ATEME Develops New Contribution Watermarking Solution With Viaccess-Orca; Signs MEA Distribution Agreement With IT Hospitality

Viaccess-Orca (VO), a provider of OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, and ATEME have announced a new contribution watermarking solution. In addition, the company has signed  a distribution agreement with IT Hospitality, the largest focused hospitality system integrator for the MEA region.

Viaccess-Orca
VO’s software-based dynamic watermarking technology is embedded and ready to use within IRDs and encoders from ATEME, enabling content owners and providers to precisely identify the source of video piracy leaks within various distribution channels.

Offering a pay-per-use business model, the solution removes complex pricing traditionally associated with watermarking, enabling faster technology adoption.

“Piracy is evolving. Hackers are exploiting new techniques to illegally access and redistribute video content, and the industry needs an accurate, scalable, and cost-efficient solution to identify the source of leaks,” says Mathieu Harel, product director of watermarking at Viaccess-Orca. “Collaborating with ATEME, we’ve developed a smarter method for tracking piracy: one that focuses on the full content path as opposed to just the endpoints. With our solution, content owners and providers can protect their content and revenues in a way that was never before imaginable.”

At the heart of the new solution is VO’s dynamic watermarking technology, which features multiple, dynamic algorithms with the ability to track and change watermarks in real time. As content owners distribute live content to multiple affiliates, the solution tracks its path through different channels, including satellite and IP, injecting an invisible watermark on the video at each distribution point.

The solution’s pay-per-use business model eliminates licensing, maintenance, and service fees, allowing content owners and providers to pay for contribution watermarking technology only when they use it.

“By 2022, the cost of online video piracy is expected to reach $52 billion, and this problem is only going to get worse without an effective solution,” comments Julien Mandel, solution marketing senior director at ATEME. “Teaming up with Viaccess-Orca, we’ve created a free solution that liberates content owners and providers from sizing their network so that they can focus only on tracking the path of leaks throughout the distribution workflow. Before this, content providers were limited to only identifying the endpoint of leaked content, so this solution is a real game-changer for the industry.”

IT Hospitality
Under the new agreement, IT Hospitality will provide the region’s hotel and hospital sectors with the latest integrated guest infotainment systems and services powered by ATEME’s Flamingo headend technology.

Flamingo is ATEME’s software-based IPTV head-end platform that securely delivers live and time-shifted TV and radio content captured from digital, satellite, cable, terrestrial, HDMI, IP or Web sources, to set-top boxes, connected TVs, PCs, tablets or smartphones over an IP-based, coaxial or wireless network.

In addition to enabling guests to choose from an array of live national and multi-national TV channels, Flamingo allows control and recording of TV programs for viewing at any time during their stay using their in-room TVs or on their own personal devices.

The distribution agreement builds on IT Hospitality’s long experience of installing and supporting Flamingo deployments in MEA, spanning over 10 years of collaboration. It will provide points of presence throughout the region that enable leading hotel chains, system integrators and local partners to buy ATEME’s Flamingo related products and services and access expert support and maintenance in their own language.

“Guests visiting the Middle East and Africa expect the very best in-room facilities,” says Gregory Samson, VP Business Development EMEA at ATEME. “This includes being able to enjoy their favorite TV and video content from home, on demand and in their own languages. This agreement with IT Hospitality is great news for both the region’s system integrators and hotel chains. They can now have easy access to the latest IPTV technology, backed by local support delivered by experienced specialists with a deep knowledge of the ATEME products.”

Indeed, IT Hospitality has a growing network of regional offices and service centers across Africa – including Kenya, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal – making it the only IT integrator with full Pan-African coverage.

“Having worked with Flamingo solutions for more than 10 years, we have established deep product knowledge and enjoyed an excellent, mutually beneficial relationship with ATEME,” says Olivier Hennion, Managing Director IT Hospitality. “We are delighted to have been recognized as a Flamingo specialist and are looking forward to the next phase of working together as ATEME’s distributor in MEA, helping hotels and hospitals across the region deliver exceptional in-room experiences.”