Conax AS has expanded its offerings in the emerging IPTV sector with the launch of its Conax CAstream IPTV product for the North American market. Conax calls this product “a missing link,” allowing high value content to be streamed over broadband networks with robust security.

Conax CAstream enables operators and content providers to encrypt the streamed IP television content, distribute the stream via open networks, and selectively determine the receivers who will be able to decrypt and utilize the content. Conax CAstream is a stand-alone security system allowing operators to continue using existing platforms and applications, while adding strong conditional access and digital rights management mechanisms.

“The security solution for distribution of television and video will become more and more important as the number of IP broadband consumers boosts up,” commented Ernst Thue, Conax CEO. “Conax CAstream offers operators and content rights owners a state-of-the-art security solution for full protection of video and television content streamed via IP broadband networks.”

TV over broadband IP networks makes it easier to forward and consume the content on demand via all kinds of terminals. The new opportunities do, however, also imply additional security challenges. New threats do not make the old ones go away. The content is subject to the classic pay-TV threats when multicast or distributed wirelessly. In these scenarios, the user-security device needs to be highly tamper-resistant. Conax offers a complete video DRM enforcement solution for IPTV, addressing both the point-to-point on-demand and the multicast push content modes.

Conax also supplies its newly launched Conax CAS7 for Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB). Both Conax CAstream and Conax CAS7 support PVR, VOD, push VOD and flexible sales modes such as subscription and pay-per-view (PPV). Conax CAstream works with all streaming platforms, e.g. Microsoft Media Service, RealNetworks and Quicktime and is independent of IP applications and protocols used: TCP, UDP or Multicast.

Conax will be exhibiting for the fourth time at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas this April (NAB Booth No. SU9646), where it will be demonstrating Conax CAS7 and Conax CAstream to the digital broadcast industry.