Watermarking video in STBs for forensic tracking with Dolby's Cinea Running Marks

Cinea, a division of Dolby Laboratories, has created Running Marks, a unique solution that offers architectural, integration and performance benefits for implementing forensic watermarking in an STB.

What is forensic watermarking?
Forensic watermarking is the embedding of unique and traceable information (similar to a product serial number) into video streams, so that the STB playing or forwarding the stream can be identified.

How has forensic watermarking been used?
Watermarking was first applied in professional applications, such as in film postproduction to protect works in progress. Watermarking was also used with great effectiveness to protect pre-release and awards screeners. A number of individuals pirating those screeners were prosecuted based on evidence gathered from forensic watermarks. More recently, watermarks have been made part of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) specification and are deployed with each digital cinema installation. In addition, the Blu-ray Disc specification includes forensic watermarking by way of BD+.

Why is it needed?
Content owners are beginning to make content available to system operators in earlier windows than ever before. The threat of piracy puts downstream revenues at greater risk now. Watermarking reduces that risk by providing a means of tracking the piracy back to its source. As a result, content owners are making watermarking a requirement in the consumer market.

What are the key requirements for STB watermarking?

• The system must mark all premium content leaving any STB output, including HDMI, IP, and IEEE 1394.
• The system must work anywhere in the system operator's domain -- at each individual customer's STB and at infrastructure devices (such as a central VOD server).
• The system must operate within the secure perimeter of the STB device in order to leverage the security features native to the STB.
• The system must be deployable into existing STB units.
• The system must not require additional system resources within the STB.
• The system performance must scale as the number of video streams being simultaneously received and stored by the STB increases over time.
• The system should not contain intelligence about the watermarking techniques that might help pirates hack the watermarking system.
• The system must be easily renewed if it is compromised.