premium pay TV services to work over the Internet and mobile networks, with other ingredients becoming necessary, including digital watermarking and also snooping agents that prowl around the network on the lookout for security attacks and breaches.

Pay TV security has two objectives, to buy time and create confidence among content providers that the service can be trusted. No system is immune from attack forever, and to an extent Cryptography Research has already shown it can meet these two fundamental requirements in the different field of Blu-ray discs. The company developed the digital rights management system called BD+ for Blu-ray based on the idea of self-protection where the content itself contains embedded codes needed for it to play. With the participation of the Blu-ray players, this meant that rights owners could change the DRM security in the event of a breach by changing the codes, without having to make any alternations to the players themselves. Eventually BD+ was cracked, but it took 10 years, so the technology succeeded on the first criterion of buying time. It also succeeded on the second count of creating confidence, since several movie studios cited Blu-ray Disc's adoption of BD+ as the reason they supported the Blu-ray Disc rather than the alternative HD-DVD. Cryptography Research is now hoping to generate similar confidence in the pay TV world around CryptoFirewall.

For OTT services it is also vital that any solution can work across multiple platforms, and on this front Cryptography Research has been signing up the major vendors of system-on-chip (SoC) silicon for pay TV devices including STBs, with ST Micro Electronics, Broadcom, MStar, and ViXS on board so far. This will ensure the firewall is compatible across most leading boxes, which is valuable for pay TV in general because it enlarges the target market and reduces costs. For OTT it will be essential that a given service reaches all devices irrespective of whose chip is in them.

The function of the CryptoFirewall is to protect session encryption keys themselves from attack by shielding them within the SoC, while also providing a layer of security that enhances the CA system it is working with. The point here is that CryptoFirewall is not a complete security system but designed to interoperate with a CA system from Verimatrix or some other CA vendor. In doing so, it provides a kind of double-layered security, in that compromise of either a given CA system or the CryptoFirewall on its own is insufficient to crack a pay TV service that uses both in combination. CryptoFirewall was designed on the assumption that the associated CA is insecure. Similarly, CA systems such as Verimatrix VCAS are stand-alone and do not intrinsically rely on any other component. Now Verimatrix's licensing of CryptoFirewall reinforces the security offered.

It remains to be seen whether systems such as the CryptoFirewall/CA combination will hold up against piracy, although there are signs that the studios and other content houses are gaining confidence for now. One thing is becoming clear though: Any security system must be transparent to consumers if it is to be successful. On this front, Cryptography Research's CTO and VP of engineering makes an important point when he argues that two factor security, where the user has a separate token to generate one-time passwords in synchronisation with service, will not work in pay TV, even though it is being used in some cases for online banking.

In the case of banking, the interests of both parties coincide, since neither the customer nor the bank want money to be stolen from an account. But in pay TV, a registered user may also be stealing the service by transmitting content on to friends. Two-factor security would still protect the user from having the service stolen, but not the pay TV provider. For example, the user could point a webcam at the token to transmit the temporary passkey immediately to friends.

The second reason two-factor will not work for pay TV follows from this. Since users do not care as much if the service is compromised as in the case of online banking, they will be less willing to endure the inconvenience of having to sign on via a separate device — i.e. the second factor. Any pay TV service that tries to impose two-factor security is therefore likely to have to withdraw it pretty quickly.

Instead therefore other remedies will be used to strengthen single-factor security. One will be to deploy supervisory processes within the network to provide defence in depth by monitoring for any signs of security breaches. The use of fingerprinting or watermarking in various ways to mark content can also help. Verimatrix, for example, uses on-screen display (OSD) fingerprinting in its recently launched VCAS for Internet, forcing periodic display of a device identifier overlaid on streamed content to deter its unauthorized retransmission.

It can be seen then the battle lines between the content security industry and pirates are being redrawn in the era of TV Anywhere and OTT.

By Philip Hunter, Broadcast Engineering

Rising to the OTT Content Protection Challenge

If connected TV services are to carry premium content that people are willing to pay for, security must be highly renewable with the whole ecosystem under constant surveillance for threats. It must be possible to authenticate Consumer Electronic (CE) devices approved for access to premium content and cut them off instantly in the event of a breach, with the ability to swap out to a new security system just as happens with smartcard based CA (Conditional Access). This is the view of traditional Conditional Access (CA) vendors that hope to be custodians of security in the OTT world as well.

In this connected TV world, operators will no longer have direct control over end devices but must still maintain a one-to-one relationship with all devices allowed to access premium content, according to Fred Ellis, Director of Operations and General Manager at SecureMedia, part of the Motorola Mobility Group. Ellis recommends two types of embedded security to achieve this, either using digital certificates signed and inserted in the device by the manufacturer, or a secure software client that exploits some unique feature of the box, such as its native HLS (HTTP Live Streaming ) player. Both of these will allow the operator to authenticate the device each time a session is opened, for example by verifying the digital certificate.

Such client security methods must blend with OTT delivery methods such as Adaptive Bit Rate Streaming (ABRS), but above all they must support continuous monitoring. This is even more essential for OTT than in a traditional walled garden Pay TV broadcast infrastructure, according to Christopher Schouten, Senior Marketing Director for online services at CA vendor Irdeto, whose ActiveCloak platform is used by US OTT provider Netflix. Successful defence against OTT piracy involves a combination of continuous surveillance with dynamic security that can apply changes very quickly, Schouten argues. “The key to proactive hacking prevention is the ability to monitor hacker chatter on the web to analyse patterns and isolate instances of real threats that require expert attention,” he argues.

