NexGuard, a Kudelski company and the leading provider of forensic watermarking technology and solutions, announced the launch of its File Delivery solution at NAB Show 2017. Visitors to the NexGuard booth (#SU3424) will be able to see live demonstrations of the product, which is primarily designed to protect the transport of content to distributors and operators just before release, when it is at its most vulnerable and valuable.

Created in response to the growing threat of pre-release piracy, the NexGuard File Delivery product will enable studios, broadcasters and content owners to protect high-value content assets prior to final distribution to the consumer. The technology allows for watermarking during one-to-many file delivery, through an efficient two-step watermarking process that enables the final watermarking step to be completed on-the-fly as part of the delivery process.

Integrated with IBM Aspera Faspex, the NexGuard File Delivery product is an essential addition to any content owner’s asset protection toolkit and builds upon NexGuard’s large experience in providing robust and imperceptible watermarking solutions for premium studio grade content.

“Global day-and-date distribution of valuable content assets means that there are more devices, people and third-parties than ever before that need to have access to pre-release content within a very short time frame. Thanks to the innovative two-step process we have implemented in the NexGuard File Delivery product, content owners can quickly protect their assets by generating multiple unique watermarked content versions at the time of delivery to distributors. This ensures that they provide the utmost level of content protection at this critical point in the distribution chain,” said Harrie Tholen, Managing Director of NexGuard.

“Our File Delivery solution runs as an Aspera FASP-enabled plugin for on-the-fly individualized watermarking. Alternatively, it can be used as a standalone for inventory based watermarking, providing a complete toolkit for the protection and distribution of pre-release content,” concluded Tholen.

The key features of NexGuard’s File Delivery solution include:

• Aspera FASP-enabled plugin for high-speed asset delivery
• A two-step workflow with file processing for on-the-fly watermarking
• Watermarking job and file transfer metadata stored in the NexGuard Manager
• Seamless integration with NexGuard Detection and Anti-Piracy services

“Security measures and the protection of very high value assets are especially critical to our media and entertainment customers,” said John Wastcoat, VP Business Development at Aspera, an IBM Company. “With real-time watermark insertion, combined with maximum speed delivery of assets and complete built-in transfer security, Aspera and NexGuard are bringing to market an ideal solution to combat content piracy.”

NexGuard works with top tier content producers, broadcasters, Pay TV operators and OTT providers around the world, including all major Hollywood studios; AMC Networks; iQiyi, the largest Internet and mobile video service provider in China; the Test Institute of Technical Film Quality (TIFTQ), under China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT); and ZEE TV.