IBC 2018: Nagra launches TVkey Cloud and content compression technology

NAGRA (stand, 1.C81) has made multiple announcements at IBC 2018:

NAGRA and Samsung launch TVkey Cloud Internet-based Smart TV security for premium pay-TV

NAGRA with Samsung Electronics announced the launch of TVkey Cloud, the next generation Enhanced Content Protection for Smart TVs equipped with market proven TVkey hardware-based root of trust.

TVkey Cloud builds upon the existing TVkey specification deployed in the market today. While the TVkey system using external USB dongles is the reference for “one way” broadcast pay-TV solutions, the increased availability of Internet-connected Smart TVs opens up exciting new possibilities to combine the security capabilities of the TVkey embedded hardware in the TV with sophisticated security management systems in the cloud.

TVkey Cloud is open to a wide ecosystem of industry players, including conditional access vendors and TV manufacturers, and complies with MovieLabs requirements for Enhanced Content Protection of 4K Ultra HD, HDR, and early release content. Samsung will launch the first TVkey Cloud in its 2019 lineup of Smart TVs.

“With TVkey Cloud, we are enabling impulse purchase of pay-TV content on any Samsung Smart TV without requiring any additional hardware, lowering the subscription costs and removing entry barriers,” says Maurice Van Riek, SVP Content and Asset Security for NAGRA. “Consumers will be able to activate their pay-TV services instantly as part of the initial TV set-up, making it even easier than ever to access pay-TV services and enjoy their favorite programming on their new Samsung TV set. At the same time, it enables a no-CAPEX business model that gives service providers a cost-optimized path to a premium service.”

All new TVkey Cloud Smart TVs are fully compatible with TVkey USB dongles and will for the first time, allow consumers to immediately access premium broadcast content on their new Smart TV through a TV app with the ease of access as the established OTT service providers.

NAGRA’s IBC 2018 showcase will feature the complete line of NAGRA content value protection solutions and include the TVkey product line, NAGRA Anti-Piracy Services, and NexGuard watermarking from 14-18 September.

OpenTV Signature Edition enriches the Android TV user experience with world’s first multi-journey content discovery

NAGRA also announced comprehensive support for Android TV with an end-to-end user experience ecosystem.

Having successfully launched 15 Android device deployments since 2014, delivering rich OTT and hybrid TV services to more than ten million consumer devices worldwide, NAGRA has now included Android TV into its broad and versatile end-to-end solution portfolio for pay-TV service providers.

OpenTV Signature Edition, NAGRA’s pre-integrated and ready-to-launch OTT solution offering a coherent experience across a wide range of consumer devices, now also features an Android TV Operator Tier solution enabling easy onboarding of apps and SVOD services in a unique and operator-branded user experience.

“Operating within an end-to-end TV framework like OpenTV Signature Edition, an Android TV-based solution offers pay-TV operators a compelling TV experience that engages consumers and drives active content monetisation,” adds Holger Ippach, Senior Vice President, User Experience Product Unit for NAGRA. “We have been successfully embracing Android for mobile devices and tablets for years, and now with support for Android TV, we can help our customers benefit from everything it has to offer.”

Leveraging NAGRA’s comprehensive multi-device and multi-network service, device and app protection technologies, OpenTV Signature Edition, NAGRA’s ready-to-deploy, always evolved OTT TV ecosystem, offers an end-to-end solution framework that enables effective content and service monetization with Android TV.

OpenTV Signature Edition is designed to maximise content value, while optimising the experience – not just for the viewer but also in deployment and operations. It delivers a unified, intuitive and seamless user experience across all screens through the world’s first multi-journey user interface that elegantly blends both traditional and modern navigation paths to linear and on-demand content, translating today’s fragmented content landscape into a unified and gratifying viewing experience.

NAGRA myCinema Announces World’s First Use of h.265/HEVC Compression in Digital Cinema
In addition, NAGRA announced a world-first in the history of digital cinema with the successful use of cloud technology and HEVC compression with myCinema, a cloud-based Content as a Service (CaaS) that brings together content creators, cinema owners, and movie lovers to enjoy exciting entertainment.

Emagine Entertainment, a U.S. movie theater circuit and myCinema exhibition licensee, collaborated in the deployment of the NAGRA technology at its Royal Oak Cinema in Detroit, with the presentation of the first-run movie Ideal Home starring Paul Rudd, earlier this summer.