SecureMedia is equally convinced that sophisticated monitoring will be an essential component for OTT success. “Our SecureMedia’s iDetect tamper detection technology immediately notifies operators of any attempted breach in the delivery system and they can promptly terminate content delivery to the device,” says Ellis.

There is also the higher level issue of rights enforcement, and here too OTT extends the challenge because the CE devices may not all support the same DRMs. So operators cannot apply a single security system end-to-end as they can within their walled gardens, according to Tore Gimse, CTO at Norwegian CA vendor Conax. “There is no definite reason why there should be the same security end-to-end," says Tore. “We already offer bridges between the Conax CA and other DRMs, securely handing the protected content from one system over to another. Such solutions could, in principle, be extended to other forms of security transfer.”

In a sense, OTT creates two conflicting security demands. On the one hand, the infrastructure must be even more closely monitored and managed to combat the new piracy threats that will arise in a wide open infrastructure. But on the other hand, no single CA vendor can rule, requiring interoperability between multiple systems, and this can create points of weakness. One implication is that CE vendors may mount a challenge to Pay TV operators by arguing that the network in the middle cannot be secured anyway so you might as well put all the effort into the device. Then content owners would bypass the operators and go straight to consumers.

By Philip Hunter, Videonet

Initiatives Promise Efficiency Gains For Multi-Screen Service Operations

While the Internet has yet to become an ideal medium for distributing premium content, the good news is there’s much more to come from technology advances that have already gone a long way toward enabling secure, efficient delivery of high-quality entertainment to devices of all descriptions.

In fact, these advances promise not only much better performance for unmanaged over-the- top (OTT) content; they will also streamline efforts of service providers that are developing hybrid managed services where IP-based content is a critical component of multi-device service strategies.

One key development along these lines is progress toward a unifying standard for adaptive streaming under the auspices of the International Organization for Standards’ Moving Picture Experts Group (ISO-MPEG). The MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) working group has proposed a solution that does away with maintaining separate manifest formats for the two most prominent streaming platforms on the Web – Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming.

At the same time, Hollywood studios through their electronic sell-through initiatives, including most notably the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem’s (DECE) UltraViolet platform, have created mechanisms essential to a more interoperable and consumer-friendly online content marketplace. Along with equipping UltraViolet to provide in-the-cloud support for single user accounts, DECE has specified a common file format for all UltraViolet content together with rigorous certification procedures to enable the supply of content protection from multiple vendors.

The Benefits of Adaptive Rate Streaming
When it comes to delivering long-form video over the Internet and bandwidth-constrained access links, one of the great tools invented to compensate for bandwidth fluctuations and other disruptions is Adaptive Rate Streaming (ARS). ARS dynamically adjusts bit rates to changing network and device conditions so that content is delivered at the highest level of quality that can be sustained at any given time without dropping frames or interrupting the flow for buffering.

Thus, for example, for streams targeted to HD sets, ARS bit rates might support an optimum resolution of 1080p when conditions allow and then drop down to rates suited to lower resolutions such as 780p when conditions would cause the stream to stop and buffer if the higher bit rates were maintained. Different ranges of bit rates can be set for different ranges of resolution, depending on the screen sizes of targeted devices.

ARS is a device-driven “stateless” technology, which means the ARS system must match the ARS mode that is supported by the client software running on any given device. At the initiation of a video streaming session by any user on any device, the device is presented live manifest files that define each of the available bit rate profiles for the chosen content. The device signals which profile should be streamed based on what the available access data rate is on the network and how much processing power is available on the device to handle the video stream.

To accommodate fluctuations in network bandwidth and other conditions, the ARS servers rely on feedback from the device to continually update the bit rate profile throughout the session. Every few seconds another file segment or “chunk” is sent to the device at the requested bit rate.

The two most commonly used ARS modes, Apple’s HLS and Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming, have much in common. They both rely on H.264 encoding to set the bit rates. And they employ HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), the streaming protocol that supports the sequence of client request and server response transactions that are the foundation to communications on the World Wide Web. But they are incompatible because they employ different transport container formats.

HLS uses the MPEG Transport Stream format while Smooth Streaming uses the Fragmented MP4 file format for its chunks. The differences in container file sizes impose different time sequences on the client-server communications of the respective ARS systems.

The DASH Initiative
If these differences could be resolved, the fact that H.264 has emerged as the dominant codec by far in IP video communications would make it possible to fashion an ARS standard that would easily fit into the existing video streaming ecosystem. This is precisely what the MPEG DASH working group is attempting to do.

In October 2010, the DASH platform achieved Committee Draft status with expectations that it will reach Final Draft International Standard status by July 2011. The core of the draft is closely aligned with the mobile industry’s 3GPP Adaptive HTTP Streaming (AHS) specification.

AHS, adopted by 3GPP in March 2010, relies on the ISO Base Media File Format ISO/IEC 14496-12, the basis for the MP4 container, to create a uniform approach to streaming video and audio content to mobile devices. DASH has expanded on AHS (now commonly referred to as 3GP-DASH) to create the means by which clients can order ARS segments from servers that use either MP4 encapsulation or MPEG-TS.

This functionality is accomplished through a server-to-client communications mode that delivers a structured collection of data in a format known as the Media Presentation Description to define various segments within the stream, each of which is associated with a uniquely referenced HTTP URL. Altogether these segments describe how a DASH client can use the information to establish a streaming service for the user.

