Thomson has acquired MediaSec Technologies GmbH, a pioneer in digital watermarking and copy detection technologies. MediaSec, based in Essen, Germany, with a presence in the US, has a strong portfolio of patents and software products which Thomson will build on to meet the Media & Entertainment industries’ growing need for content security and tracking solutions. Digital watermarking involves secure, covert, and imperceptible marking of digital media such as video, images, audio and any type of digitally processed document. The watermarking process embeds invisible information into the content, making such information inseparable from the content and extremely reliable for tracking and authentication purposes.

MediaSec’s core watermarking technology was invented by its co-founders, Dr. Eckhard Koch and Dr. Jian Zhao, and has received a number of awards for outstanding security innovations, including the Fraunhofer Prize in 1998. MediaSec has applied its watermarking technology to a range of solutions, including copyright protection, brand and asset protection, document authentication, and anti-counterfeiting including such applications as secure labels for DVDs.

MediaSec will be integrated in Thomson’s Software & Technology Solutions (STS) Business Unit, within the Group’s Technology division.