Digital Hollywood: Digital Watermarking Alliance Appoints New Officers

The Digital Watermarking
Alliance (DWA), an international group of industry-leading companies
involved in commercializing digital watermarking solutions, has elected a
new leadership slate for 2009:

Chair: John Utley, Civolution

Co-Vice Chairs: Bruce Davis, Digimarc; and Jian Zhao, Thomson

Treasurer: Mario Petrocco, Verance

Secretary: Neil Lofgren, GCS Research

Recent industry developments and news demonstrating continued momentum
for digital watermarking solutions include:

— Verimatrix has recently been awarded new patents for unique features
within VideoMark(TM), its user-specific, forensic watermarking
technology. The patents cover processes on how the forensic mark is
invisibly and robustly embedded in video content, and converted to a
human recognizable image during extraction. As has been proven in
multiple evaluations, a human readable mark withstands more
sophisticated video manipulations such as cropping and geometric
distortions, than those which rely on machine extraction alone.
Verimatrix’s end-to-end VideoMark solution includes the recovery of
the unique client identification from all unauthorized analog and
digital distribution formats. The mark extracted from pirated content,
which never contains personal subscriber data, can be traced back to the
last legal recipient of the content by the operator.

— GCS Research announced the official release of GeoMarc(R)3.0 for both
desktop and server side computing environments. GeoMarc is specifically
designed for the Geospatial Industry, a community that relies heavily on
satellite imagery and other pixel-based datasets for everyday analysis.
GeoMarc uses digital watermarking technology to reliably embed key
pieces of information about the satellite data and the geographic area
depicted into the image itself. This capability is extremely valuable
to geospatial analysts, who describe the watermark payload as
“metadata.” Metadata, or “data about the data,” is
considered the most valuable component of geospatial datasets. If an
analyst or other geospatial professional cannot determine key facts such
as when the image was acquired, the original resolution, satellite
sensor type, where the area is located, licensing restrictions, and
other such facts, the image becomes simply a pretty picture. GeoMarc
helps protect and add value to the geospatial community’s
investment in satellite data. GeoMarc is currently being used in both
the military and intelligence sector and the private sector, including
satellite data providers and their customers.

— Thomson recently announced that TF1, France’s leading TV
broadcaster, selected Thomson NexGuard(TM) content protection solution
to secure its business-to-business preview content platform, TF1PRO. In
addition, Thomson and Conax successfully integrated Conax advanced
chipset pairing technology with Thomson’s NexGuard set-top box
watermarking solution to furnish digital TV operators with stronger
tools for fighting illegal redistribution of premium content. For more
information, please visit: http://contentsecurity.thomson.net

— Digimarc Corporation announced the availability of its newly enhanced
Digimarc for Images plug-ins, shipped in-box with Adobe PhotoShop(R),
enabling photographers and corporations to better manage their photos
and image assets by communicating copyright information and owner
contact details, and reporting to owners on both authorized and
unauthorized use of images online. Digimarc for Images enables content
owners to place a persistent, invisible digital identifier (digital
watermark) into photographs and other images. The company also offers a
Search Service that continuously crawls the Web looking for such
watermarked images. Digimarc will offer a free Webcast on November 13
for Adobe users interested in learning more about digitally watermarking
their images using Adobe PhotoShop(R). For further information on the
Webcast pricing and availability, please go to http://www.digimarc.com/images.

— The business unit formerly known as Philips Content Identification
announced on Monday October 20th the completion of its spin-out from
Philips Corporate Technologies. The company now operates under the new
name Civolution B.V.. The spin-out allows Civolution the flexibility to
take new strategic directions beyond the current scope of Philips and to
focus fully on meeting market demands as they evolve. The spin-out
includes Teletrax, the world’s only global broadcast intelligence
service (and former joint-venture of Philips and Medialink) and
Mediahedge, the content identification and monetization platform.

— Earlier this year Teletrax announced a multi-year contract renewal with
the NBC Agency, a division of NBC Universal Inc., to electronically
monitor and analyze affiliate stations’ usage of its on-air
television show promotions across all 210 U.S. television markets. And
Philips announced the world’s first flat panel TV with integrated
watermarking for the hospitality market. In an effort to deter the
unlawful copying of HD movies in hotels, Philips is leading the industry
with its integrated VTrack digital watermarking. To find out more visit
the Civolution website: http://www.civolution.com; Teletrax: http://www.teletrax.tv;
or Mediahedge: http://www.mediahedge.com.

— The DWA will co-host the “Content Rights/ Content Monetization
Dinner” at Digital Hollywood Fall, on Wednesday October 29.
About the Digital Watermarking Alliance

The Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA) is an international alliance of
industry leading companies that deliver valuable digital watermarking
technology and solutions to a broad range of customers and markets around
the world. Member companies include AquaMobile, Civolution B.V., DataMark
Technologies, Digimarc (Nasdaq: DMRC), GCS Research, Gibson, ISAN-IA,
MarkAny, MediaGrid, Media Sciences International, Signum, Streamburst, The
Nielsen Company, Thomson (Euronext 18453; NYSE: TMS), Universite Catholique
de Louvain, Verance, Verimatrix, and Widevine Technologies. For more
information, please visit http://www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org

SOURCE Digital Watermarking Alliance

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