IBC 2017: Telestream, NexGuard announce key updates to joint solution

NexGuard, a Kudelski Group company and the provider of forensic watermarking technology solutions and Telestream, have announced a number of key updates to their joint solution, including enhanced scalability and automation of watermarking, support for multi-layer watermarking workflows, and audio watermarking into Telestream’s Vantage V7 Media Processing Platform.

The joint solution combines the entire NexGuard forensic watermarking audio and video System Development Kit (SDK) and Manager API and support for multi-layer workflows with Telestream’s Vantage V7 Media Processing Platform. Leveraging Telestream’s capture and ingest, encoding, transcoding and inspection for content up to Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range (HDR), the solution supports hundreds of formats and devices. In addition, it is fitted with robust content ingest, providing accelerated multiscreen and OTT encoding and support for a full range of adaptive bitrate formats, including support for Microsoft, Adobe, Apple HLS and MPEG-DASH.

To ensure the highest level of flexibility, it also provides automation and orchestration of the entire workflow. The joint solution expands on the integration of NexGuard forensic watermarking into Telestream’s encoders in 2016.

“Today’s media industry needs robust solutions that can adapt to any workflow – from production to the end user – without compromising on quality or content protection,” says Paul Turner, Vice President of Enterprise Product Management at Telestream. “Working with NexGuard has enabled us to develop a solution that meets one of today’s largest challenges – securing content at every step of the value chain, however it is transcoded, wherever it is delivered and even after it has reached its final destination.”

New for IBC 2017, the solution has been extended to include:

• Full integration of the NexGuard Manager with Telestream Vantage V7: Users of the joint solution can easily scale up their use of forensic watermarking on pre-theatrical and pre-aired content, and store all their NexGuard watermarking job metadata in a centralized database for a 360-degree view of all watermarking activities.
• Support for multi-layer watermarking: Up to three levels of NexGuard “G2” watermark layers can be embedded in any given pre-release or pre-aired piece of content by using different watermarking keys, which do not affect the robustness and imperceptibility of the watermarks. This feature enables watermarks to be embedded at the ingest and outgest of post-production workflows.
• Support for audio watermarking: The combination of audio and video watermarking enhances the content protection on short form content, like movie trailers and teasers.

“The integration of audio and video forensic watermarking into media processing platforms is essential in today’s fast-paced, multi-versioned media landscape,” says Harrie Tholen, Managing Director at NexGuard. “By working with Telestream, we ensure that we consistently provide the best quality of content protection for all workflows and resolutions. Visitors to our stand at IBC will be able to see how this enables them to confidently manage high value content from production to delivery, safe in the knowledge it’s always fully protected.”

NexGuard forensic watermarking adds a unique, invisible identifier to video content. The watermark remains with the content, even in the case of transcoding, resizing, downscaling, recording by camcorder or any other alteration before illegal re-distribution. The enhanced integration of NexGuard forensic watermarking into Telestream’s Vantage is debuting at IBC 2017 on NAGRA and NexGuard stand #1.C81, and Telestream stand #7.B26.