Cinea Extends Running Marks Watermarking Solution with Perceptible ID Feature

Friday, September 12th, 2008

New watermarking application allows system operators to directly identify source of pirated signal

RESTON, Va. — Cinea, Inc., a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), today announced an Enhanced Revenue Protection extension to its Running Marks™ watermarking product to combat illegal rebroadcast and/or commercial misuse of broadcast content.

System operators lose tens of millions of dollars annually to the illegal use of their broadcast content. The Running Marks Enhanced Revenue Protection extension enables the discreet display of the set-top box identifier (STB ID), known as Perceptible ID, on the video display. The new application feature enables field inspectors to quickly identify pirated signals and strengthens system operator abilities to shut down the sources of these pirated signals.

The Running Marks Enhanced Revenue Protection extension is designed to respond to the following threats:

  1. Commercial misuse: A commercial venue (such as a pub, bar, or restaurant) uses a residential subscription, rather than a commercial subscription, to access and publicly display premium sports content. The residential subscription is significantly less expensive than a commercial subscription, and as a result, system operators lose tens of millions of dollars in annual unrealized revenue.
  2. Community or Internet rebroadcast: A legitimate user captures and rebroadcasts content illegally to nonsubscribing customers, which may number in the tens to thousands. This scenario is particularly prevalent in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe and India but is a growing threat worldwide with the availability of high-speed bandwidth to transmit content via the Internet.

The Running Marks Enhanced Revenue Protection extension illustrates a key benefit available with the Running Marks technology core asymmetric architecture. Separating the complex imageanalysis step from the simple message-insertion step enabled this new functionality. In addition, the Running Marks Inserter supports both Enhanced Revenue Protection marks as well as the established forensic marks, enabling system operators to deploy one or both types of marks within their system.

“The Running Marks Enhanced Revenue Protection extension allows system operators to directly impact their bottom line by ensuring that customers are paying what they should based on their usage,” said Rob Schumann, General Manager, Cinea. “The capabilities of the Running Marks Enhanced Revenue Protection extension meet the exacting needs of conditional access vendors and systems operators looking for advanced revenue protection tools.” Cinea will be demonstrating its product at IBC2008 in Amsterdam, September 12-16, at the Dolby stand, 2.B28.