The deployment ensures the full protection of high value content and premium sports

Eindhoven (The Netherlands), September 10^th, 2015 – NexGuard, a Civolution Company and the leading provider of forensic watermarking technology and solutions and Hisilicon Technologies, a leading end-to-end chipset solution provider, today announced the integration of NexGuard forensic watermarking in the next generation Hisilicon Set-Top-Box (STB) chipsets Hi3798 and Hi3796 series. The solution ensures the easy tracking of the source of illegal redistribution of high value content, including Ultra HD productions, as well as premium sports.

“Hisilicon is among the world’s highest volume chipset manufacturers, and is at the forefront of the Ultra High definition revolution. By adding our forensic watermarking directly in the chipset, we can take an active part in securing high value content delivered by Hisilicon powered STBs,” said Jean-Philippe Plantevin, SVP Products and Solutions, NexGuard. “This combination provides operators utilising Hisilicon powered STBs with best in class forensic watermarking for high value content. This will help operators in their content acquisition discussions with Hollywood Studios and sports content owners and rights holders, who increasingly ask operators to comply with the MovieLabs Specifications for Enhanced Content Protection, particularly for Ultra HD content. It also gives operators the flexibility to easily and securely activate forensic watermarking at the STB manufacturing facility or through secure over the air downloads in coordination with any Conditional Access or DRM technology. ”

The solution is based on the NexGuard Pay TV Baseband Hardware Core, integrated with Hisilicon’s STB chips to ensure the protection of content as soon as it is decoded by the STB, securing the traditional weak link in the content redistribution chain. STBs can be used as gateways for pirates to illegally redistribute content online. By building the watermarking technology directly into the STB chipset, Hisilicon and NexGuard ensure that the watermark is present in the video regardless of whether the content is captured from the screen, or through a STB video output.

“The latest MovieLabs specifications make forensic watermarking an essential tool in the operator’s content protection arsenal. By integrating NexGuard’s forensic watermarking directly in our STB chips, we ensure that our customers can provide the utmost security in their home entertainment devices,” said Liu Zhiyang, General Manager of STB Chipsets, Hisilicon. “Our chipsets have helped operators launch exciting new services and we aim to be an active enabler of Ultra HD content delivered to the home. By deploying NexGuard’s solution, we are future-proofing our chips and enabling our customers to focus on delivering seamless experiences, safe in the knowledge that our chips meet the market’s most robust content protection requirements.”

From its specification as an essential part of Digital Cinema security to being the core technology for tracking of pre-release files, disc screeners and eScreeners, forensic watermarking has become an essential tool in the prevention of illicit redistribution of content. The NexGuard forensic watermarking solutions are designed to meet the full array of evolving security challenges facing the Television and Motion Picture industries across Digital Cinema, Pre-Release, PayTV and Online deployments.

NexGuard demonstrations will be held during IBC on stand 2.B41 to help the industry understand how watermarking can help deter piracy by allowing content owners and rights holders to easily identify the source of a leak.

Note to editors: To request an appointment with a NexGuard spokesperson at IBC (Amsterdam, 11-15 September), please contact Ségolène Roche of Platform PR: segolene@platformpr.com, +44 207 486 4900.