SeaChange and Civolution Enable Premium VOD for North American Cable Operators

Monday, May 21st, 2012
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Joint Solution – Being Deployed by a Large North American Cable Operator – Accelerates Time-to-Market for PVOD Offerings for Content in Early-Release Window

ACTON, Mass. & EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands — The Cable Show 2012 — SeaChange International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEAC), a leading global multi-screen video software innovator, and Civolution, the leading provider of technology and solutions to identify, manage and monetize media content, announced today they have created a joint solution to enable cable operators – for the first time – to offer premium VOD content to their subscribers. The solution is currently being deployed by a large North American cable operator.

As mandated by Hollywood studios for offering movies in an early-release window, operators need to integrate transactional watermarking protection into their VOD workflow and network infrastructure, which allows for forensic tracking to the source of potential illegal copies. In order to do this, SeaChange integrated Civolution’s newest NexGuard watermark pre-processor and smart-embedder software into three components of its intelligent video software platform:

  • SeaChange AssetFlow™ content workflow manager, which gives operators the ability to automate, monetize and deliver content to their back office systems, video servers and content delivery networks (CDNs) while reducing operational costs. AssetFlow can seamlessly add content processing elements above and beyond transcoding, automated QA, and audio normalization such as watermarking through a plug-in-based open standards modular interface;
  • SeaChange Axiom™ On Demand back office that is a complete end-to-end software solution and an open, standards-based framework that delivers personalization, operational efficiency and open interfaces to power third party applications and video pumps;
  • SeaChange’s MDS and FMS products for cost-effective storage and streaming of VOD assets.

The latest watermarking product, available immediately as part of Civolution’s extensive NexGuard – PayTV suite of solutions, integrates seamlessly with existing VOD workflows, and enables transactional watermarking across cable networks.

“Cable operators can now protect their content in ways they haven’t been able to before. With SeaChange’s software, cable operators have the flexibility to add their choice of content processing vendor,” said SeaChange CTO Steven Davi.

Davi added, “Integrating Civolution’s watermarking software into our end-to-end solution for content ingest, management, monetization and delivery gives cable operators a new tool in their arsenal for content protection and enables access to earlier release window movies. It’s a major breakthrough in getting consumers the content they want sooner, which will generate new revenues and create customer loyalty.”

“Our new watermarking pre-processor and smart-embedder software accelerates time-to-market for cable MSOs looking to leverage early-release window content to attract new subscribers, and increase the average revenue per existing subscriber,” said Jean-Michel Masson, SVP Watermarking Operations, Civolution. “We’ve created a powerful joint solution with SeaChange that transparently integrates into the VOD workflows already in place by cable operators, and one that meets Hollywood-studio requirements for PVOD offerings. This is great news for the consumers who are eager to access premium content direct from their home.”

Civolution’s transactional watermarking is performed in two steps. The first step, referred as “watermark pre-processing”, is applied once per VOD asset during content preparation. The second step, referred as “watermark smart embedding”, is applied by the VOD pump during the streaming of the VOD asset to a subscriber. These two steps combine in the watermarking workflow to provide an extremely scalable, yet robust transactional watermarking protection.

The watermark detection from suspected pirate video samples, available through Civolution’s web-based automated NexGuard – Detection Service, allows rights owners to identify the source of piracy in case of content theft with a fast turn-around. Civolution VOD watermarks can be automatically detected without the need for original content.