Synamedia says its acquisition of ContentArmor will strengthen its video security portfolio with edge and 5G watermarking.
ContentArmor’s technology, patents and expertise will sit alongside Synamedia’s EverGuard anti-piracy services, boosting its anti-piracy capabilities for movie studios and sports rightsholders. The acquisition will also extend Synamedia’s reach into new markets including post-production, in-flight entertainment, and enterprise video.
Edge watermarking is seen as the most effective, secure and scalable approach for detecting and disrupting content leaks, and Synamedia anticipates a substantial market opportunity for it, 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 improves cache performance and speeds 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 unauthorized content distribution.
The company has worked with a number of industry heavyweights including Akamai, AWS, and Limelight.
Alain Durand, ContentArmor CEO, will join Synamedia’s senior leadership team to help shape its security roadmap: “While headend 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,” said Durand.
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 industry leading security and video solutions.
