Streaming Media West Tech Q&A: Mindport Sentriq

Long before the term Digital Rights Management (DRM) was on the tip of the streaming community's tongue, the team at Mindport Sentriq was providing "Conditional Access" solutions for analog and digital pay-television distribution. 今天在流媒体西部2000, Mindport Sentriq announced the release of their latest technology developed for securing streaming media. Streamingmedia.网站首席运营官米奇·韦伯斯特(Mitch Webster)和老韦伯斯特(Sr. 销售和联盟副总裁, Peter-Robin Mijderwijk来了解更多关于他们的创新.

问:跟我说说明德波特的历史吧.

Webster: As early as 1985, we started some pay-television operations in a number of countries. 当时的重点是把普通电视变成付费电视. The experience and success of the operations stimulated further technology developments in pay-media. In 1995, we then moved into digital television distribution … both cable and satellite networks.

About two and a half years ago, our corporate entity, MIH … they started focusing on the Internet and started migrating technologies into the Internet space. 这就产生了一个叫做Cyphercast的产品[一个IP内容管理系统]. Basically that experience then gave us the market requirements and understanding of how to integrate that technology one step further into a completely Internet-centric video distribution DRM solution. 我们就是这样走到今天的.

问:你在流媒体领域发现了吗, 以前有过电视方面的经验是有优势的?

韦伯斯特:DRM似乎是一个非常通用的术语，当你问别人DRM是什么意思时, 不同的人会给出不同的答案. As we've rolled into that space, we found that video DRM is actually something that isn't very well covered by anybody. 像Intertrust和微软这样的组织有很多好的技术, but none of them actually create a valid solution if you want to create a million-user live DRM system. Mapping our broadcast DRM solution in the television space to the Internet generates both a unique technology solution and differentiation.

问:你们能够保护哪些流媒体格式?

Webster: That's another area where we find that we differentiate in the sense that we're providing a solution that will work with Microsoft, Real and MPEG-4. We see that MPEG-4, in the long term, is clearly the technology distribution platform that will enable all the mobile video distribution platforms. 你需要一个能在PC上运行的解决方案, set-top box space, as well as in the mobile, personal organizer.

问:您的解决方案集成到现有服务器中了吗, sit next to, 或者在流媒体服务器前? 我很好奇这种互动发生在哪里?

韦伯斯特:互动有很多层次, but effectively you can consider our technology as a control layer that sits in parallel with the distribution layer. There are points of interaction at each server level in terms of start/stop server-type commands, 但我们也有一个更复杂的加密级别，可以在交付之前工作. 文件在创建点或压缩点被加密. There are two levels of interaction - one is upstream and one is actually at the point of serving.

Q: Who will use your technology?

Mijderwijk:我们的目标是内容提供商和网络运营商. Conditional access in the broadcasting space is primarily oriented towards pay transactions, whereas, we believe from the prospects we are talking to across traditional broadcast space who wish to converge to IP, that there are multiple commerce models which can be deployed to make video over IP happen, 但它们都依赖于可靠的保护——对内容和收入的可靠保护.

Sponsorship is a model, syndication is a model and pay-per-view/pay-per-time subscription-based models are different models. 当我们说到以视频为中心的商业模式的权利和收益保护, it doesn't imply pay-per-view, per se, 然而，在广播领域，有条件的访问是可行的.

Video-centric DRM has key differences in consumption patterns as well as in technology. The consumption pattern is, you don't want to get a file on your PC that you want to see ten times -- it is much more impulse driven. I want to see this live piece of content right now or I want to see this movie right now. 可能有存储网络的空间, with caches on the PCs, such as Tivo and Replay, but we also feel that there is need for an infrastructure that supports impulse-driven video consumption, 这正是我们正在做的.

问:请从用户的角度给我讲讲你的体验.

Mijderwijk: Certain rights for digital content have already been distributed in the broadcasting space. 假设你对篮球很着迷, but certain spots in the country already have coverage through broadcasters -- others don't. 你可以在旁边放一个频道, 基本上是一个额外的基础设施来分配给你, 我们可以按地域控制权利. That's one way of looking at it.

The second one is, you're crazy about your hobby --windsurfing for example-- and you're going to subscribe to this additional service, 其中很多仍然是免费的. 为了让你觉得这对你是有价值的, 它还需要固定好，只有你能看到它. 篮球或帆板的信息, there are also going to be some extra events which you may want to pay for because they're live. 这实际上是很多互联网服务提供商想要做的.

问:你们的解决方案有哪些组成部分?

Mijderwijk: The value proposition is that you can protect live and on-demand content and we need some technology to make it happen: a server, an agent, and a client. This is basically a three-tiered structure which ensures that we can scale up to millions of users if need be.

在服务器上，我们存储访问标准, 假设你现在是内容提供商，你有一些关于帆板运动的内容. 你决定只在今晚8点到10点之间播放. Between 8 and 10, you're going to charge five bucks for it and it's going to be available only in California. You can have access criteria, 和那个特定的内容, the access criteria will travel to wherever it's being played from - basically edge infrastructures. 现在，你的一个观众想看，这是一个请求. 如果他符合实际的访问标准，信息就会流向他. He needs to be:

• The person that's either subscribed or makes himself known through a digital certificate.
• 这个人的名字存储有信用点、借方点或价值点.

Q: If I click on a link to a media file, am I actually accessing a metafile on the Sentriq server?

韦伯斯特:当内容在其现有元数据中得到保护时, 是Real文件还是Microsoft文件, we add a URL to that metadata. When you click on the content, that URL ultimately links to the closest agent to fetch the keys to unlock the content.

Mijderwijk: The request is checked versus the DRM info and this can change over time so we promise real-time video DRM. 如果有人想在11点登录, 你在差5分钟11点改了规则, it will use those rules.

韦伯斯特:如果你说的是视频发行, 当然，您希望能够控制所使用的访问标准, in a real on-line fashion.

米德维克:不一定是钱. 它也可以是赞助点，在那一刻，它将向你流出.

Webster: Some underlying things about the technology that are important are that we have taken a view of the level of security that's required and we have focused on PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) technology as being the fundamental user verification technology.

玩家这边有两个组成部分. 一个是基于PKI技术安全地识别用户身份. 它能证明"乔·苏"就是乔·苏. 回到你的系统，你可以验证你可以用Joe So做什么. It takes the remainder of the technology to actually deliver the video in a secure fashion.

米德维克:这是一个闭环. 虽然它是基于开放标准的，但它是一个闭环.

(作为观众)你所要做的就是, first of all, identify yourself either through a software or hardware-based PKI device --a digital certificate saying that you are who you are-- and at that moment we know that you have something [an allowance] stored against your name. 你要做的第二件事是确保你有播放器插件. 然后你去决定你想看什么内容. 你点击它，就会出现一个弹出窗口，询问你是否愿意支付2美元.50. In case you want to, you can also add a PIN (Personal Identification Number) code on top of that.

所有发生在背面的智能对用户来说都是不明显的. 它应该尽可能接近电视体验.

Click here 查看Mindport Sentriq的白皮书以获取更多信息.