CHILI deploys NexGuard forensic watermarking
April 14, 2015
NexGuard, a Civolution company and the provider of forensic watermarking technology and solutions for protecting media content against illicit redistribution, today announced the integration and deployment of NexGuard content protection technology with European OTT service provider CHILI. This will enable CHILI to roll out session-based watermarking for their Ultra HD service to be launched in April 2015, initially on Samsung’s new 2015 Ultra HD Smart TV range.
CHILI’s pay TV movie service, which is rolled out in Italy, Poland, Austria, Germany and soon in UK, provides Video On Demand movies as well as Electronic Sell Through content via a Smart TV app with an outstanding user interface. To ensure that the service complies with MovieLabs Next Generation Video and Enhanced Content Protection requirements, CHILI has integrated NexGuard™ forensic watermarking.
“We worked closely with Civolution’s team to integrate forensic watermarking solution together with latest enabling technologies for Ultra HD delivery (including HEVC and MPEG-DASH),” said Stefano Flamia, CTO of CHILI. “Moreover, the NexGuard watermarking solution was easy to integrate in our OTT workflow, including our Content Delivery Network. NexGuard’s increased level of content protection enables CHILI to secure the necessary rights from the Hollywood majors to offer Ultra HD movies to consumers.”
“This deployment by CHILI shows that Hollywood studios are making their premium content available to operators that comply with their security and quality requirements” said Alex Terpstra, CEO, Civolution. “NexGuard forensic watermarking meets the highest standards of both robustness against pirate attacks as well as imperceptibility to maintain the highest Ultra HD picture quality.”
NexGuard forensic watermarking has proved effective at reducing piracy; Hollywood studios have recognized the value of the solution since forensic watermarking was mandated for Digital Cinema 10 years go. As witnessed by the incorporation into the recent MovieLabs specifications, the studios are now also making forensic watermarking a key security requirement for any operator looking to offer their early release or UHD/4K content, which several major operators already offer or are planning to introduce in the near future.