Thus, DASH has been structured to not only provide the means by which the DASH client can order chunks in MP4 or MPEG-TS mode, but to open standardized means of accessing many other functionalities as well. These include support for live streaming as well as progressive download of on-demand content; fast initial startup and seeking; enhanced trick modes and random access capabilities; dual streams for stereoscopic 3D presentations; Multi-view Video Coding used in Blu-ray 3D displays, and dynamic implementation of diverse protection schemes. The platform is designed to work with any HTTP 1.1-compliant server and to support distribution through regular Web infrastructures such as HTTP-based CDNs. This is critical to scaling a common streaming mode to a mass consumer base through use of the embedded base of server farms associated with CDNs worldwide.

Support for DASH
The fact that Microsoft and Apple have joined a global lineup of major firms to bring coherence to adaptive streaming represents a major step forward in the evolution of IP-based distribution of premium content. In a recent blog, Christian Kaiser, vice president of engineering at Netflix, extolled the progress on DASH, saying it has addressed most of the major points required to facilitate a standardized approach to video streaming in conjunction with use of the video playback facility in HTML5, the new multi-media optimized version of the Web’s HyperText Markup Language.

“Since HTML5 includes a facility to embed video playback (the <video> tag), it seems like a natural next step for us to use it for streaming video playback within our HTML5-based user interfaces,” Kaiser said. “However, as of today, there is no accepted standard for advanced streaming through the <video> tag.”

He said such a standard should define acceptable A/V container formats; audio and video codecs; the streaming protocol to be used (such as HTTP); how the streaming protocol adapts to available bandwidth; a way of conveying information about available streams and other parameters to the streaming player module, and a way of exposing these functionalities into HTML5. Netflix has resolved all but the last of these requirements with its own proprietary technology, he noted.

If Netflix could replace its proprietary solution with a standardized ARS platform that met all these conditions, the company and “any other video streaming service could deliver to a standard browser as a pure HTML5 web application, both on computers and in CE devices with embedded browsers,” Kaiser said. “Consumers would benefit by having a growing number of continually evolving choices available on their devices, just like how the web works today for other types of services.”

In Kaiser’s view, DASH provides a solution that would meet all his criteria, with the exception of the last one pertaining to having a way of tying the standard into the HTML5 <video> tag. He said Netflix is engaging with the community to help achieve this integration. Kaiser noted that Netflix intends by early next year to publish a limited subset of the MPEG DASH standard, which will refine the requirements for premium on-demand streaming services. Critically, he noted, the Netflix profile “will take advantage of hooks included in the DASH standard to integrate the DRM technologies that we need to fulfill our contractual obligations to the content providers, thus covering the sixth item [conveying parameters to the player] on our list.”

The fact that DASH creates a way to readily communicate to devices what the specific DRM parameters are for a given piece of content overcomes a major barrier to scaling availability of premium content cost effectively. Today, a content supplier who wants to provide a greater level of security than is supported on any given ARS platform must take specific steps to secure each targeted device with the appropriate DRM client. DASH will allow any DASH-compliant DRM to be implemented automatically with no need for intervention by the content supplier.

Challenges to DASH
Needless to say, DASH will not immediately eliminate all the chaos surrounding competing ARS platform with their variations in codecs, DRMs and streaming profiles. Notably, it remains to be seen how Adobe will adjust to the new standard, although the firm’s move away from sole reliance on proprietary compression with its embrace of H.264 on Flash 9 and 10 and its implementation of an HTTP-based ARS system on Flash 10.1 points to a more open approach in the future. Most recently Adobe indicated it is preparing to provide means by which broadcasters who publish video in Flash can deliver that video to HLS-equipped devices, including the iPhone and iPad.

Another development moving against the tide of ARS standardization is Google’s WebM initiative, which aims to provide what it says is an open-source alternative to H.264 without relying on HTTP streaming. Google says its Chrome browser will abandon support for H.264 in favor of WebM, although its YouTube videos continue to use H.264-based Flash as well as older VP6 compression in videos based on pre-9.0 versions of Flash. Suppliers of the Firefox and Opera browsers, which have never used H.264, will go to WebM in their latest versions.

WebM uses the VP8 video compression format developed as a successor to VP6 by On2, which Google acquired in 2010. It uses the Vorbis codec for audio, which comes out of an open-source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The transport container used by WebM is based on the Matroska Multimedia Container, the product of another open-source initiative.

Rather than relying on the chunk-based process used by ARS, WebM employs proprietary techniques in conjunction with variable bit rate encoding to effect rate fluctuations within a continuous stream. Describing WebM as an “untried technology,” Ben Schwartz, CTO of Innovation Consulting, in a white paper produced by Harmonic and Verimatrix, questioned the practicality of the variable bit rate (VBR) alternative to ARS. “It is much harder to benefit from caching with this approach, and head-end scalability might become an area of concern,” Schwartz said.

At this nascent stage, it is hard to say how much traction WebM will gain or even whether it will prove to be as royalty-free as Google would like. In February, MPEG-LA, which manages the H.264 patent pool, issued a call for patents related to VP8 in what appeared to be preparations for an assessment as to what royalties might be due from users of VP8.

Microsoft, while not opposed to WebM, indicated it wants to know how Google will provide protection to WebM users against patent claims before it whole-heartedly embraces WebM in its Internet Explorer browser. While Internet Explorer 9 users who install third-party WebM video support on their Windows operating systems will be able to play WebM video in IE9, IE9 will otherwise play HTML5 video in the H.264 format, because H.264 “is a high-quality and widely used video format that serves the Web very well today,” said Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for IE.

