The ubiquitous access to fast broadband has provided the unintended consequence of enabling content piracy through illegal re-streaming. At this year’s NAB Show, I’m looking forward to seeing increased interest in protecting content, particularly for the latest industry standards such as 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR). It will be particularly interesting to see how this has an effect with multiscreen content consumption being as commonplace as it is with the help of increasing digitization – from eScreeners through to premium content such as internationally acclaimed productions and sports up to 4K.

At booth #SU3424, we will show our complete forensic watermarking product portfolio for eScreeners, PayTV Set-Top-Boxes and pre-release UHD content with HDR, and demonstrate how our solutions can trace the source of illegal redistribution, regardless of location and extraction method, to help broadcasters, payTV operators and content producers protect their most valuable assets at every step of the content chain.

Pirates continue to get smarter at illegally obtaining, saving, sharing and streaming content as they benefit from new distribution tools, most notably ubiquitous access to broadband, which makes illegal redistribution an increasingly tangible threat. Therefore, we believe the content protection arsenal will become much stronger to combat the potential invasion of tech-savvy pirates and will cover the entire delivery chain to ensure the content industry secures its revenue more effectively. We are already seeing the market mature with the latest MovieLabs specifications for enhanced content protection (www.movielabs.com) enforcing the use of forensic watermarking for any service providing premium studio content outside of the United States, and we expect our solutions to continue to gain traction moving forward.

4K and HDR, without question will continue to trend at NAB. Higher quality content and new types of content provide both new challenges and opportunities for the pirates, so it is imperative that content protection solutions are in place before 4K becomes a mainstream commercial reality. With major premium sporting events on the horizon that will be streamed in 4K like the Olympics and the UEFA European Championships, the whole content industry needs to address this threat now. It is clear that the industry continues to take steps to implement robust content protection systems. Alongside all major Hollywood studios, we work with original content producers such as AMC Networks (www.nexguard.com) to help them track the illicit redistribution of their content before it is aired, and a number of players involved in the delivery of content – hardware providers such as ATEME (stand SU4402); and content protection specialists such as Conax (SU4321) and NAGRA (Renaissance Hotel), a Kudelski Company; as well as Intertrust (www.nexguard.com) (SU10002CM). In the coming days, we will be announcing more partners, so you’ll be able to see us throughout the show floor.

I will be taking part in the “Future of Broadcasting” panel organized by NAB Show Live on Thursday, April 21st between 10:30 and 10:55am, which will feature speakers from all parts of the industry to discuss the next big trends providing opportunities and challenges.

NAB Show continues to be one of the biggest shows for us every year, and we always make sure to bring our most advanced product portfolio. Last year, we were still represented under the Civolution umbrella, alongside our TV synced advertising product portfolio that is now part of a data science company called 4C. Our aim this year, therefore, is to be solely focused on our core forensic watermarking business that is deployed by companies such as the major Hollywood studios and original TV content producers worldwide, much of which contributed to our recent Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award (www.nexguard.com).