Verimatrix Secures the First Over-the-Top Video Service in Hong Kong

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
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Anyplex Selects VCAS for Internet TV for Multi-Screen Protection and Advanced HTTP Live Streaming Implementation

SAN DIEGO, CA — Verimatrix, the specialist in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-screen digital TV services around the globe, today announced that Hong Kong-based Anyplex is securing its over-the-top (OTT) video on demand service with the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for Internet TV. Anyplex is a leading on-demand streaming service in Hong Kong that delivers premium content to any Anyplex-enabled devices, such as set-top boxes (STBs), connected TVs, iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads.

Key challenges for Anyplex to deliver video to multiple consumer devices over unmanaged networks included the need to secure on-demand content from studios with shorter release windows and maintain high Quality of Experience (QoE) for consumers. It rapidly became apparent that the HTTP Live Streaming protocol had several advantages in addressing automatic bitrate for OTT content to be shared between devices with different screen resolutions, processing power and available network bandwidth, while maintaining a smooth viewer experience.

HTTP Live Streaming requires a smaller memory footprint that suits most devices with lightweight memory. The benefits of HTTP Live Streaming for Anyplex are two-fold in terms of a lower capital expenditure and day-to-day operational costs.

In addition, VCAS for Internet TV includes important extensions to the baseline security in HTTP Live Streaming that improve the capability to support subscription and transaction based pay-TV services. In particular, VCAS for Internet TV ensures that decryption keys are managed and selectively distributed to authorized clients only. This robust layer of security granted Anyplex access to more premium content and shorter release windows from studios.

“Verimatrix’s knowledge of OTT delivery helped us secure a larger library of content and will enable us to easily extend our service to multiple devices,” said Ringo Lam, CEO of Anyplex. “Because VCAS for Internet TV supports multiple DRM schemes, which are often native in the devices that consumers already own, we will be able to cost-effectively deliver content to a wide range of devices.”

VCAS for Internet TV provides significant value by overlaying the HTTP Live Streaming protocol with a mechanism for registering and tracking individual devices, together with a way to manage entitlement for content viewing. This type of security opens up the potential for flexible business models that can help up-sell OTT content for premium services and cross-sell over multi-layer, multi-device distribution.

“Anyplex is leading the OTT evolution in Hong Kong by offering new, flexible video consumption models. We are proud help Anyplex gain access to earlier release windows, which has set its on-demand service apart from more traditional pay-TV and rental services,” said Steve Oetegenn, chief sales and marketing officer, Verimatrix. “VCAS for Internet TV provides the additional security measures in delivering video in an unmanaged network.”