Writing in a blog posted in February, Hachamovitch cited Microsoft’s experiences with previous efforts to offer its Window Media Video (WMV) compression technology (later standardized by the SCTE as VC-1) on an open-source basis as a strong reason to doubt that patent infringement claims won’t be made against VP8. “Asserting openness is not a legal defense,” Hachamovitch said. “The risk question is a legitimate business concern,” he continued. “There are hundreds if not thousands of patents worldwide that read on video formats and codec technologies. Our experience with trying to release WMV for free and open use, and the subsequent claims against Microsoft, support this history as do the cases against JPEG, GIF, and other formats.”

Microsoft offered to work with Google to resolve the risk issues. “Microsoft is willing to commit that we will never assert any patents on VP8 if Google will make a commitment to indemnify us and all other developers and customers who use VP8 in the future,” Hachamovitch said. “We would only ask that we be able to use those patent rights if we are sued first by somebody else. If Google would prefer a patent pool approach, then we would also agree to join a patent pool for VP8 on reasonable licensing terms so long as Google joins the pool and is able to include all other major providers of playback software and devices.”

Clearly, with wide support and the blessing of Apple and Microsoft, DASH is by far the best hope for creating an ARS template that content distributors worldwide can rely on to ease the pain of providing premium content with acceptable quality of experience across all networks and a broader range of device types. As DASH comes into commercial use, distributors employing advanced protection mechanisms will be able to upgrade their distribution networks for content delivered to any DASH compatible client.

UltraViolet
Another major force for simplifying IP-based content distribution is UltraViolet, the electronic sell-through platform developed by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE). The consortium of more than 60 companies is driven by major studios, including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox, Lionsgate, NBC Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Many of the powerhouses in media distribution, retailing and technology are also involved with DECE, including Adobe, Best Buy, BT, CableLabs, Cisco, Comcast, Cox Communications, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Liberty Global, Microsoft, Motorola, Netflix, Neustar, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Thomson and Toshiba.

Once the UltraViolet ecosystem is operational, which is scheduled to happen this summer, consumers will be able to create a cloud-based account with digital rights locker via one of many UltraViolet service providers or through the UltraViolet website. They will then be able to access and manage all of their UltraViolet entertainment for use on all their devices, regardless of where the content was purchased.

The UltraViolet Digital Rights Locker serves as the hub for this new marketplace. The authentication service and account management system allows consumers to access content from multiple registered devices over multiple service outlets operating on broadband and mobile networks. DECE will provide an open API (Application Programming Interface) that allows any Web-enabled storefront, service or device to integrate access to the digital rights locker into its own consumer offering.

To the extent UltraViolet eventually scales to mass usage, the platform will drive uniform approaches to file formatting and DRM that could become a force for standard practices across the entire IP video ecosystem. The UltraViolet Common File Format can be licensed by any participating company to create a consumer offering that will play on any service or device built to DECE specifications. Content providers will be able to encode and encrypt one file type in portable, standard and high definition modes with assurance their files can be accessed by consumers from home storage or the cloud from any registered device.

By mandating a common encryption format and setting rigorous requirements for certifying DRMs for use in UltraViolet, DECE is taking the guesswork out of DRM selection by content distributors and greatly simplifying their ability to accommodate multiple DRMs. Because the file format establishes where in the file sequence various DRM functionalities must be implemented, the cloud-based and local storage systems are able to implement whatever UltraViolet-certified DRM is appropriate to a given piece of content.

DECE has gone a step further toward streamlining content protection by embracing Marlin as one of the approved DRM systems – one of the true multi-vendor DRM systems in the marketplace today, and also security standard at the heart of the Open IPTV Forum’s open standards efforts. Marlin, originated by Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sony and Intertrust Technologies, establishes sophisticated, uniform processes for managing rights on devices in a way that can be integrated into a flexible commercial revenue security offering.

Marlin, which is gaining traction in many parts of the world, was recently selected by the U.K. YouView initiative (previously known as Project Canvas) as the common protection model for all content distributed through the group’s new YouView video store. YouView will aggregate and deliver catchup and on-demand content from the BBC, Channel Five, ITV, Channel 4, BT, Arqiva and TalkTalk to set-top box devices from a range of CE vendors.

Critically, there’s a direct tie-in between Marlin and DASH insofar as DASH has drawn heavily on the work of the Open IPTV Forum. Thus the fact that Marlin is intrinsically compatible with DASH serves as another step forward in the content industry’s efforts to overcome encumbrances to efficient operations resulting from DRM incompatibilities.

By Steve Christian, Screen Plays

5 Reasons Google Bought Widevine

Google announced today that it will acquire Widevine Technologies, giving it access to technology necessary to securely deliver video to a wide range of connected devices. The acquisition is more than just a technology play on Google’s part; the Widevine purchase will also bring deep Hollywood relationships and improve its chances of getting Google TV deployed on consumer electronics devices.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but you can bet Widevine pulled in a pretty penny; the startup has raised $51.8 million in funding since recapitalizing in 2003, including a $15 million strategic investment last December led by cable operator Liberty Global and Samsung Ventures. Widevine could be invaluable to Google, as it provides technology and expertise in a number of fields that could help grow Google’s overall video business. Here are the top five reasons Google had its eyes on the company:

1. Everyone Needs DRM
Widevine is a digital rights management firm, first and foremost, and DRM isn’t going away. Providing a secure way for content owners to distribute video online and to a number of connected devices will be table stakes in Google’s broader video ambitions. Whether it’s getting premium content on YouTube or securing video distributed to Google TV-powered devices, Widevine will give Google the technology and peace of mind to strike those deals.

