When video content producers list their premium production on OTT platforms, like Netflix and Amazon Prime, they need to ensure that their video assets are sufficiently protected against piracy attempts. They often engage a digital rights management (DRM) and forensic watermarking SaaS provider to use the double protection.
The process of security starts with content preprocessing using the SaaS vendor’s server. It is hassle free for content producers to perform preprocessing and packaging of content using an integrated UI environment provided by the SaaS provider. This technology helps in doing away with the need to build and maintain in-house servers for preprocessing.
HTTP-based APIs help in content packaging, storage registration, packaging job registration using web UI, with request data and parameters mentioned in JSON format.
Content packaging: It involves packaging the video content into two sets of 0/1 watermarked DASH or HLS content and its encryption. In order to use the video watermarking packaging service, the content producer can select the CDN region and login to the SaaS provider’s console. The console generally lets the producer set the region from the options in “Packaging Service Region”. The displayed regions are where the current instance type support is available.
Storage configuration: The next step involves configuring the storage setup, containing the original content and packaging. Some parameters which typically need elaboration include the storage type, name of storage, bucket name used for packaging operation, access key ID value required for bucket access, and secret access key value of the access key.
Packaging job registration: This process is the next step after storage registration. Some of the details for completing the registration process include job name, a unique Content ID for the to-be packaged content, input and output storage registered during the storage setup, the path of the source video file excluding bucket name, security setting to apply DRM and watermarking to the content, streaming format for packaging, etc.
Once created, the panel also gives visibility of the pending and running packaging jobs. Upon successful packaging, the DASH/HLS watermarked content goes into the output storage content path set during the job registration process. Some SaaS providers have a panel to show packaging history, displaying completed packaging jobs and their corresponding details.
Integration with watermarking: To insert the watermark in real time in the DRM protected content, this packaged content is connected with the CDN supported by the watermark embedding module. The module combines the A/B variants of the video content in real-time on playback and converts the client session information, like user ID and playback time, into binary format. This unique code goes into the output media stream and then sent to the client.
With these few steps, the video asset is ready to be pushed to the CDN and available for callback from the user’s device in a secure manner.
