Conditional access market leader will make Cinea’s compressed domain watermarking solution available to its VOD and live broadcast customers
Cinea, Inc., a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), announced today that NDS Group plc (NASDAQ: NNDS), a majority-owned subsidiary of News Corporation, has licensed the company’s forensic watermarking technology for use with its extensive product line of conditional access and digital rights management solutions for video-on-demand (VOD) and live broadcast.
NDS will integrate Cinea’s Running Marks™ technology in NDS’ leading conditional access and security solutions. This combination provides NDS’ customers with the ability to embed invisible, unique product IDs in individual video streams, allowing tracking of pirated content back to its source. By leveraging Cinea’s capability to watermark compressed video streams, NDS can offer session-based watermarking for both VOD head-end as well as set-top box applications. A key advantage of this approach is that it enables system operators to add subscriber-specific serialization capabilities to their VOD head-end, with no changes to the downstream devices. This same feature also offers significant advantages in the set-top box and other devices by enabling watermarking of all video outputs, including compressed digital content in home video networks.
“Session-based watermarking is increasingly important to our customers, and our goal has always been to meet their evolving needs with the market’s best possible solution,” said Nigel Smith, VP and Chief Marketing Officer of NDS. “The Running Marks robust and flexible architecture made it a clear choice to integrate within our existing security solutions.”
Forensic watermarking, also known as serialization watermarking, enables a unique, session-specific ID or serial number to be placed in every video stream distributed by a system operator. By watermarking individual streams, the natural flow of distributed content remains untouched and uninterrupted, yet any source of illegally redistributed content can be identified. Forensic marks also provide a proactive “deterrent” value by removing the anonymity usually associated with the downloading and sharing of content.
“From the beginning, our company has aimed to provide the most flexible and robust anti-piracy solutions to the cable, telecommunications, and satellite video markets,” said Robert Schumann, General Manager of Cinea. “Running Marks was designed to make the deployment of watermarking into existing video delivery infrastructures both straightforward and cost-effective. We’re honored that a world-class company like NDS selected our technology to offer to its customer base around the world.”
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 www.cinea.com.
About NDS
NDS Group plc (NASDAQ: NNDS), a majority owned subsidiary of News Corporation, supplies open end-to-end digital technology and services to digital pay-television platform operators and content providers. See www.nds.com for more information about NDS.
Certain statements in this press release, including statements regarding the performance, features, reliability, and capabilities of Running Marks; the potential benefits that systems operators and other users may derive from Running Marks; and the anticipated market acceptance of Running Marks, are "forward-looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. The following important factors, without limitation, could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: risks that adoption of Running Marks may not occur as currently anticipated; risks that Running Marks may not perform as anticipated; risks associated with building market acceptance of and demand for Running Marks; competition risks for watermarking technology; rapid changes in technical requirements for antipiracy protection; and other risks detailed in Dolby's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including the risks identified under the section captioned "Risk Factors" in its most recent Periodic Report on Form 10-Q or 10-K. Dolby disclaims any obligation to update information contained in these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.