Philips announced today the extension of their watermarking technology with a new technique that enables a watermark to be directly embedded in an MPEG-2 transport stream. The key benefit of the technique, being demonstrated at IBC 2002, is the saving of time and costs in converting to and from baseband when watermarking MPEG-2 material. By eliminating the need for conversion, this new technique also prevents occurrence of additional MPEG-2 picture artifacts. The method is compatible with WaterCast, Philips' currently available baseband watermarking product... With the increasing application of the MPEG-2 standard in digital media asset management systems, the new watermarking application provides content owners with greater assurance concerning their investments. And, with more material being stored on their servers, content owners, using the technique, can embed a watermark directly using fewer steps and still obtaining high-quality results. The technique, which uses digital video processing, is applicable to asset management systems, as well as all other application areas of watermarking including remote control and triggering, forensic tracking, advertisement verification and broadcast monitoring.

Commenting on the direct embedding technique, Jos Swillens, General Manager of the CrytpoTec business group at Philips Digital Networks, said: "We are confident this addition to our watermarking technology will be widely accepted by content owners and broadcasters who are constantly looking for more convenient and cost-saving ways to embed a watermark."

Philips has pioneered watermarking technology in both video and audio content. The newly developed feature of directly embedding a watermark into an MPEG-2 stream, and other watermarking techniques also being demonstrated at IBC 2002, underscore the company's commitment to providing state-of-the-art solutions to identify and protect content and combat institutional piracy.