Mainland target for digital TV protection systems
Tuesday, June 26, 2001
BIEN PEREZ
The drive to provide digital television services across China is gathering momentum as leading broadcast organisations adopt advanced, smart-card-based management and protection of video content.
Netherlands-based Irdeto Access has unveiled Chinese graphical user interface (GUI) versions of products that help secure data transmitted over broadcast and Internet protocol (IP) networks.
Irdeto Access, a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Dutch technology firm MIH, also has been asked by the mainland's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) to implement a system which secures content over the government agency's internal network.
"These developments are part of our long-term commitment to the Asian and Chinese markets, where we have been very active for many years," said Graham Kill, chief executive of Irdeto Access.
With several Chinese operators moving to upgrade services based on the European digital video broadcast (DVB) standard, Irdeto Access claimed it had shipped more than 180,000 smart cards for securing content over broadcast and IP networks in China.
"Our technologies have been supplied to more than 60 customers worldwide, including several in China," said Thierry Raymaekers, Irdeto Access general manager for North Asia operations.
Those customers included Hong Kong's TVB, Macau Cable TV, Macau Five Star TV, CBCSat, SVSat, Nanning Cable TV, Wujin Cable TV and Guangdong Cable TV. TVB, and its terrestrial TV rival ATV, have been doing extensive tests of digital TV platforms over the past few years.
The main smart-card-based technologies supplied by Irdeto Access are M-Crypt DVB, its compact Conditional Access-brand system for DVB-standard video applications, and CypherCast, an IP multi-cast scrambling system that supports media streaming applications such as distance learning, corporate training and data caching.
The Chinese version of M-Crypt DVB will be implemented at two of the Dutch firm's existing mainland customers, including the Sarft.
"This deal is very important for us as the Sarft is a major shaper of the Chinese broadcast industry," Mr Raymaekers said.
The Sarft has control over organisations such as China Central Television (CCTV), the mainland's first TV station which began regular transmission in 1958 as Beijing Television Station. CCTV operates eight channels which broadcast 138 hours of programming daily.
Sarft also oversees all TV station activities in all Chinese provinces, major cities and autonomous regions. Official industry estimates showed 1,245 TV transmission and relay stations operated across the mainland in 1996. About 86.1 per cent of the Chinese population have access to TV broadcasts.
Irdeto Access officials said the Chinese version of CypherCast would be installed at two sites in the mainland in the next couple of months.
According to research firm International Data Corp (IDC), Internet-enabled television, or iTV, services brought by digital TV network operators has a large potential market in Asia.
It said TV penetration rates were much higher in Asia when compared with personal-computer penetration rates and iTV would be a natural progression for households.
The company said it had more than 5.9 million Irdeto Access smart cards in circulation that protect digital content from unauthorised access in both TV and Internet environments. |
