In conversation with Are Mathisen, SVP Asia-Pacific

Q. In the global transition from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting more and more internet technologies introduce dynamic industries, especially in the TV Value chain. What has Conax been offering in this evolution?
A. With over 25 years of experience in content security business, Conax has been helping over 300 operators globally in transitioning from analog to digital and in moving beyond digitalization to advanced services such as OTT Multiscreen. There is still some work to be done, for example here in India where we have had a market-leading presence since 2004 and are uniquely positioned to help pay-TV operators create new business opportunities and revenues.

Our main contribution for the pay-TV market has been our Conax Contego platform, a unifiedcontent security back-end that supports all distribution technologies, conditional access, DRM and all device types.

Q. How does Conax handle all the content security needs for all distribution technologies and consumer devices providing content owners the control over their intellectual property?
A. Our content security back-end is modular, flexible for any operation and has multi-DRM support. Independent of the content distribution scenario we can provide support for both traditional conditional access for STBs and TV sets and the native DRMs inherent in mobile devices. Next year we are also bringing a new premium security client called Conax Connected Access to the market. It will provide advanced operatorsthe option to simplify their content security by using only one security client in their entire operation, whether it is broadcast, IPTV, OTT or multiscreen.

Q. How does Conax ensure secure revenue for the vendors supplying chipsets to the DVB client device market while not compromising with their subscribers’ convenience?
A. Conax content security is always based on Hardware Root of Trust, which means a much higher security level than in solutions based only on software. With Hardware Root of Trust, the core security functionality of the client device is builtinto the chipset. To be able to offer Hardware Root of Trust in devices used by pay-TVoperators, Conax works with all major chipset vendors and runs a comprehensive certification program that ensures compatibility with Conax’ and content owners’ security requirements.This means that consumers can trust the operator STBs to work well both in terms of usability and reliability.

To fight the situation of digital content piracy, Conax has recently introduced a watermarking feature to Conax Contego, enabling tracking of the source of the pirated content and closing it down. However, in our opinion moderately priced OTT services will eventually have a major role in replacing pirated content.

Q. Mention the products that allow pay TV operators to enable OTT multiscreen services and streamline them with DVB operations to hike up their revenue but at the same time maintain cost efficiency?
A. Currently, we are offering two OTT multiscreen solutions to our customers: Conax GO Live is an entry-level solution and Conax Xtend Multiscreen is a more advanced solution unifying traditional broadcast operations with OTT. Both solutionsare suitable to operators of any size and any investment capability. The modular nature of the solutions enable operators to start with limited initial investment, choosing only the features and capacity they need, and a granular scalability offers a true pay-as-you-grow model. In addition, our solutions are pre-integrated, which means extra savings in the form of significantly reduced time-to-market.

Q. What sort of a helping hand has Conax provided to overcome the recent problems with TV services on Chrome browser with Microsoft’s Silverlight?
A. In September when Google dropped support for NP-API, a plug-in application interface that e.g. Microsoft Silverlight uses, the TV services in Chrome stopped working. The operators had the option to either advise customers to start using another browser or to enable support for Google Widevine DRM, which nowthe native DRM in Chrome.

We had anticipated this change and built multi-DRM support into our Conax Contegocontent security back-end well in advance so operators using Contego could prepare for the changes “behind the scenes” and their subscribers could keep on enjoying TV services on Chrome as before. The first Conax customers were able todeploy multi-DRM already in August.

Q. What have been your major achievements this year and what is their significance to the Indian pay-TV market?
A. The two products that are the most interesting for the Indian market are Conax Trusted Link – a low-cost gateway product enabling multiscreen services in the home without broadband access and the Watermarking feature of Conax Contego, that will help tracking and closing down piracy.

Q. Where do you see Conax 5 years from now?
A. The fragmentation of the pay-TV and online video market will accelerate both in technology platforms and business models, which will be a major headache for the operators in the next years. There will be more platforms, devices, and proprietary technologies making building and maintaining services very complex. Conax’ role is to simplify the technology side of the equation and advise the customers on business issues, such as monetization models for OTT and multiscreen. Conax recognizes that building expertise on content security alone will not be sufficient, because operators will want more services from just one vendor or one ecosystem. In conclusion, Conax, together with strategic partners will aspire to become a trusted advisor to pay-TV operators, offering a one-stop-shop to deploy hybrid broadcast-OTT services in India.