Finding a Lock For Video Content
Key Security Technologies Evolve To Meet Cross-Platform Demand
By Craig Kuhl -- Multichannel News, 9/9/2007 8:00:00 PM
The burgeoning number of devices carrying a wealth of content across the three-screen landscape of TVs, PCs and mobile handsets is projected to generate serious revenue streams for content and service providers, along with some equally serious security issues.
Guarding video content from piracy and assuring an acceptable average revenue per user, or ARPU, for service providers are top concerns. And there is plenty at stake.
A recent comScore study found that 123 million people in the U.S. viewed 123 billion videos online, and 6 million U.S. households had downloaded at least one digital video file from a peer-to-peer service.
And there’s more on the way, according to the Leichtman Research Group, which recently reported 1.7 million new broadband users in the second quarter of 2007.
| Keys to Security | |
|---|---|
| As more devices carry video content to more consumers, protecting content from theft and ensuring acceptable average revenue per user are top of mind for service providers and content owners. Widevine Technologies CEO Brian Baker listed four key parts to protecting content and ensuring a content service provider’s ARPU: | |
| SOURCE: Widevine Technologies |
|
| 1. | Protect content moving through the network to regional locations |
| 2. | Content protection in residences |
| 3. | Protecting content distribution from those locations to homes |
| 4. | Protecting distribution from those locations to other devices throughout the home. |
Consider Comcast’s video-on-demand numbers, for example: With nearly 23 million set-top boxes deployed, the operator makes some 9,300 VOD programs available each month and has reported more than 5 billion views since 2004. And most cable operators are showing steady growth in their VOD markets.
Just how all of this content is securely delivered to customers is prompting an arms race of sorts in the areas of content protection, digital rights management and conditional access. The result: New technologies, standards and shifting methodologies designed to better protect content distribution.
“Content security is even more important now that cable operators are playing in the PC space,” said Brian Baker, president and CEO of Widevine Technologies, a provider of content security for video operators. “There are a multitude of utilities for unauthorized use and distribution, so finding a cost effective, downloadable security system is a huge issue. We believe the solution is to deliver content to the [set-top], PC and mobile phone on a single platform.”
Developing the right content protection scheme has its challenges, Baker admitted.
“How do you support the multitude of consumer electronics devices? We’re working with chip manufacturers and retailers and using significant resources to keep on the cutting edge, and engineering a system for network transport using selected encryption and transported over any network to any device,” he said.
A key barrier to the single platform strategy, Baker cautioned, is supporting all of the devices available that can carry video content. “There are 50 to 100 different flavors of [set-top boxes], PCs and [electronic program guides], and a growing number of mobile devices.”
For Steve Oetegenn, chief sales and marketing officer for Verimatrix, a player in the video content protection space, “the challenge moving forward is the ability to deal with multiple platforms on a single network.
“Consumers want to use anything, anywhere, but we’re a ways away from that,” Oetegenn said. “Bringing all the devices together will be a challenge.”
Verimatrix developed a use-specific watermarking technology that crosses three-screens with the same watermarking security on all three screens.
“Moving from two to three screens wasn’t a leap. But moving from one to two screens was. Convincing people you can secure a PC with specific watermarking was difficult, and mobile is a follow-up. We’re addressing it by basing everything on standards, including mobile content,” he said.
For Verimatrix and others in the growing content security market, it’s now about protecting video content over three screens. Added Oetegenn: “The three-screen space is a top-of-mind issue. Current customers are asking for it, but most importantly, can they operate a solution for all three screens with one headend that provides the three screens. That’s what we’re focusing on.”
Securing video content over Internet Protocol TV is in the mix as well for content security players such as Verimatrix. “Our roots are in IPTV, so from the get-go, we’ve taken a more comprehensive approach with innovation to protect content from the camera to the couch, and not just with the set-top,” Oetegenn said. “Our approach is a combination of encryption at the point of deployment of content and using forensic watermarking to hold the user responsible. There must be a clear chain of accountability.”
A measure of accountability may have been reached with the recent announcement of CableLabs’ approval of the DTCP (Digital Transmission Copy Protection)-IP technology for protection of content delivered over IP.
Using DTCP-protected secure links among consumer electronics devices, services such as VOD and high-definition, content can be protected against unauthorized copying or Internet retransmission.
With mobile phones increasingly joining the three-screen mix, securing video content on cell phones is making safe content delivery even trickier.
“That is probably the most challenging. There is a mish-mash of handsets that need content to be de-coded,” said Whit Jackson, vice president of business development for SecureMedia, a provider of video content protection software.
“We’re partnering with companies that have 40 different handsets that deliver mobile content with MPEG-2 and 4. We’re re-encoding into four or five different forms,” Jackson continued. “When connected through the Web portal, it will identify the device and deliver the streams or content to that device. But as we open up video content to other devices, that’s where it gets challenging. So, keeping important content out of the hands of customers until they need it right away is important.”
SecureMedia recently released its Aoraki product as an addition to its Encryptonite ONE system, an open platform CA/DRM software that protects on-demand services over IP networks, the company said.
And the future is IP, Jackson insisted, so determining the best method of protecting its video content is paramount. “In the IP space, we’re encrypting 30 frames per second, and in the past six months we’ve received RFPs from major cable companies regarding the IPTV platform,” he said. “One day it will all go to IP and operators will want to go beyond the set-top and to mobile media.”
That day may still be a ways off, but for traditional set-top makers such as Motorola and Scientific Atlanta, content protection is a very real concern right now.
“There’s a fine line we walk in ensuring safe content, but allowing subscribers the freedom to file share on other platforms,” SA director of product strategy and management of home entertainment products Dave Clark said. “As we morph to enabled homes with more content, we’re looking at solutions to ensure high-valued content remains secure in the home. We’re taking content protection very seriously,”
Seriously enough to prompt SA to look beyond the set-top and to explore video content security requirements for the quad-play packages of video, voice, data and mobile.
