Synamedia buys watermarking specialist ContentArmor

LONDON – Synamedia, the world's largest independent video software provider, today announced it has acquired ContentArmor, a leading privately-held developer of forensic watermarking solutions for the media and entertainment industry.

By adding ContentArmor's technology, patents and expertise to its broad portfolio of security offerings, including its Synamedia EverGuard anti-piracy services, Synamedia is now uniquely placed to meet video service providers' edge and 5G security demands. Additionally, it boosts Synamedia's anti-piracy capabilities for movie studios and sports rightsholders, across both OTT and direct-to-consumer (D2C) services. The acquisition will also extend Synamedia's reach into new markets including post-production, in-flight entertainment, and enterprise video.

Edge watermarking is 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 innovative 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 also has strong partnerships with industry heavyweights including Akamai, AWS, and Limelight.

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.

Read the full announcement here.

Synamedia