Synamedia has acquired ContentArmor, a privately held developer of forensic watermarking solutions for the media and entertainment industry.
By adding ContentArmor’s technology, patents and expertise to its portfolio of security offerings, Synamedia says it is well placed to meet video service providers’ edge and 5G security demands. Additionally, it boosts Synamedia’s anti-piracy capabilities for movie studios and sports rightsholders, across both OTT and direct-to-consumer services. The acquisition will also extend Synamedia’s reach into new markets including post-production, in-flight entertainment and enterprise video.
Synamedia anticipates a substantial market opportunity for edge watermarking, particularly to stream premium content over 5G. ContentArmor’s edge watermarking technology reduces storage and CDN bandwidth requirements by eliminating the need to duplicate video streams. It is also said to improve cache performance and speed the process of embedding the watermarks, while reducing risk by performing security-critical operations in the network rather than in the client.
ContentArmor’s forensic watermarking complies with the MovieLabs Enhanced Content Protection specification for premium VOD and UHD/4K and is already in use protecting studios’ movies by identifying the source of any unauthorised content distribution. The company also has strong partnerships with companies including Akamai, AWS and Limelight.
Alain Durand, ContentArmor CEO, will join Synamedia’s senior leadership team to help shape its security roadmap. Durand commented: “While head-end watermarking is now at the heart of any studio or service provider’s security requirements, we are primed for the future with our edge watermarking solution. By combining our high-performance technology with Synamedia’s unparalleled intelligence-led security offerings, service providers can future-proof their revenues from the menace of piracy.”
Paul Segre, Synamedia CEO, said: “ContentArmor’s expertise and investment in R&D has resulted in more than 30% growth year-on-year since its inception, along with an impressive patent portfolio. This acquisition further accelerates our industry-leading security business, with edge watermarking fueling new opportunities in the D2C streaming space and for 5G. In the security domain, our clear objective is to meet the needs of all video service providers that care about anti-piracy. The acquisition of ContentArmor strengthens that proposition.”
The ContentArmor team will continue to be based in Rennes, France, which will form a new R&D hub for Synamedia’s security and video solutions.
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