The new technology milestone makes use of robust content distribution technologies and security components from NAGRA’s cloud-based OTT streaming and Security Services platforms to provide a significant reduction in content distribution and storage costs for cinema owners while improving the content’s visual quality. NAGRA’s DVnor post-production media asset management services provide the myCinema CaaS with secure and quality-controlled h.265/HEVC compressed movies and special event programming directly to cinema projection rooms.

“This is the first-time audiences have enjoyed a feature length film leveraging advanced digital compression technology via a NAGRA-secured myCinema theater premise equipment (TPE),” says Jean-Luc Jezouin, SVP Business Development at NAGRA. “The plug-and-play experience of the myCinema solution offers a significant leap in digital cinema distribution technology, alleviating enormous costs experienced with traditional Digital Cinema Prints (DCP).”

“Since the successful launch of myCinema at CinemaCon 2018, NAGRA has licensed dozens of myCinema exhibition partners, representing more than 200 cinema properties,” adds Jezouin. “To complete this exciting new era of technological innovation we have licensed the cinematic distribution rights for first-run movies, alternative content, foreign language films, esports, live play, opera, and other offerings. This new cloud-based distribution system offers an innovative way forward delivering tangible ROI for theaters from a continually growing database of content.”

myCinema enables owners and operators to schedule and promote music events, sporting events, opera, ballet, Broadway, first-run independent film, re-releases of some of the best known and beloved film franchises, cinematic TV, eSports, content from around the globe, and more. myCinema is ramping up its content portfolio and currently accepting bookings for an extensive content line-up, which includes The Landing, an award-winning science fiction thriller about the Apollo 18 crash, and a trio of Spanish-language films.

NAGRA Provides Support for Cignal TV, Android TV
Lastly, NAGRA announced comprehensive support for Android TV with an end-to-end content value protection ecosystem.

Following a strong track record of successful Android TV deployments, including Euskaltel in Spain, Canal Digital in Norway, Linknet in Indonesi, and SkyLife in Korea all benefiting from its advanced content security solution, NAGRA has now expanded the support for Android TV by leveraging its comprehensive end-to-end Content Value Protection ecosystem all driven from cloud.SSP, its cloud-enabled Security Services Platform.

“We have deployed secure Android multiscreen solutions for several years. NAGRA Connect’s unique capability to elegantly and pragmatically adapt to the device security infrastructure makes it a natural fit for the inherently diverse Android device ecosystem,” says Van Riek. “Today, service providers planning an Android TV deployment can leverage NAGRA’s complete, end-to-end ecosystem to guard against any type of threat and vulnerability.”

NAGRA Connect, the award-winning converged CAS/DRM client solution for connected set-top boxes and smart televisions, protecting broadcast, IPTV and operator-controlled OTT, leverages a unique adaptive security paradigm to protect any content, on any network and any device. NAGRA Connect complies with MovieLabs’ Enhanced Content Protection (ECP) requirements for 4K Ultra HD content and leverages the MediaCAS API to elegantly blend into the Android TV client ecosystem, a feature broadly supported across the security clients of NAGRA and Conax product lines.

Combining NAGRA CONNECT’s multi-device, multi-network service, device, and app protection technologies, NexGuard’s Hollywood-approved forensic marking techniques and a comprehensive suite of anti-piracy services, the cloud-enabled NAGRA Security Services Platform provides the industry’s most complete and robust security framework, including multi-DRM support, for service providers and content owners. It enables them to protect, mark, monitor and act against pirates to defend their revenues against theft.

NAGRA’s anti-piracy services address the entire intelligence-monitoring-identification-reaction flow and utilize scalable automated online detection powered by advanced forensic marking technologies and backed up by an extensive range of legal and technical shutdown mechanisms to quickly and decisively react to broadly protect the pay-TV service provider’s business.

When all these technologies and services are used together, NAGRA offers a holistic system that provides the ultimate protection for a TV service against loss of revenue and brand reputation, enriching the Android TV ecosystem with the highest level of content security in the market.

NAGRA’s IBC 2018 showcase will feature the complete line of NAGRA content value protection solutions and include the TVkey product line, NAGRA Anti-Piracy Services, and NexGuard watermarking from 14-18 September.