SoCs with forensic watermarking can detect content piracy

BANGALORE, INDIA: To detect unauthorized sharing of digital content, STMicroelectronics announced the integration of Civolution’s NexGuard forensic watermarking with ST’s UltraHD-4K Cannes and Monaco SoCs.

Forensic watermarking is the means by which a unique and imperceptible identifying code is inserted into a media asset, whether a movie, video or any other type of content. By adding a unique identity disseminated throughout a piece of media, that content, along with its owner, becomes identifiable.

Digital watermarks are used to enforce contractual compliance between a content owner and the intended recipient. It provides proof of misuse and a link back to the source of a leakage.

By integrating Civolution’s NexGuard with its Ultra HD-4K Cannes (STiH314/318) and Monaco (STiH414/418) SoCs, ST ensures that its leading-edge set-top box chipsets can offer a powerful deterrent against digital-content piracy.

ST’s Cannes and Monaco SoCs already support Conditional Access (CA) and Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems to enable the efficient delivery of next-generation 4K TV (broadcast and Internet) services.

The addition of Civolution’s NexGuard raises the bar to meet the MovieLabs guidelines, which require platforms distributing and playing 4K content to support encryption methods, a secure media pipeline, a hardware root of trust to protect studio content, as well as forensic watermarking to securely mark video on the server or client side to facilitate the detection and location of breaches.