NexGuard and Nevion partner to identify distributions paths of live broadcasts with Network ID watermarking

IBC, Amsterdam RAI – September 15, 2017 – NexGuard, a Kudelski company and the leading provider of forensic watermarking technology and solutions, and Nevion today announced their collaboration to implement the Network ID product, which will debut at IBC 2017 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands on September 14-19, 2017).

NexGuard’s Network ID solution inserts a unique invisible and robust forensic watermark in primary distribution feeds for linear TV, be it satellite, cable or fiber. The watermark provides clear evidence of the distribution path to determine the source of illegally distributed signals (e.g. for live sports broadcasts). This allows the content owner to focus their anti-piracy efforts on the sources of significant piracy. The Network ID watermark also serves as proof of ownership to enable the take down of pirated streams (e.g. from social media).

The Network ID solution has been designed for today’s global mission critical broadcast systems and has already been integrated in some of Nevion’s media nodes, which are widely used by broadcasters and service providers across the world, both for production and distribution applications. The Network ID functionality allowing the media nodes to insert the watermark into the signals in real-time before forwarding these onto the transport network.

Andy Rayner, Chief Technologist, at Nevion explained: “Nevion equipment is trusted by leading broadcasters and service providers across the globe to transport broadcast signals reliably and securely in real-time over considerable distances. Almost every significant live sport event relies on Nevion equipment for example. It makes total sense for us to work closely with NexGuard to implement their Network ID solution into our media equipment to provide our customers with even greater security for their valuable content.”

Harrie Tholen, Managing Director at NexGuard, said: “Tracing illicit content activity is a necessary and critical first step in fighting today’s greatest piracy challenges, such as the illegal re-distribution of live sports. NexGuard is honored to be working with Nevion to provide a solution that is pre-integrated with today’s TV & Media industry workflows. Network ID offers a clear indication of the sources of piracy, so that rights holders can focus their anti-piracy efforts where it matters.”

Based on the world’s leading forensic watermark
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 Network ID watermark can be detected through the NexGuard online detection portal, a scalable, automated detection service. As a complement to Network ID, NexGuard’s sister company NAGRA offers a comprehensive set of global anti-piracy monitoring & take-down services for Web, IPTV/Kodi and social media piracy.

Network ID will make its debut at IBC 2017 via demos hosted on NAGRA and NexGuard stand #1.C81, and Nevion stand #1.B71.