CASPER
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IPTV demands on CAS getting more sophisticated
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Conditional-access systems are not just for stopping illegal access to video content anymore. There is a growing demand for their developers to function as overall system integrators providing turnkey solutions — especially advanced services for IPTV. Mike Feazel reports ...
Increasingly, IPTV operators are asking that their conditional-access systems (CAS) include modules for management, such as information management systems (IMS), subscriber management systems (SMS), smart cards and interactive applications. In fact, CAS developers are increasingly asked to function as overall system integrators, providing turnkey solutions with all the required management modules.
The rapidly-growing IPTV market is also putting heavier requirements on CAS — mainly in handling the extreme bandwidth required and the throughput rates, as well as providing the required reliability, industry officials say. Perhaps more importantly, CAS must allow the system operator to recognise and gather information on the viewer, allowing operators to utilise the information in their marketing efforts, such as relevant targeted advertising, they suggest.
Clearly, the market for IPTV CAS is growing. The number of worldwide IPTV subscribers more than doubled last year to 12.3 million, according to UK-based business intelligence provider Informa Telecoms and Media.
Over half of all IPTV subscribers are in Europe, but the Asia-Pacific region is catching up fast. China alone has about one million IPTV subscribers, excluding Hong Kong, Informa notes. In Harbin and Shanghai, for example, the IPTV-subscription rate for SMG has *increased more than nine-fold.
However, Informa reveals that the rest of the country probably trails Hong Kong, which passed the one-millionth mark in IPTV subscription by a slight margin last September. The intelligence provider has called Hong Kong “the world’s most mature IPTV market”, delivering digital video to more than 60% of all DSL subscribers.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Alticast is gearing up for its own IPTV service, after agreeing to use Sun Microsystems’ digital rights management (DRM) technology. Sun’s DRM Everywhere Available (DReaM) is an open-source system designed to control access to programming, with billing and purchasing handled through downloadable open-source CAS technology.
Like many others, the Sun DReaM uses AES encryption, originally developed for the US military. Its encrypted keys are sent with the content, and paired with a public key after entitlement messages are received.
Sun boasts a fully-integrated end-to-end infrastructure that includes the Sun Streaming System, Digisoft.tv applications, IMake software, and Veri*matrix security systems.
Meanwhile, Irdeto is making inroads into India by signing a deal with Bangalore-based cable operator Atria Convergence Technologies to begin a 30-month roll-out of its CAS technology.
“Irdeto’s scalable content- and revenue-protection platform was the deciding factor in the evaluation process,” says an Atria official. “Its end-to-end content security offerings and variety of business models fit well with our business needs, and will set a solid foundation in meeting our future DTV development.”
Irdeto announced in June this year that China’s Hebei Broadcasting and Xinjiang Broadcast and Television have chosen its security system. The deals require the content-security provider to deliver more than two million smart cards over the next 24 months for installation in the two Chinese provinces.
“Piracy is an ongoing battle,” says Hebei Broadcast, which chose Irdeto’s CAS because of its seven-year record untainted by piracy-related smart-card swaps.
The deal came on the heels of a March announcement that Irdeto would provide CAS to one million Shanxi Cable subscri*bers, as the operator migrates from older Irdeto CryptoWorks technology to the Irdeto DTV CAS security system.
Irdeto recently opened a new office in Tokyo, Japan, to strengthen its *presence in the Asia-Pacific, where it already has offices in Singapore, Thailand, China, India, South *Korea and Australia.
Meanwhile, Taiwan-based ZyXEL Communications is partnering Belfast-based Latens to offer low-cost, highly secure IP/hybrid set-top-box (STB) technology, designed to ease IPTV launches. The partnership incorporates the Irish company’s content- and revenue-security technology into the ZyXEL STB-1003 and STB-1001H systems.
The partnership “enhances the abilities to provide IPTV operators with a highly secure, flexi*ble platform on which to deploy advanced services now and in the future,” says Herman Chen, assistant vice-president of ZyXEL’s IPTV product division. Among other things, he adds, it will allow easy upgrades without disrupting service in the future.
Latens’ CAS technology is software-based, replacing proprietary smart cards or static hardware/software combinations. The company’s officials maintain that the technology is also designed to start with a modest investment, but can be scaled up easily towards larger installations.
For Nagravision, the key is the NagraCard smart card, which provides the essential “barrier” to protect video and other content from unauthorised access. The card can also function as a security platform for interactive applications such as online shopping, games, banking transactions and payments. To meet those demands, Nagravision has increased the memory capacity of the NagraCard and added new software that can handle tasks, including e-commerce, electronic signatures and interactive ser*vices.