“Who knew You Tube would be here. So, as the user experience of content grows, it’s shifting, along with the technologies that carry them, all the way down to the chips and software. Clearly, there’s a migration taking place. So, we’re moving forward with technologies such as watermarking that help deter threats. And in the IP space too. There’s equal threat to operators and content providers, so we’ll work together to find the leaks,” Clark said.
One nagging leak, he noted, is the lack of interoperability with the multitude of devices expected to carry video content.
“Interoperability will be a task, particularly from the set-top to other devices. S-A has two new boxes with more processing power and memory. But clearly, there are opportunities for hiccups. It’s a natural evolution of technology and capabilities. We’re knee-deep in other devices,” Clark said.
Content security companies such as Irdeto are wading deeper into the three-screen, multiple-device pool, prompted by the growing number of service and content providers who are finding the multidevice content market a potentially lucrative one.
But first, a workable combination of software and hardware must be in place to protect content from theft, and ensure that customers pay for what they’re getting. “The combination of software and hardware is very powerful, so the challenge is to unite that combination to protect live content,” Irdeto product manager Xenia Kwee said. “Watermarking will help determine where the content was pirated, so you protect the signal itself and encrypt the content with rights.”
Another answer, she said, is for some technologies to allow more software-based solutions such as embedding security keys in tamper-proof hardware. “It’s tamper-proof obfuscation and can’t be cloned. It’s a technology even some content owners are trusting as an alternative to hardware. And, we’re working with chip manufacturers to install security in the chips’ 'secure zones.’ We can develop a program and embed it in the secure zone of the chip,” she said.
Yet for a technology or software content protection solution to be effective, it takes a high level of operational diligence, Kwee admitted. “There will always be a need for good security procedures,” she said. “Software can’t solve everything. Much of it is how you run the operation.”
And much depends on emerging technologies taking hold. Added Kwee: “We’re seeing new capabilities in watermarking and will see more interoperability, with devices becoming more portable with WiMax, and laptops will become mobile devices. Those are the areas of interest and development for Irdeto.”
While experts concede that no system exists that can flawlessly protect video content transported across multiple devices, they also insist that barriers are collapsing.
“Any security system ultimately rests with hiding secrets. You must be able to hide identity and keys,” said Motorola vice president of strategy for video business Mark DePietro. “Once in place, the system can download other systems. And it starts with hardware that hides those identities and keys.”
Motorola, which beefed up its security presence via the recent acquisitions of Modulus Video, Terayon Communications and Tut Systems, is pushing ahead with its content protection plans.
“Operators are asking for a variety of solutions that match problems of protection. Early on, there weren’t many threats, but now they want to protect on-demand content. But with moving content around, it’s a story that hasn’t been written yet,” DePietro said.
“We recently moved to separable security, but now the game goes to adopting content for use in other environments. We need protection across multiple platforms and interfaces, so there’s a different set of specs. One size does not fit all.”
Nor are the sizes exactly equal, particularly when it comes to standards-based content protection solutions. “The world is much more complicated with all the new devices,” said Ivan Verbesselt, senior vice president of marketing for Nagravision SA, another player in the content protection field. “They can’t be tied to just one delivery network. There are many standards, which isn’t good. And the industry hasn’t developed a level playing field. Lack of interoperability, however, is probably the biggest threat to content protection.”
The basic principles of content protection, Verbesselt said, are being tested, but remain the cornerstone of any effective content security strategy. “The basic principles remain, such as smart cards. But the caveat is that they still need secure hardware in the device. So, some form factors may have changed, but not the principles. Any effective content protection system still needs a hardware root of trust,” he said.
And the trust must extend to all devices — even mobile — experts maintain. “When we built Media Room, there was an emergence of mobile players and camera phones. It was clear to us that the TV experience was changing. We concluded that TV is not an isolated island in the home and needed DRM-type products,” said Hemang Mehta, director of product management for Microsoft’s Media Room, a video content delivery system.
Microsoft’s push into the IPTV market has prompted the company to explore content protection technologies and methodologies, Mehta said.
“If IPTV is to be successful, it must have the ability to provide business rules of DRM, along with authentication. And set-tops must be secure. But the sheer size of the data requirements to rip-off audio CDs or videos like HD movies easily consumes a Gigabit or two of space per hour. That has given video providers some breathing room. But how do we make customers rightfully pay for content and over what devices? It’s a technology question and smaller steps are being taken to answer it,” Mehta said.
One step is the Europe-based Open Media Alliance. “Cell phones now have a DVR-like quality and that is grabbing the marketplace. But what happens when the content gets into the device? Operators want less burden on their operations and their viewers. That’s their biggest concern,” NDS Americas general manager Dov Rubin said.
The answer? NDS’s long-range plan uses Secure Video Processing, which uses circuitry in chips and contains decryption algorithms that are hardware-based. “So they execute at hardware speeds, while providing the needed video content protection. The trend now is portability, regardless of content,” Rubin said.
Other companies such as Conax and Latens are also moving deeper into the video content security space.
“Consumers want to buy TVs with built-in slots or PCs to receive TV. Or, they’re buying mobile devices that deliver video,” said Kwee. “The goal is to get with the operators to deploy security over existing devices.”
Particularly as service providers such as cable, telcos and satellite scramble towards the quad-play.
“It’s not TV service only anymore,” said Jim Strothmann, director of product strategy and management for home entertainment initiatives at SA. “As bundled services evolve and video becomes ubiquitous across several devices, technologies are evolving to secure content. And, customers will expect more video content over more devices, and that means key technologies will evolve.”
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