MPEG-DASH: Unifying the adaptive streaming world - CSI Magazine

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MPEG-DASH: Unifying the
adaptive streaming world
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DASHing forward
Petr Peterka & Niels Thorwirth of Verimatrix discuss
leveraging MPEG-DASH – and the role of open DRM
standards - for enhanced revenue security
As video content becomes
more diverse and
ubiquitous, today’s pay-
TV operators must
adapt their services to
rising subscriber
expectations. Operators
are therefore increasingly targeting multiple
screens, ie TVs, PCs and various mobile devices,
in their attempts to offer competitive services
and reach the widest possible audience, anywhere
and anytime.
However, maximising the monetisation of
content across a multi-network environment
comes with several challenges: when the operator
wants to reach beyond its managed network to
various types of CE devices, including over-the-top
(OTT) video streaming delivery, the issue of
incompatible digital rights management (DRM)
systems arises.
Multi-platform challenges
Managing the interplay between multiple DRM
systems has long been asserted to be one of the
most significant barriers to successfully deploying
a multi-network, multi-screen delivery
environment. In fact, DRM schemes in general
are often regarded as presenting many challenges
for large-scale media distribution, leading some to
suggest that the approach in general may be
counterproductive. Interoperability, in particular,
has been a difficult technical problem when
dealing with a set of technologies that are, in
general, highly proprietary in nature and kept
closely guarded to limit the potential for
commercial exposure.
A unified security strategy based on an open
DRM scheme, such as the ISO/IEC standard
MPEG-DASH for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming
over HTTP, can help operators easily address the
unique requirements of different devices types,
giving them the potential to
open up the universe of multinetwork,
multi-screen delivery,
and greatly accelerate the
growth of new revenue streams
based on this paradigm.
Today’s leading edge content security strategies
are characterised by the transition from a security
architecture with DRM technologies in multiple
competing “silos” to a more unified approach
across network types and stream formats. The
foundation of such an approach is that the typical
DRM silos are unified via a higher-level cross-
DRM “rights management” abstraction, which
enables the DRM servers to operate unimpeded.
This type of approach can be augmented by the
adoption of non-proprietary, open DRM
frameworks like MPEG-DASH. Such a framework
is particularly attractive as it offers operators an
ideal mix of unification and flexibility – media
delivery formats are unified and device
authentication and key management processes for
secure delivery remain flexible. In addition, this
type of standardisation can greatly accelerate the
growth of new services and revenue streams for
operators by opening up the universe of multi-
28 March-April 2013 www.csimagazine.com

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network, multi-screen and delivery to a new range
of standards compliant smart CE devices.
It is also important to remember that rights
management between the pay-TV and OTT
environments should be carefully controlled since
glitches in this aspect of delivery cause havoc on
the management of overall subscriber
expectations. Most importantly, a single security
platform clearly opens up the potential for flexible
business models that can help up-sell OTT
content for premium services and cross-sell over
multi-network, multi-screen distribution.
Standardising on MPEG-DASH offers the
potential to open up the universe of multinetwork,
multi-screen and multi-operator delivery,
beyond proprietary content silos. And, by doing
so, could greatly accelerate the growth of new
services and revenue streams for multi-network
operators. In combination with a robust
protection mechanism, a whole new generation of
premium services are likely to become available in
the market.
Exploring the status of MPEG-DASH
The DASH file specification is currently on track
to fulfill its promise to unify the adaptive
streaming world. Application standards HbbTV,
3GPP and DECE have standardised on MPEG-
DASH, and it is anticipated that broadcast
standards will likely follow suit as well.
In addition, earlier this year, the DASH
Industry Forum released DASH264
implementation guidelines 1 offering
recommendations for testing and assuring
interoperability. Industry-wide collaboration in the
creation of the DASH standard is a large part of
its success; another factor is the support of
technical features that, as years of experience with
adaptive streaming have shown, are crucial
components of a mature solution.
MPEG-DASH offers a number of technical and
commercial benefits:
• It is decoupling the technical issues of delivery
formats and video compression from the more
typically proprietary issues of a protection regime.
In the world of DASH, no longer does the
technology of delivery have to develop in lockstep
with the release cycle of a presentation engine or
security vendor. This has been true for the
de-facto standard of HTTP live streaming (HLS)
for some while – but is now being formalised with
a broader base of technology;
• It’s not blue sky technology – the standard
acknowledges adoption of existing commercial
offerings in its profiles and an implied transition
to full standards compliance over a period of
time;
• It represents a drive for a single delivery
protocol standard, which helps reduce
balkanisation of streaming support in CE devices.
More broadly available device-neutral services and
less proprietary silo implementations in devices
such as connected TVs should help the market
grow overall; and
• It provides a vendor neutral option to address
the obvious current shortcomings of video
support in HTML5 – the adoption of which itself
is an important dynamic. This is especially
notable on mobile devices, as it signifies the end
of Adobe’s push to try and dominate that space
with their own standards.
The Verimatrix approach
Verimatrix, by virtue of long engagement with
DECE and other industry initiatives related to
DASH, anticipated the need for more efficient,
state-of-the-art approaches to the management of
content protection. Consequently, content
distributors of every description can implement
the company’s rigorous multi-network and multidevice
protection mechanisms with full
confidence that they will be able to benefit from
these new developments in adaptive streaming
and electronic sell-through.
Last year, Verimatrix introduced Verimatrix
VCAS for DASH, which offers a robust solution
for these multi-platform challenges by providing
DRM and content consumption transparency
across networks and devices. By providing DASH
support that is merged with existing Verimatrix,
PlayReady and Marlin DRMs, Verimatrix has
extended VCAS’ ability to enable content delivery
to millions of consumer devices without complex
client security integrations. This is having a
profound and positive impact on the time-tomarket
for operators eager to extend their service
reach beyond their managed networks. Consumers
are benefitting from the ease of use and
transparency that follows from not having to be
concerned with different DRMs. Users don’t even
need to be aware what particular DRM is in use
for each device.
Conclusion
As we look toward the future, one thing remains
relatively certain: there’s no better way to future
proof an early-to-market multi-device service
strategy than by adopting architectures that
accommodate a multi-DRM approach. Moreover,
open DRM standards can go a long way to help
enable the type of consumer choice that all digital
TV operators are aiming for.
1
Guidelines for Implementation: DASH264
Interoperability Points: http://dashif.org/dash264-
available-for-public-review/
www.csimagazine.com March-April 2013 29

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