Enhance Streaming Security with Forensic Watermarking and AI-based Upscaling

Protecting Streaming Content: Enhancing Security economically in the IPTV and OTT Era

With the exponential growth of IPTV and OTT services, the advantages they offer over traditional set-top boxes (STBs) are becoming increasingly evident. From content mobility to potential cost savings and a broad content selection, these streaming platforms have revolutionised the way we consume media. The OTT and IPTV streaming markets have witnessed a steady growth trajectory, fuelled by the expansion of broadband infrastructure, advancements in streaming technologies, and evolving consumer preferences. According to various industry reports, the global IPTV market is expected to exceed USD 120 billion by 2027, demonstrating a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 15%. Similarly, the global OTT services market is forecasted to surge from $44.54 billion in 2021 to an estimated $139.00 billion by 2028, registering an impressive CAGR of 17.7% during the forecast period.

Ref – https://www.digitaltvnews.net/?p=37263

However, ensuring the protection of content while maintaining video streaming quality without buffering issues in this digital landscape remains a top priority. In this blog, we will explore how content security & video quality enhancement can be simultaneously achieved for video streaming using forensic watermarking solutions combined with edge AI technology called Fovea Stream.

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The Role of Forensic Watermarking

Forensic watermarking along with Multi-DRM, has proven to be effective in fighting piracy as it helps trace illegal content distribution. Also, it ensures authenticity and enables legal actions against pirates.

There are 2 types of forensic watermarking, client side and server-side watermarking. While each of these approaches has its own advantages, Server side watermarking has a clear upper hand when it comes to supporting various devices at scale. By adopting server-side watermarking, the need for client integration and device-specific upgrades is eliminated. However, the usage of multiple A/B watermarked streams can increase CDN costs as there is a need for two streams for each resolution.

An innovative approach to solving this specific limitation of server-side watermarking, i.e increased encoding and streaming cost is to use client-side video enhancement and upscaling. In other words, a single resolution of A/B watermarked stream is generated on the server and streamed, while an AI based video enhancement solution integrated with the video player increases the streamed resolution on the client side in real time. This approach helps in reducing bandwidth and CDN costs by up to 40% compared to traditional methods, with the added benefit being seamless user experiences, reduced buffering and real-time analytics while retaining the forensic watermark.

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Fovea Stream AI based video enhancement and upscaling

Myelin Foundry’s Fovea Stream solution is an on-device AI solution that enables HD/FHD viewing experience for the user using SD streams in real time, with near-zero-rebuffer, even in unstable & low bandwidth networks.

It is evident that implementing A/B watermarking along with client-side upscaling offers the dual advantage of content security protection and cost savings. But to establish technical feasibility, the important question to answer is whether the proposed AI upscaling technique can still retain the watermark. In order to do just this, PallyCon, in collaboration with Myelin Foundry, conducted a joint exercise. Pallycon’s watermarked video was enhanced from 360P to 1080P on Android device using Myelin Foundry’s Fovea Stream solution, an AI based video upscaling technology. The screen recorded video was then fed to PallyCon’s detector tool which was able to extract the embedded information. This is a compelling demonstration that PallyCon’s forensic watermark remained intact even with edge video enhancement by Fovea Stream.

You may like also to read  – Securing OTT Content with Multi-DRM & Forensic Watermarking

Conclusion

IPTV and OTT vendors can use this powerful combination of A/B watermarking along with client-side AI based upscaling to save CDN costs and deliver exceptional Quality of Experience and rest assured that their most valuable asset – the content is being protected.

At PallyCon, the server side A/B watermarking solution is provided at less than 1 cent per watermarking session , for details about the forensic watermarking reach us here https://pallycon.com/contact/ or mail us at obiz@inka.co.kr

To know more about the (Fovea Stream)  https://www.myelinfoundry.com/solutions/fovea-stream/