Broadcast-to-IP gateway from Nagra
May 22, 2012
Content protection and multiscreen television solutions provider Nagra is introducing a broadcast-to-IP gateway which will allow live TV to be delivered to IP-enabled devices without impacting a consumer’s existing live TV viewing experience.
“While OTT is a hot topic, broadcast TV is still the most effective and reliable technology to deliver quality content and programming,” said Yves Pitton, Senior VP, Advanced Advertising and Innovation for Nagra. “The Nagra broadcast-to-IP gateway addresses this demand by enabling service providers to deliver premium, high-quality broadcast television to any device in a secure and studio-approved environment – simply and efficiently, without the need for a high-end home media gateway or major investment on either the service provider or the consumer side.”
The Nagra gateway box, designed by Nagra, utilises Nagra content protection and is powered by Nagra’s OpenTV middleware. It is a new in-home edge device that acts as an independent content access point that tunes to subscribed services and transcodes to the proper format without disrupting household viewing. It is designed to be easy to install and use, allowing for cost-effective deployment and operations, reducing the risk of call centre calls.
Connected through Ethernet to a Wi-Fi router, the box receives an incoming broadcast signal through a coax cable. It utilises Nagra’s studio-certified in-home DRM solution, Nagra Persistent Rights Management (PRM) to enable secure wireless streaming of linear programming to authorised viewing devices within the home such as tablets, smartphones and PCs. The gateway is complemented by Nagra Media Player, a secure media player for open devices, which supports a rich and highly customisable user experience utilising extended rich metadata from third-party providers.
Pitton claimed the value proposition for the gateway was “very strong”, suggesting it was a cost-effective way to bring an operator’s premium linear TV programming to any device conveniently and efficiently – not just an OTT subset. “It has the responsiveness of TV, a rich user experience and does not confuse the user as to what content can be viewed on which device – this is what consumers are asking for and what the solution can offer today,” he added.
The gateway supports a wide variety of consumption devices and has been pre-integrated with PCs, laptops and Apple iOS devices, with subsequent integration planned for IP set-top boxes, Smart TVs and Android devices.