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LAS VEGAS — Digital platform security specialist Irdeto used CES to announce that the governing body of football in South America, CONMEBOL, has tapped it to protect its brand and combat piracy of live football match broadcasts.

CONMEBOL, which licenses broadcast rights of its matches to several operators around the world will use Irdeto Online Piracy Detection and Cyber Services to combat the growing threat of theft of live-streamed sports.

Irdeto will monitor all matches and help address the challenge of online redistribution piracy, and will also be providing brand protection monitoring and services.

“As one of FIFA’s six continental confederations, responsible for the organization and governance of South American football’s major international tournaments, both the CONMEBOL brand and live football content are extremely valuable and must be protected,” said Bengt Jonsson, SVP of sales and services for Irdeto. “The confederation understands the importance of combining cutting edge technology with proactive services to ensure that illegal content streams are taken down quickly so substantial license investments are not devalued and consumers are not exposed to the dangers that come from illegal content sources and illegitimate brand infringements.”

Juan Emilio Roa, commercial director of CONMEBOL, added: “South American football attracts a global audience who expect great games and a premium experience, and the protection of the live signal quality of our matches and our brand, is crucial to this.Irdeto’s experience in the protection of live sports content and its ability to provide sophisticated online piracy detection technology combined with proactive services aimed at protecting our brand and taking down illegal content, makes it the perfect partner as the global interest in South American football continues to increase.”

Also at CES 2020:

• independent video software provider Synamedia came out swinging in Las Vegas, with three major announcements to kick off the show. In addition to a Jan. 6 study on streaming piracy, Synamedia had two partnerships to announce.

E-Vision, a subsidiary of Etisalat Group, announced it has selected the Infinite platform — which is powered by Synamedia’s video network technologies — for its new, multi-country, multi-tenant OTT service, which is already live in Egypt, will launch soon in Saudi Arabia and will roll out to other markets soon.

E-Vision’s multi-tenant cloud-based service provides operators in the MENA region and Pakistan with a platform to launch and run multi-screen, multi-language OTT services.
The turnkey OTT platform can be easily customized to give each service its own distinct look and feel.

“We have worked closely with Synamedia’s talented teams to develop and roll out E-Vision’s new multi-tenant OTT comprehensive service. The Infinite platform is secure and capable of a full end-to-end solution which would guarantee our clients a top-notch, scalable and cost-efficient service,” said Humaid Rashid Sahoo, E-Vision CEO.

Yves Padrines, Synamedia CEO, added: “With its new multi-tenant OTT service, E-Vision is pioneering a new approach to OTT services — one that we believe is the shape of things to come. With such intense competition in the OTT space, a shared video platform makes sense for many operators. Using our scalable, highly reliable, cloud-based platform, E-Vision liberates its OTT customers from worrying about the underlying technology and lets them focus instead on building a sustainable, profitable business faster.”

Addituonally, Synamedia announced that it has joined Pearl TV in order to Ccllaborate within the Phoenix Model Market Initiative, the largest industry test to date of ATSC 3.0 and next-gen TV services.

The collaborative, single-market effort to plan for and implement a transition to next-generation over-the-air TV broadcasting (via an end-to-end model system) aims to foster industry consensus and drive ecosystem development.

“Synamedia has more than 30 years of industry experience delivering true end-to-end solutions, inclusive of and beyond encoding and transmissions. Not only does this make our portfolio unique, it also highlights the vast expertise and support our team can bring to game-changing initiatives like the Phoenix Model Market,” said Dave Longaker, SVP and GM of the Americas for Synamedia. “Our commitment to our customers and the industry as a whole is to create value, enable great customer experiences, and simplify complexity, all while reducing costs. This aligns nicely with the vision of what Pearl TV is driving in Phoenix. We are honored to join the group bringing it to market.”

• Dolby used CES 2020 to show off its latest innovations in music and imaging, specifically Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

“Dolby has transformed entertainment for hundreds of millions of people around the world. We are constantly pushing ourselves to find new ways to deliver amazing experiences,” said Giles Baker, SVP of Dolby’s Consumer Entertainment Group. “This is exemplified by the growing availability of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos enabled devices and content, and new experiences like Dolby Atmos Music where we are redefining how music is created and enjoyed.”

At CES, in partnership with LG and Panasonic, Dolby debuted Dolby Vision IQ, which extends the benefits of Dolby Vision beyond high-dynamic range by optimizing picture quality experiences for viewers in any room, without consumers having to pick up their remote.

Dolby Vision IQ uses Dolby Vision dynamic metadata along with ambient light sensors inside the TV to detect how bright or dark a room is, and then intelligently displaying every detail of content to fit the viewing environment. Dolby Vision IQ also informs the TV what is being watched modifying its settings if the channel is changed.