Verimatrix's VideoMark To Be Integrated With I3 Micro's
Digital video thieves beware: Verimatrix and i3 micro have teamed up to bring digital forensic watermarking to i3 micro¡¯s IPTV set-top box.
The two companies announced today that i3 micro¡¯s Mood 300 STB will be the first to feature Verimatrix¡¯s VideoMark, its patent pending user-specific forensic watermarking technology.
The new technology not only makes Verimatrix and i3 pioneers in the IPTV industry, it leapfrogs the cable and satellite industry by providing better content protection.
According to a news release, VideoMark - an available feature of the Verimatrix Content Authority System (VCAS) - enables service providers to watermark individual video copies, thus allowing them to track piracy to an individual¡¯s set top box.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claims the U.S. motion picture industry loses more than $3 billion annually due to piracy, not including Internet piracy losses. The VideoMark/Mood 300 solution is an effective way for Hollywood studios to trace illegal copies to deter peer-to-peer file sharing, and consequently capture more revenues.
Verimatrix claims the new technology will enable network operators to bid for earlier release or higher quality content due to a superior and highly protected distribution channel. Many content owners have already indicated they will mandate the use of digital watermarking for high definition content. Therefore, operators are now able to future-proof their networks through the deployment of VCAS and VideoMark.
VideoMark is a pure software upgrade that does not require any disruptions or hardware upgrades for existing customers.
The Mood 300 is already widely deployed, including with Belgacom, Belgium¡¯s largest carrier, which is one of the first major commercial deployments of IPTV in Europe. The STB supports Personal Video Recorder and decoding for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC and enables various types of interactive and personal viewing services, including pause and trick-play of live content, plus instant record and replay, as well as a video-on-demand.
¡°Forensic watermarking is critical to provide technology advantages, as well as peace of mind, for IPTV operators and content owners,¡± said Chris Chalkitis, CTO, i3 micro technology. ¡°Verimatrix has proven its market and technology leadership in regards to content protection specifically designed for IPTV. We are excited to bring this integrated product to market, which outpaces the traditional cable and satellite markets.¡±
VideoMark requires very low processing power from the STB. It provides robust and invisible marking that survives a high degree of compression, transcoding and analog re-recording, known as the ¡°analog hole,¡± making it superior to less robust solutions such as fingerprinting.
The integrated VideoMark/Mood 300 STB will be available in the first quarter of 2006.
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