2. Cozying Up with Hollywood
Google has a problem — a content problem, that is. The company’s efforts to get long-form premium content on YouTube have generally fallen flat, and its Google TV products were met with universal disdain from media companies that acted quickly to block their online video streams from being accessible on those devices. Widevine has one thing that Google doesn’t: the trust of Hollywood. After providing the DRM technology used by a number of movie studios as well as online distributors like Netflix, Sonic Solutions and Lovefilm to deliver videos online and on connected devices, Widevine is in a unique position to make introductions to some key players in Hollywood.

3. Connecting Google TV to More Devices
Google launched its Google TV operating system on a series of TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony as well as broadband set-top boxes from Logitech, but it clearly desires to embed the technology on other devices, and is rumored to be courting Samsung, Toshiba and other manufacturers to do so. Well, Widevine’s technology is available on products from Apple, Haier, LG Electronics, Nintendo, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Toshiba, as well as more than 50 different set-top boxes. Google could leverage Widevine’s relationships with those manufacturers, and maybe even connect its technology into the broader Google TV code base.

4. YouTube Everywhere
In addition to getting Google TV on more connected devices, Widevine’s embedded technology could also help Google speed up distribution of YouTube video streams on more TVs, Blu-ray players and mobile handsets. Not just that, but by providing advanced DRM for those streams, Widevine could help make potential content partners more comfortable with those streams being delivered by YouTube.

5. Android Needs Adaptive Streaming
Android mobile devices are swarming the market, and with Flash installed, they promise users the ability to watch any video stream available on the web. There’s just one problem: Those videos, for the most part, aren’t optimized for mobile delivery. While Apple has built proprietary adaptive streaming technology for its mobile devices, Android phones don’t have a graceful way to deal with fluctuations in network bandwidth. Widevine, which makes video optimization technology in addition to DRM, could help solve that problem by helping Google to add adaptive streaming to future android devices.

By Ryan Lawler, GigaOM

Harmonic’s Video Transcoding Solution Integrates YouTube Fingerprinting

Harmonic Inc. announced that its Rhozet Carbon Coder transcoding solution can now be used as a delivery platform for generating ID files for YouTube’s Content ID System. This development allows Carbon Coder users to automatically generate an ID file or so-called “fingerprint” of the video content they own during the transcode process. Using YouTube’s Content ID System, they may then upload these ID files to YouTube and use them to automatically identify their content in user-uploaded videos on YouTube and apply “usage policies” that have been specified by the content owners regarding how they want matched content to be handled by YouTube, such as monetize, track usage statistics or block content.

Unlike previous content protection methods, the integration of fingerprinting into the transcoding process results in a faster, more simplified approach for automatically tracking and protecting content. With this process, actual content does not have to be delivered to YouTube in order to be protected – only the fingerprint is delivered. The producers of a television series can, for example, fingerprint content while in production. Once an episode has been aired, the owners could then choose to allow it to be shown on YouTube and share in the advertising revenue generated by that episode, or to block it from YouTube. In addition to fingerprinting, the YouTube team has integrated YouTube-specific format presets into Carbon Coder to ensure that content being delivered to YouTube meets quality and consistency standards.

Rhozet Carbon Coder is a universal transcoding solution used by leading media companies including Ascent Media Group, British Sky Broadcasting (BskyB), Lifetime Networks and MTV. It facilitates the creation of multi-format video for Internet, mobile and broadcast applications. As part of the transcode process, Carbon Coder handles an array of critical operations including SD/HD and PAL/NTSC conversion, logo insertion, color space conversion, color correction and Closed Captioning extraction. Multiple Carbon Coder nodes can be configured as a rendering farm to accelerate the workflow and provide automated processing for high-volume transcoding.

Source: BusinessWire

Cisco Delivers Advanced Network-Based Media Processing Platform

Cisco announced a media processing platform that simplifies live and on-demand media sharing across PCs, mobile devices and other digital screens, by seamlessly formatting video and rich media for viewing on any device. The create once and share anywhere Cisco Media Processing platform provides media conversion, real-time post production, editing, formatting, and network distribution capabilities in a single networked solution to help businesses develop targeted visual communications that drive intimacy with employees and customers.

The first product being introduced within the Cisco Media Processing portfolio is the Cisco Media Experience Engine 3000 ($65,000), which delivers the ability to transform a single source of content so that it is playable on any device. It also delivers real-time post production and processing capabilities such as watermarking, voice and video editing, text and image overlays and noise reduction to create customized broadcast quality video experiences. Cisco plans for future devices in its new media processing line to include speech recognition that will allow real-time translations of live video conferences and keyword searches of what's said during such videos.

Cisco's business video strategy combines systems and services, using the network as the platform, to help enable video solutions that create powerful visual networking experiences across multiple devices. The Cisco MXE 3000 joins a new class of media-optimized technologies and solutions that enable better video experiences, faster delivery of rich media content and simplified media sharing across the network. These "medianet" technologies will enable exciting, advanced communications, collaboration and entertainment experiences through video- and rich media-optimized service provider, business, and home networks, known as "medianets."

Source: MarketWire

Interview with Karlheinz Brandenburg

The future of digital media is about immersive experiences and automated systems that find the content you crave, said Karlheinz Brandenburg, one of the creators of the MP3 format.

The director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology shared his views on topics ranging from digital rights management to wave field audio in a keynote address at the annual technical conference of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He also talked with EE Times editor at large Rick Merritt in a video following his keynote:

The growth of digital media, wireless networking and connected devices is forcing a sea change in digital media, said Brandenburg. He sketched out scenarios in which systems learn users' preferences and automatically find content they may want.

Automated music recommendations have progressed in last couple years from being not useful at all to being good enough for use, Brandenburg said.