The company’s IPTV CAS even allows the delivery of services such as start-over, time shifting, and catch-up TV, as well as a recommendation engine for targeted advertising. It also supports e-mail, messaging and chatting applications, as well as emergency alert services and on-screen caller ID.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Conditional-access systems are not just for stopping illegal access to video content anymore. There is a growing demand for their developers to function as overall system integrators providing turnkey solutions — especially advanced services for IPTV. Mike Feazel reports ...
Increasingly, IPTV operators are asking that their conditional-access systems (CAS) include modules for management, such as information management systems (IMS), subscriber management systems (SMS), smart cards and interactive applications. In fact, CAS developers are increasingly asked to function as overall system integrators, providing turnkey solutions with all the required management modules.
The rapidly-growing IPTV market is also putting heavier requirements on CAS — mainly in handling the extreme bandwidth required and the throughput rates, as well as providing the required reliability, industry officials say. Perhaps more importantly, CAS must allow the system operator to recognise and gather information on the viewer, allowing operators to utilise the information in their marketing efforts, such as relevant targeted advertising, they suggest.
Clearly, the market for IPTV CAS is growing. The number of worldwide IPTV subscribers more than doubled last year to 12.3 million, according to UK-based business intelligence provider Informa Telecoms and Media.
Over half of all IPTV subscribers are in Europe, but the Asia-Pacific region is catching up fast. China alone has about one million IPTV subscribers, excluding Hong Kong, Informa notes. In Harbin and Shanghai, for example, the IPTV-subscription rate for SMG has *increased more than nine-fold.
However, Informa reveals that the rest of the country probably trails Hong Kong, which passed the one-millionth mark in IPTV subscription by a slight margin last September. The intelligence provider has called Hong Kong “the world’s most mature IPTV market”, delivering digital video to more than 60% of all DSL subscribers.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Alticast is gearing up for its own IPTV service, after agreeing to use Sun Microsystems’ digital rights management (DRM) technology. Sun’s DRM Everywhere Available (DReaM) is an open-source system designed to control access to programming, with billing and purchasing handled through downloadable open-source CAS technology.
Like many others, the Sun DReaM uses AES encryption, originally developed for the US military. Its encrypted keys are sent with the content, and paired with a public key after entitlement messages are received.
Sun boasts a fully-integrated end-to-end infrastructure that includes the Sun Streaming System, Digisoft.tv applications, IMake software, and Veri*matrix security systems.
Meanwhile, Irdeto is making inroads into India by signing a deal with Bangalore-based cable operator Atria Convergence Technologies to begin a 30-month roll-out of its CAS technology.
“Irdeto’s scalable content- and revenue-protection platform was the deciding factor in the evaluation process,” says an Atria official. “Its end-to-end content security offerings and variety of business models fit well with our business needs, and will set a solid foundation in meeting our future DTV development.”
Irdeto announced in June this year that China’s Hebei Broadcasting and Xinjiang Broadcast and Television have chosen its security system. The deals require the content-security provider to deliver more than two million smart cards over the next 24 months for installation in the two Chinese provinces.
“Piracy is an ongoing battle,” says Hebei Broadcast, which chose Irdeto’s CAS because of its seven-year record untainted by piracy-related smart-card swaps.
The deal came on the heels of a March announcement that Irdeto would provide CAS to one million Shanxi Cable subscri*bers, as the operator migrates from older Irdeto CryptoWorks technology to the Irdeto DTV CAS security system.
Irdeto recently opened a new office in Tokyo, Japan, to strengthen its *presence in the Asia-Pacific, where it already has offices in Singapore, Thailand, China, India, South *Korea and Australia.
Meanwhile, Taiwan-based ZyXEL Communications is partnering Belfast-based Latens to offer low-cost, highly secure IP/hybrid set-top-box (STB) technology, designed to ease IPTV launches. The partnership incorporates the Irish company’s content- and revenue-security technology into the ZyXEL STB-1003 and STB-1001H systems.
The partnership “enhances the abilities to provide IPTV operators with a highly secure, flexi*ble platform on which to deploy advanced services now and in the future,” says Herman Chen, assistant vice-president of ZyXEL’s IPTV product division. Among other things, he adds, it will allow easy upgrades without disrupting service in the future.
Latens’ CAS technology is software-based, replacing proprietary smart cards or static hardware/software combinations. The company’s officials maintain that the technology is also designed to start with a modest investment, but can be scaled up easily towards larger installations.
For Nagravision, the key is the NagraCard smart card, which provides the essential “barrier” to protect video and other content from unauthorised access. The card can also function as a security platform for interactive applications such as online shopping, games, banking transactions and payments. To meet those demands, Nagravision has increased the memory capacity of the NagraCard and added new software that can handle tasks, including e-commerce, electronic signatures and interactive ser*vices.
The company’s IPTV CAS even allows the delivery of services such as start-over, time shifting, and catch-up TV, as well as a recommendation engine for targeted advertising. It also supports e-mail, messaging and chatting applications, as well as emergency alert services and on-screen caller ID.
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