ADB integrates Civolution watermarking technology

GENEVA, Switzerland — Advanced Digital Broadcast (SIX: ADBN), a leading supplier of technology to the global digital television industry, announced today that it is adding watermarking capabilities to its TV convergence solutions portfolio. ADB has integrated Civolution’s VTrack watermarking technology into its digital TV set-top boxes, thus providing operators with further means of protecting content.

“The integration of VTrack in ADB’s set-top boxes shows VTrack’s flexibility in integrating with different platforms ranging from cable, satellite, terrestrial to IPTV. VTrack is a robust and easy to integrate solution,” said Alex Terpstra, CEO of Civolution. “Now with the increased availability of high definition and early release content, the (camera) capture and distribution of high quality content copies is a new threat requiring fast, efficient and cost-effective solutions,” concluded Terpstra.

Using Civolution’s VTrack solution, ADB’s set-top boxes are embedding a unique watermark into video material each time an on-demand program is distributed, enabling content owners to identify the source of any potential copies. The VTrack watermark will survive camcorder-capture and subsequent degradation of the content through internet usage.

“ADB is proud to be one of the first set-top box companies to integrate such a solution onto its products,” comments Francois Pogodalla, CEO of ADB.

“Considering the development of home networking, which enables content to flow freely between multiple consumer devices, ADB believes that the industry will welcome our efforts to offer an extra layer of content protection, in addition to today’s conditional access solutions.”