"I see the same thing happening for video," he said. "There are a number of people working on it, but I wouldn't say we have solved the problems," he added.

Brandenburg has been researching wave field audio, an approach for creating immersive audio experiences where sounds can be precisely placed and moved in space. The keynote concluded with a demo at the nearby Mann's Chinese Theater which has just installed a wave field system based on technology from Iosono, a company Brandenburg founded.

The system uses a network of 380 speakers mounted all around the theater to create the impression of as many as 32 virtual audio objects that can be placed and moved anywhere in the room using the company's authoring tools. Iosono hopes to strike a deal soon with a movie studio that will release a major motion picture using its audio format.

"The dream of audio has always been clean quality and the illusion of a virtual room," said Brandenburg.

The technology has already been installed in many theme parks, with movie theaters the next big target. Ultimately, Brandenburg believes wave field could be used for consumer products but it will take breakthroughs in creating low cost speaker arrays, he suggested.

By Rick Merritt, EE Times

Verimatrix Awarded Key Patents for VideoMark Forensic Watermarking

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent number 7,430,302 for unique features in VideoMark, Verimatrix’s user-specific, forensic watermarking technology. The new patent, the first of several pending for VideoMark, protects key processes where the forensic mark is invisibly and robustly embedded in video content, and converted to a human recognisable image during extraction. As has been proven in multiple system evaluations, a human readable mark withstands more sophisticated video manipulations such as cropping and geometric distortions, than those which rely on machine extraction alone.

Verimatrix’s end-to-end VideoMark solution includes the recovery of the unique client identification from all unauthorised analog and digital distribution formats. The mark extracted from pirated content, which never contains personal subscriber data, can be traced back to the last legal recipient of the content by the operator. A second patent, number 7,426,750 related to aspects of this tracking process, was also recently granted to Verimatrix.

VideoMark is the industry’s first secure and invisible content tracking solution that enables forensic, user-specific marking of video at each set-top box or PC client in a pay-TV system. A range of worldwide operators have deployed VideoMark to enable them to offer differentiated services including early release windows for HD and super premium content. VideoMark is a powerful security layer that complements encryption, conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) technologies and is being required by more content owners. VideoMark complies with the rigorous requirements of the Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI).

Source: BroadcastBuyer

Philips Content Identification Announces Spin Out and Becomes Civolution

The company formerly known as Philips Content Identification, has announced the completion of its spin-out from Philips Corporate Technologies. The company will operate under the new brand name Civolution. The spin-out includes Teletrax, the world’s first global broadcast intelligence company and former joint-venture of Philips and Medialink.

Prime Technology Ventures (PTV), a leading independent pan-European venture capital firm headquartered in The Netherlands, has provided funding for the new Civolution company through its PTV III fund. In addition to other limited partners, Philips also became limited partner in PTV, demonstrating its continued commitment to the growth of the Civolution business.

Civolution offers complete end-to-end solutions in content identification, managing and monetization services to content owners and distributors. As a new and independent company, Civolution is well positioned to anticipate and respond to the needs of the dynamic market of the digital content industry. The spin-out allows Civolution the flexibility to take new strategic directions beyond the current scope of Philips and to and to focus fully on meeting market demands as they evolve.

“We are delighted to announce the realization of this next major milestone in our strategic plan following the recent merger with Teletrax”, says Alex Terpstra Civolution CEO. “With our great team of dedicated professionals and with a wide range of experience in the field of content identification technology and services, we have the ambition to play a pivotal role and lead the way in the evolution of content identification, helping content owners and distributors identify, manage and monetize their content.”

Source: BroadcastBuyer

iPharro Showcases MediaSeeker Video Content Identification at IBC

iPharro Media, spinoff of the renowned Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, will showcase its patent-pending video fingerprinting technology MediaSeeker that analyses video content to be identified from any video source – TV, Internet, video repositories, and more. Using iPharro’s MediaSeeker, digital video can be analysed, protected, and/or monetised at any point in the media distribution value chain. iPharro Media’s patent pending video fingerprinting technology allows for automated visual content detection across multiple media outlets.

The technology works with extremely high accuracy and does not require an audio track. iPharro markets MediaSeeker in two product configurations. The MediaSeeker software can be licensed by any organisation preferring to run content identification on its own hardware infrastructure. As MediaSeeker runs on standard PCs, set-up costs are minimal and the system can be scaled up simply by adding computers.

iPharro’s second product is the web-based service iPharro MediaSeeker Portal. It puts iPharro’s powerful content detection technology in the hands of organizations for which the large scale capabilities of a dedicated iPharro MediaSeeker software system is not necessary. The portal is as easy to use as any file upload on popular websites and can handle thousands of reference clips at once, each of which can be monitored for any TV appearance.

Current applications for iPharro MediaSeeker are for example:
- Television Ad Monitoring: monitor unlimited channels in real time - already in use by the Nielsen Company.
- Proprietary License and Copyright Video Detection: monitor TV, mobile, or Internet to find your content.
- Media Workflow Management: broadcasters can maintain meta tags and rights information at every step along the media workflow.
- IPTV Interactive Content Identification: identify IPTV content and provide users with additional information or revenue generating opportunities.

Source: BroadcastBuyer

Movie Labels to Launch New “Open Market” Play Anywhere Scheme as Last Ditch Effort to Save DRM

Most of the big movie studios and many online movie retailers are preparing to launch a new initiative tentatively called "Open Market", first proposed last year by Sony Pictures, we’ve learned. All of the major studios besides those associated with Walt Disney are already on board and will be part of the announcements made next month. Sony Pictures CTO Mitch Singer’s presentation to industry participants supporting Open Market is available here.

