(21 June 2007 6:30 pm)

SINGAPORE: Pay TV security provider Irdeto and Huawei have announced that they have signed a deal with Pakistan Telecommunications. The deal will see Irdeto's content security technology for IPTV combined with Huawei's middleware, video on demand server and set top box.

Pajustan Telecom will be able to launch IPTV services across Pakistan later this year and to provide its subscribers with an array of interactive video and internet offerings.

An expected first phase of 30,000 subscribers will be able to experience IPTV later this year. The new deal is projected to be the first of many that will come out of the Irdeto Huawei partnership. The announcement was made at the IPTV Forum held in Singapore alongside BroadcastAsia and CommunicAsia. Going forward, the two parties will engage in joint marketing and R&D activities that they expect will facilitate integration of technology leading to next-generation IPTV products.

Irdeto director market development Pierre Hunter spoke about securing content through content security. In order to get a licence for recently released films, US studios have mandatory requirements. One of these is that valuable content must be encrypted in public domain. Naturally the film industry does not want to face the piracy problem that afflicts the music business.

Typical IP security measures are not enough. Simply knowing where the content has been sent to does not ensure protection. Having control over access to a service is not enough; IPTV requires layers of security above IP security. IPTV security means protecting the IP headend. It also means protection of content on the core network. End to end content protection is essential. A secure IP headend means immediate pre-encryption of on-demand content. Content should never be in the clear on the network. For this advanced DRM is needed. You also need a renewable smart card and software based security. One also needs encryption control on the PVR.