-By Emmanuel Josserand, Head of Marketing, Civolution

Technology and the Internet are constantly changing the way media content is consumed, a fact of life that is pushing players in the media world to test new ways of doing business and change their business models to fit new kinds of consumer demand.

Indeed, while Michael Jackson’s album Thriller sold 100 million copies in 1982, the number-one selling record in 2007 sold just 3.7 million copies. And this unfolding picture seems similar across all media forms. In cinemas, for instance, which in 2009 sold 1.4 billion tickets in the U.S., three times less than in 1946, when 4.3 billion tickets were sold (according to the MPAA).

Daunting figures on one side, but on the other, consumption of media has never been so high. People listen to more music, watch more videos and read more stories, in more places, on more devices than ever before. While sales of packaged albums of music or films diminish, online consumption is skyrocketing. Latest figures suggest that more than 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute on YouTube (and well over five billion videos have been viewed on the website since it launched in November 2005).

The “lean-back” television experience is therefore evolving, with new streaming Internet services and the side-loading of TV content onto portable devices. Favorite TV programs are now travelling with consumers on planes, trains and even automobiles. Media consumption has ballooned over the past decade, which has been caused by an increase in the way that content can be distributed and consumed. In this new digital world with its increased freedoms, all forms of media can co-exist and be shared and consumed on a range of devices, offering the consumer an unlimited choice of content and ways to consume it.

In this new media universe, in which content is always getting easier to obtain, save, mash up, share and stream, we have to ask how can it sustain its value, how can it be fully monetized and how can authors or rights-holders be fairly compensated?

The development and widespread use of broadband Internet, new TV distribution platforms, and the explosion of enabled devices has made it easier for content owners to reach their audiences and widen the market. It has also made it easier for content to be re-distributed or illegally shared. Additionally, measuring the impact, reach and performance of content has become far more complex.

Media industry players are eager to find ways to connect online content providers, content delivery networks (CDNs), advertisers and advertising agencies, audience measurement agencies, UGC platforms and broadcast television. Watermarking and fingerprinting content identification technologies are emerging as efficient solutions to better manage content and safeguard the interests of all the players in the media ecosystem, from content owners, rights-holders, distributors and marketers/advertisers to end-users.

Digital Watermarking
Digital watermarking is a process by which specific data is included within multimedia content, providing its own unique identity. As these insertions are slight in terms of payload and are continuously adapted to the content, the watermark is indiscernible and can only be detected and decoded using specialized hardware or software. Watermarks are imperceptible to the human eye and it is virtually impossible to detect the presence of the watermark without proprietary decoding equipment. Any attempt to destroy or remove the watermark will seriously impair the quality of the material in which it is embedded.

Digital watermarking therefore enables the identification, management and tracking of digital multimedia content. It can be used for a variety of different applications and purposes, including broadcast verification, digital rights management, image copyright protection, forensic tracking and mobile commerce.

Digital Fingerprinting
Digital fingerprinting is a technique in which sophisticated software identifies, extracts and then compresses characteristic components of a digital asset, enabling it to be immediately and uniquely identified by its resultant “fingerprint.”

Video fingerprinting is commonly carried out by extracting several unique features of digital multimedia content that can be stored in the form of a fingerprint. The evaluation and identification of content is then performed by comparing the characteristic features of the extracted fingerprints. For digital audiovisual content, both audio and video fingerprints can be extracted, each having individual significance in different application areas.
The creation of a fingerprint involves the use of specialized software that decodes the audio or video data and then applies several feature extraction algorithms. Digital fingerprints are highly compressed when compared to the original source material and can therefore be easily stored in databases for later comparison. It’s important to note that there is too little data for the fingerprints alone to be used to reconstruct the original content.

Watermarking and Piracy Deterrence
In today’s world of anytime, anywhere media distribution and consumption, media executives are challenged to ensure business growth. For movie studios, premium television channels and distributors (cable, satellite, IPTV, etc.), it is essential to take preventive actions against the risk of piracy. Business success can only flourish if media content keeps its value and is not leaked or shared freely. Broader distribution of high-value content has to take place in an environment that limits or deters the risk of theft.

