Conax Conditional Access to Incorporate Cinea's Running Marks Watermarking Technology

Conax AS, a leading global supplier of state-of-the-art conditional access solutions for digital TV, announced today that it would integrate Running Marks™ watermarking technology licensed from Cinea, Inc., a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), into its security products.

Conax offers content protection to digital TV operators in more than 70 countries. The company’s extensive partnerships throughout the digital TV supply chain industry have resulted in the development of high-quality products for digital TV broadcast worldwide.

Cinea’s Running Marks replacement-based watermarking technology provides a number of compelling advantages and efficiencies, including extensive flexibility to mark compressed content at any point within the content distribution network. Forensic watermarking enables a unique, session-specific identifier or serial number to be placed in every video stream distributed by a system operator, allowing sources of stolen content to be identified.

As both Conax and Cinea have well-established reputations for protecting video content throughout the distribution network, combining Conax’s conditional access technology with Cinea’s Running Marks watermarking expertise will now provide Conax the ability to offer comprehensive security over the entire digital TV chain.

“Theft of service and piracy of content have continued to pose parallel challenges to the fundamental security and profitability of the worldwide entertainment industry,” noted Robert Schumann, General Manager, Cinea. “Cinea is committed to working with the leading conditional access providers around the world to offer comprehensive solutions to the security challenges faced by digital TV operators everywhere. We are, therefore, extremely gratified that Conax has chosen Running Marks for integration into its global security solutions.”

“In large markets where the redistribution of video services is a severe problem, our customers will now be able to trace the source of illegally distributed content in a very efficient and cost-effective way,” said Wictor Nicolaysen, VP Strategic Partner Management, Conax. “Piracy will always be a threat to the entertainment industry, and watermarking has established itself as crucial in the ongoing fight to control it. A completely integrated security system is a requirement for today’s complex pay TV operations. The integration of Cinea’s Running Marks technology into Conax’s content security solutions provides our customers with an ideal platform to combat both theft of service and piracy of content.”

Links: Conax; Cinea