Video Breakthroughs

Further reinforcing the digital content ecosystem’s roster of technology support, Motorola Mobility’s SecureMedia content protection has been approved by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) for streaming UltraViolet content. Now, service providers using SecureMedia can offer subscribers ready access to their UltraViolet digital entertainment collections anytime, anywhere and on any device.

SecureMedia is extending the purchasing, collecting and sharing content in the cloud experience to consumers’ favourite connected devices by giving service providers a way to encrypt and process UltraViolet content in compliance with DECE’s specifications for streaming content protection.

Rovi Corp.’s DivX streaming format has been approved by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) for streaming use with UltraViolet.

DECE is the industry-wide consortium behind the digital locker service. The approval allows DivX Plus Streaming to be used by UltraViolet retailers to deliver over-the-top video streaming video that adjusts itself based on available bandwidth, and supports 1080p, subtitles and multiple language tracks.

castLabs, a leading mobile video technologies and services company, today announces that the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) has selected the castLabs UltraViolet Download Service Provider (DSP) for use in the UltraViolet Compliance Verification Programme (CVP). As implementations of UltraViolet-licensed devices and media players (“UltraViolet Players”) become ready, DECE will use castLabs’ reference DSP to verify UltraViolet Players’ specification compliance.

At first glance, I thought UltraViolet was just what I needed to put my movie collection online. I was wrong.

UltraViolet sounded good. "UltraViolet is DVD for the Internet. Just as the DVD logo means that you can buy a DVD from any seller and expect it to play in any player with a DVD logo (DVD players, DVD PCs, DVD entertainment systems in automobiles, and so on), the UltraViolet logo means you can buy UltraViolet movies from any seller, keep track of your 'online locker' or 'virtual collection' of movies, and expect them to play on anything with the UltraViolet logo (PCs, tablets, smartphones, Blu-ray players, cable set-top boxes, and so on)."

Oh well, lots of things sound good at first.

The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium has reacted quickly to the growing momentum behind the recently published MPEG-DASH HTTP adaptive streaming standard by incorporating it within the latest version of its specification.

The consortium believes that, with the HTTP adaptive streaming support, it now has all the key ingredients for deployment of hybrid TV services combining broadcast with web content and interactive services. This is significant not just because it enables broadcasters to deliver content at higher quality over the Internet as part of hybrid services based on HbbTV, but also because it increases options for content protection. MPEG-DASH uses the Common Encryption Scheme (CENC) specifying standard encryption and key mapping methods that can be used by one or more Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.

It operates with a common format for the encryption related metadata necessary to decrypt the protected streams, therefore enabling content to be encrypted just once for handling in principle by any DRM. This support for multiple DRMs is a key requirement for multi-screen services deployed to a variety of device platforms that may have different protection mechanisms for content.

Deluxe Digital Distribution is expanding its video catalog service, which encodes videos to enable viewing across multiple devices, to cover the needs of over-the-top (OTT) video providers and to enable use with UltraViolet.

Deluxe On Demand provides access to tens of thousands of pre-encoded and pre-encrypted movie and TV titles in more than 50 formats, allowing users to access content on set-tops, PCs, Apple and Android devices, gaming consoles and connected HDTVs.

It is possible to overstate the complexity of multi-screen video, but the absolute number and types of display devices are indeed increasing, which means that efforts to promote standards and greater simplicity address a live concern. A current initiative, playing out within the MPEG-DASH Industry Forum, among other places, to enable digital rights management (DRM) interoperability is a case in point.

Building his case for a common downloadable DRM framework that is independent of but compatible with CE devices of all shapes and sizes, Tranter (VP at NDS, now part of Cisco) names three standards that could play a foundational role, namely:

* Simulcrypt—the long-standing DVB protocol published by ETSI used to enable multiple key management systems;
* MPEG-DASH—Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), which became an ISO standard in late 2011; and
* UltraViolet—an authentication and cloud-based rights system deployed over the past few years by a consortium of studios, manufacturers and service providers.

With EDC Private Cloud, Jeff Malkin, president of Encoding.com, says his company has solved the problem of premium content, finally bringing cloud encoding to major players. The solution includes fast and secure file ingest and upload (with partner Aspera), high-end processors, and vast storage. One key advantage is EDC Private Cloud's ability to move files quickly: Malkin says it can move files five to six times faster than Amazon can from S3 to EC2.

EDC Private Cloud offers Dolby Surround Sound audio, Widevine DRM, and UltraViolet compatibility.

Besides winning on speed, Malkin asserts that EDC Private Cloud, which uses an automated workflow, also wins on price. In its beta period, he says, it won RFPs with Synacor and Midwest Tape, turning in prices that are 20 percent of current market pricing.

The UltraViolet initiative has given a boost to the notion of cloud-based digital lockers as the route to secure multiscreen on-demand availability. But does the concept make sense for pay TV operators? Anna Tobin reports.

Keeping your content in a virtual ‘cloud’ that can be accessed any time, any place on any audiovisual device is no longer the stuff of pipe dreams. It can be done. The technology is there; and it’s now so intuitive that it won’t take long for consumers, whatever their age, to find their way around it either. What everyone is trying to work out is how it can be done securely and therefore profitably. And, in most cases, it’s content rights that are causing the problems.

Unless it’s his or her own content, the consumer only owns or has the right to view the content he or she buys for ‘anytime, anywhere’ viewing with restrictions. They can only access their ‘cloud library’ on a set number of authorised devices and in authorised territories. And too many restrictions will slow down the mass-market roll out of ‘whenever, wherever’ initiatives and make things incredibly messy.

DTS, Inc. will showcase its premium audio technology in the South Hall at the 2012 NAB Show, April 16-19 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Visitors to booth SU7619 will experience an array of exhibits showcasing DTS' end-to-end solutions and high-quality audio integrations into content authoring tools for UltraViolet, IPTV, and digital delivery. Specifically, the DTS booth will feature:

- Tools in support of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem's (DECE) UltraViolet standard:

* Digital Rapids Transcode Manager 2.0 powered by Kayak

* Elemental Server from Elemental Technologies-transcodes file-based content to DECE Ultraviolet CFF format

* Rovi TotalCode Professional encoding solution-integrates DTS Express with output files including MP4 and UltraViolet CFF

* DTS-HD MediaPlayer enables audio and video quality control playback of UltraViolet compatible CFF files

- Tools for digital delivery and broadcast IPTV...

At NAB2012, Elemental will demonstrate features and functionality recently implemented in Elemental’s software engine:

- Encoding of multiple video streams using the new MPEG-DASH streaming protocol, with support for both ISO FF and MPEG-2 profiles (VOD and live content)

- DECE Ultraviolet asset creation for secure and ubiquitous digital content distribution

- Audio loudness management that enables compliance with the CALM Act (VOD and live content)

- Advanced decoding functionality for professional codecs including J2K, ProRes, and AVC-I

- Decoding and encoding for 4K TVs, the Retina screen on the new iPad, and other devices capable of greater than 1080p display

- Expanded support for closed captioning and subtitles including teletext, DVB subtitles and TTML

With the number of devices supporting IP video continues to expand, content creators are seeking ways to reach consumers on as many screens and as many devices as possible. That’s the impetus behind cable’s TV Everywhere initiative, as well as Hollywood’s new UltraViolet video format. In order to cater to these customers, Akamai is rolling out new capabilities to its HD Network for video distribution that will make it even easier for content owners to securely distribute content to nearly any device.