Watermarking and fingerprinting solutions have emerged as technologies of choice throughout the media industries working alongside or in some cases as an alternative to DRM (Digital Rights Management) to provide both security and business monetization opportunities. One of the key aspects of content identification technologies versus DRM is that the former do not restrict or block content usage. Watermarking in particular, by making a piece of content unique to a dedicated user, acts as a powerful deterrent against piracy without interfering with the consumption experience.
Content identification technologies continue to proliferate and are becoming more widely adopted to protect content and to enable the development of new business models. Civolution’s NexGuard suite of applications allows content owners and especially movie studios to protect their assets from pre-release stage through to delivery to digital cinema, pay-TV, television and online.

In Theatre: Camcording in the theatre is the most significant source of piracy of new movies. Content theft and illicit redistribution affects the entire movie industry. Initiated by the Hollywood studios, the use of forensic marking was made a mandatory part of the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) specification. This is also for the benefit of local film producers, film distributors and theatre chains. Civolution’s NexGuard-Digital Cinema solution uses proprietary watermarking of sound and images upon projection in the theatre as a deterrent against piracy. The solution allows identifying the place and time of camcording or audio recording whenever a pirate copy is found, hence its “forensic” value.

Movie studios, through DCI, made mandatory the use of image and audio forensic marking in theatres equipped with digital systems. Forensic marking was already in use with film prints on a per-reel copy basis. Now, digital watermarking is taking place upon projection and will identify the theatre screen and other information unique to the projection.

Civolution recently introduced a certification program for its NexGuard-Digital Cinema forensic marking technology used in digital-cinema systems. The new validation process helps server and projector manufacturers to do non-regression testing upon release of a new software version for their products. The goal is to ensure that every digital-cinema server or media block software release includes the DCI-compliant watermarking function in order to comply with the movie studio’s expectations and meet the DCI specification compliance testing for digital-cinema equipment. The validation is crucial to ensure effective forensic marking for digital-cinema equipment and provide seamless content-tracking for cinema owners and movie studios.

Pay-TV: High-definition screens are now becoming the natural choice for television viewing. Consumers now expect high-quality HD content to be available both at home and while traveling. For pay-TV providers there is a sizeable revenue opportunity in offering premium HD content. However, there is a potential risk of leakage—so-called analog holes—due to improved copying capabilities by devices such as (HD) camcorders.

Civolution has implemented video watermarking for use in individual digital TV sets, set-top boxes and gateways. Every broadcast pay-TV or free-to-air channel can be watermarked in real time as it passes through the device in the home for viewing. Forensic marking also takes place when (re)playing content from the integrated PVR (personal video recorder), which addresses the need for watermarking in push-VOD satellite services and other time-shift applications.

Whenever pay-TV content is accessed or distributed, NexGuard-PayTV & Online inserts watermarks into the video stream in real time, allowing content to be traced back to a specific pay-TV subscriber device.

Transactional: As another example of premium content distribution implementation, Civolution’s unique transactional watermarking allows watermarks to be inserted instantaneously at the time of download (and faster than real time), making each piece of content unique to an individual user. Files later suspected of being unauthorized can be traced back to that specific user.

Further applications offer new opportunities for content owners, advertisers and marketers looking for new ways to engage consumers with richer media experiences from the STB and television set. Content triggering, for instance—upon identification of the watermark, a specific action or even piece of content can be triggered allowing truly personal interactivity based on the content itself. Tailored advertising and related content information are now possible to engage viewers, enabling far greater user experiences based on personal preference.

As content identification technologies continue to evolve, further applications will also develop, allowing all content owners to safeguard and better manage their assets but also develop new business avenues. Civolution’s NexGuard technology is enabling the new ways into the new media landscape.

Civolution is a leading content identification technology and services provider for identifying, managing and monetizing media content. For more information, visit www.civolution.com.