Management

Broadpeak Integrates NAGRA NexGuard Watermarking to Combat Video Streaming Piracy (SCN)

Broadpeak announced the integration of NAGRA NexGuard watermarking on Broadpeak’s BkS400 caching server to protect live and VOD content on every screen, providing a session-based watermarking solution for the video streaming market.

“Today’s pay-TV operators are increasingly relying on adaptive-bit-rate streaming to address the consumer demand for video on every screen. Yet, in the OTT multiscreen environment, illegal streaming is a major challenge,” said Jean-Philippe Plantevin, vice president, product and operations antipiracy at NAGRA. “By partnering with Broadpeak, we’re able to help operators protect their investment in premium live and VOD content without impacting the user streaming experience.”

NexGuard leverages adaptive-bit-rate streaming technology to create a unique watermark for each session on live and file-based video streams on the server side. The technology offers support for all adaptive-bit-rate formats (Apple® HLS, Microsoft® Smooth Streaming, and MPEG-DASH) and is compliant with all popular digital rights management methods. Integrating NexGuard watermarking technology on Broadpeak’s BkS400 caching server provides pay-TV operators with a fast, efficient, and scalable way to identify illegal redistribution of video content and protect their revenue streams while preserving the benefits of video caching.

NexGuard creates uniquely identified video, on the fly, that can then be streamed by operators to millions of end users on any device. If a stream is illegally redistributed, operators can easily identify the source of the piracy through the distinctive watermark attached to each piece of content.

Broadpeak and NAGRA’s joint solution offers the best trade-off between overhead quantity and speed of detection. Session-based watermarking is preintegrated in the CDN and managed at the edge in the compressed and encrypted domain, without latency or impact on the streaming capacity, for utmost scalability and content security.

“Protection is a key requirement for premium pay-TV content, especially live sports and Hollywood movies, and today’s operators need to react quickly to stop illegal streaming,” said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO at Broadpeak. “NexGuard gives operators a significant advantage in the video streaming market, leveraging state-of-the-art watermarking technology from NAGRA and our widely deployed caching server. Each stream is individually provided a watermark during the video streaming phase, allowing secure video delivery on a massive scale. That capability, along with rapid detection and identification of the piracy source, results in successful OTT service delivery.”