Open Market is a set of policy decisions and a software and services framework that will allow interoperability of various formats and DRM schemes that are currently splintering the market. That splintering locks users into a single store and format, and is putting a stranglehold on widespread adoption of movie sales online. Multiple sources have indicated that the studios are putting their weight behind the initiative to avoid the fate of the music industry and as a last ditch effort to stop or slow non-DRM movie sales.

The industry has been flat out unable to agree on DRM interoperability (the Coral Consortium was the primary hope in this area and has largely stalled). Instead, Sony Pictures proposed "Open Market", which will allow play anywhere functionality more from a policy perspective and less from any technical fix to make DRM schemes interoperable.

A key part of Open Market will be a neutral third party to manage device registrations and movie purchases/rentals to ensure interoperability. This “domain” provider will manage services that let users register devices (PCs, televisions, mobile devices, etc.). Any movie purchased from any service provider can then be watched on a registered device.

Supposedly a whole slew of companies are supporting the effort. Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Time Warner are on board. Retailers like Amazon, Target, WalMart, Comcast, MovieLink and CinemaNow are also said to be participating. Notably absent is Apple and the various Walt Disney studios (Pixar, Touchstone, Miramax, etc.), which are strongly backing the iTunes/Fairplay scheme.

By Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

SafeNet Acquires Beep Science

"Oslo-based DRM vendor Beep Science has been acquired by US security technology company SafeNet. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, was signed a couple of months ago (without publicity) and closed last week. Beep Science's team will join SafeNet offices in Helsinki, Amsterdam, and other European locations. Beep Science's client and server technology for OMA DRM will complement SafeNet's existing DRM server software business, which it acquired from DMDSecure in 2005.

SafeNet has made a string of acquisitions in recent years, including antipiracy service provider MediaSentry, also in 2005. The company started in the 1980s as an enterprise security technology vendor and has essentially become a roll-up.

Its acquisition of Beep Science makes sense from the standpoint of filling gaps in its product line. SafeNet has DRM server software (DRM Fusion) that supports multiple DRMs, including OMA DRM as well as Microsoft Windows Media DRM, and it has considerable expertise in core security technology for consumer device hardware. It counts Samsung, TI, and AMD as customers for the latter. With Beep Science, SafeNet will get both DRM client software and expertise in integrating DRM capabilities with consumer devices. It is now able to sell end-to-end DRM technologies to consumer electronics companies.

The risk in this deal is that Beep Science is exclusively an OMA DRM technology company, so its success is predicated on the future of OMA DRM, particularly OMA DRM 2.0. Although OMA DRM 1.0 has a very large installed base in mobile handsets worldwide, the number of services that have actually deployed OMA DRM 2.0 today is very small. SafeNet expects growth in OMA DRM 2.0 adoption to come in the mobile gaming, mobile broadcast, and e-book spaces, all of which will take some time to develop. It had not been possible for the small, monolithic Beep Science to wait around for OMA DRM 2.0 to take hold in environments like OMA BCast DRM Profile for DVB-H, but a larger and more diverse company like SafeNet can afford to look to a longer time horizon for its revenue.

Still, mobile DRM is an uncertain and fragmented market, even where it is eventually adopted; several technologies are in play, including Microsoft's PlayReady, Marlin, SDC, and potentially Apple's FairPlay in addition to OMA DRM 2.0. It remains to be seen whether SafeNet can successfully integrate Beep Science's technologies with the ones it already has and translate that into opportunities that meet the needs of this ever-changing market."

Source: DRM Watch

Sony Acquires Gracenote

"Sony Corporation of America announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring Gracenote, the provider of music metadata and recognition technologies, for US $260 Million in cash plus other unspecified consideration. Sony intends to keep Gracenote as a separate business unit. The deal is expected to close by the end of May.

This move follows fairly quickly after Macrovision's acquisition last November of Gracenote's competitor All Media Guide (AMG). Those two companies -- and a third, Muze -- compete to offer the most complete and most accessible databases of music metadata; they seek to integrate their data into media player devices, PC "jukebox" software, and online music services. Gracenote also offers music fingerprinting technology that it acquired from Philips in 2005, customers for which include the social networking site imeem.

The acquisition is a smart one for Sony on many levels. First, it is a hedge against a future -- which we view as likely -- in which consumers will no longer pay directly for music recordings. Rich, pervasive, high-quality metadata is going to be vitally important in the ability to build music services that consumers will actually pay for. In acquiring Gracenote, Sony is doing more than acknowledging the importance of metadata: it is positioning itself to succeed in garnering revenue from music services, where it has very visibly failed in the past.

Even better, the deal will put Sony in a position of control over key information that its competitors will need to build their own products and services. In other words, it will be able to charge companies like Samsung, Sandisk, and possibly even Apple (iTunes uses Gracenote's database) a "toll" for accessing metadata and music recognition services.

Unlike the Macrovision-AMG deal, this one involves one of the leaders in media fingerprinting technology: Gracenote and Audible Magic are the two major players in the music market. This ought to be both good and bad news for other fingerprinting technology vendors, especially the several that are appearing in the video market -- startups like Vobile, Zeitera, iPharro, and Advestigo as well as bigger players like Philips and Thomson. The good news is that the value of this technology is being recognized; the not-as-good news is that the market will demand synergies with other technologies, data, or services in order to realize that value. Fingerprinting vendors will need to find such synergies as the opportunities for new types of online media services become clearer."

