4K SoCs deter piracy through forensic watermarking

Forensic watermarking is the means by which a unique and imperceptible identifying code is inserted into a media asset. 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.

To enable the efficient delivery of next-gen 4K TV (broadcast and internet) services, ST’s Cannes and Monaco SoCs already support conditional access and digital rights management systems. Civolution’s NexGuard allows ST 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.

“Civolution and ST work together to add support for the digital-watermarking solution with the powerful Cannes and Monaco SoCs for UltraHD-4K services,” said Alex Terpstra, CEO, Civolution. “We are proud to be working closely with ST to deploy our solution in the powerful Cannes and Monaco chipsets.”

“The strong adoption of ST’s Cannes and Monaco SoCs globally is the result of the powerful ARM multi-core processor-based design, incorporating superior 2D/3D graphics performance and integrated hardware Faroudja multimedia subsystem with HEVC-capable robust video decoder,” said Philippe Notton, Group Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Product Division, STMicroelectronics. “Adding Civolution’s NexGuard forensic watermarking to the Cannes/Monaco security toolbox for UltraHD-4K premium content complements the chips’ existing security capabilities and raises the bar in content-rights protection.”