By Bill Rosenblatt, DRM Watch

Philips Announces Commercial Availability of Cinefence Digital Cinema Forensic Marking for Both Image and Sound

Royal Philips Electronics announced the commercial availability of its CineFence forensic marking technology for both digital cinema image and sound. Five major Hollywood movie studios have approved Philips’ CineFence forensic marking of digital cinema sound tracks to deter piracy. The approval makes Philips’ CineFence the first forensic marking solution for both image and sound tracks for digital cinema.

The studios gave their approval for Philips’ CineFence image marking in 2006, and recently concluded extensive sound tests on Philips’ CineFence audio marking technology. CineFence supports forensic marking of up to 16 audio channels on a single Digital Signal Processor (DSP).

Illegal camcorder recording at cinema theaters has been identified as a major source of movie piracy. Since content pirates illegally record the image and sound tracks from different theaters, the movie studios adopted forensic marking as a mandatory requirement in the Digital Cinema Initiatives’ (DCI) Digital Cinema System Specification. Philips’ CineFence is the first forensic marking technology that fully complies with the DCI Specification and enables individual traceability of image and sound.

The CineFence marks are imperceptible to cinema audiences and yet maintain their integrity in illegally copied material. Comprehensive listening tests demonstrated that Philips marking technology does not make audible changes to the original sound tracks, but remains detectable even when recordings are compressed into pirate formats.

Source: DCinemaToday

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Gracenote & Philips Partner to Offer most Advanced Audio & Video Fingerprinting Technology

"Gracenote and Philips have deepened their existing relationship by combining their respective content fingerprinting technologies to provide extremely advanced solutions for video and audio content filtering and monetization.

The technology partnership combines Philips’ video fingerprinting and Gracenote’s audio fingerprinting technologies, and results in a comprehensive and viable system for content owners and service providers looking to control the use of and monetize copyrighted content across multiple platforms.

The expanded relationship between Gracenote and Philips deepens the ongoing partnership between the two companies started in 2004, whereby Philips audio fingerprinting technology was successfully joined with Gracenote’s global database and network services to create today’s largest and most comprehensive audio fingerprinting solutions deployed around the world. Examples currently in the market include Sony Ericsson’s TrackID service for mobile consumers, Nielsen’s Broadcast Data Service music monitoring solution, and Snocap’s digital music licensing and copyright management platform."

Nielsen and Digimarc Announce Watermark-Based TV Content Identification Service

"Nielsen, the media measurement company, has teamed up with Digimarc to introduce an online content identification scheme for the US television industry based on watermarking technology. The two companies announced that they are collaborating on a scheme called Nielsen Media Manager, based on watermarking technology for video content that Nielsen has been using for four years in its media measurement business. Digimarc, the principal holder of patents in the watermarking space, is contributing technical assistance as well as IP licensing to the scheme.

Nielsen Media Manager is aimed at roughly the same set of customers as video fingerprinting technologies from companies like Audible Magic, Philips, Thomson, and Vobile: user-generated content sites, social networking sites, file-sharing services, and so on. Projected availability of the technology is mid-2008, and the companies intend to expand it beyond television content to movies, games, and other content types in the future.

The availability of a scheme like Nielsen Media Manager takes watermarking to a new level of viability for online content identification. Thus it begs a comparison with fingerprinting. Vendors of these technologies -- particularly those, like Philips and Thomson, that offer both watermarking and fingerprinting -- like to say that the two technologies are complementary rather than competitive, which is true to some extent. But they both apply to the conceptually simple task of identifying a file as a copyrighted work.

The most basic difference between the two technologies with respect to the generic task of content identification is that someone -- a content owner or service provider -- must embed a watermark in a file for it to be detected by a downstream entity (such as a file-sharing service), whereas this is not necessary in fingerprinting. Furthermore, the downstream entity must use a watermark detection tool based on the same scheme as the one used to embed the watermark. Yet watermarking is more accurate than fingerprinting, and it is more efficient to detect watermarks in video than it is to compute fingerprints, meaning that -- all else being equal -- it is cheaper for downstream entities to implement.

The other advantage that watermarking has over fingerprinting is that any data at all can be embedded as a watermark (subject to size limitations), whereas if fingerprinting works correctly, the same content will yield the same fingerprint. The same content can contain different watermarks; a good example of this is Universal Music Group's use of watermarks in unprotected MP3 music files to denote the different retailers (e.g., Amazon, Wal-Mart) that sell them. Different watermarks can be used for various purposes, such as to signal different usage terms (e.g., promotional vs. paid download) or different ads that should run against the content.

Yet this flexibility requires that standards be set for identifiers that determine what to do with content, as well as rules for interpreting those identifiers, in order to avoid the chaos of different schemes for content owners, retailers, advertisers, etc. And because watermarks typically can only contain a few dozen bytes of data, it would be necessary to maintain online directories that connect watermarks to information about how to interpret them.

That's exactly what Nielsen is developing. It already has a database of watermarks for a large portion of US television content, as well as audio signatures (fingerprints) that it uses as backups in case watermarks cannot be detected. It also has a proprietary identifier scheme. Nielsen intends to open up its database to third-party schemes, including those based on identifier standards such as ISAN. That way, an application can use a Nielsen-embedded watermark to look up (for example) an ISAN number, which in turn can lead to other information about the content. This falls short of the ideal of a totally open standard for globally unique content identifiers; it positions Nielsen as a gatekeeper.

Still, many dots have to be connected in order for watermarking to fulfill its potential in enabling business models for unencrypted online content, and Nielsen Media Manager is the first serious effort toward making this happen. If Nielsen and Digimarc are successful in getting a variety of online entities to adopt the technology, it bodes well for the future of watermarking in general."

By Bill Rosenblatt, DRM Watch