- Civolution
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Civolution Type VC funded Industry Media, broadcast, television, PayTV, digital cinema, internet, pre-release, digital watermarking, video and audio fingerprinting Founded Eindhoven, The Netherlands (incorporated 2008) Headquarters Eindhoven, The Netherlands Key people Alex Terpstra, CEO Website www.civolution.com Civolution is a provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing audio and video media content. The company offers a portfolio of proprietary and patented digital watermarking and digital audio and video fingerprinting technology solutions for forensic tracking of media assets in pre-release, digital cinema, Pay Television and online. Through its service portfolio Civolution offers broadcast and internet media intelligence and monetization solutions.
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History and ownership
Civolution is a spin-off from Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands.
The first digital watermarking activities started in the Philips Research labs in 1996, after several years of research and development on the technology. The first commercialization activities started four years later.
In 2002, a dedicated business line, Philips Content Identification, was formed to further develop the technology, particularly in the domains of monitoring and forensic tracking applications using Philips audio and video digital watermarking technology, and the recently developed audio and video digital fingerprinting technology. The same year, Philips Content Identification signed a Joint Venture agreement with corporate news and multimedia services provider Medialink, to launch Teletrax, the world’s first global broadcast intelligence service. Philips Content Identification digital watermarking technology was used for identifying the source of illegal copies of the 2003 Academy Award Screeners and by the major Hollywood Studio’s for protecting pre-release material and theatrical releases content.
In 2006, the Philips Content Identification business unit, introduced a forensic marking solution for digital cinemas. The technology allows copies of pirated content from digital theatre to be traced back to the time, date and location where the illegal copy occurred. A few months later a digital watermarking solution for the PayTV environment was deployed. Designed for set-top box integration the technology uniquely watermarks and identifies content delivered to individual PayTV subscribers and hospitality TV screens. Whenever PayTV content is accessed or distributed, a watermark is applied into the video stream in real-time. Any pirated content can be traced back to a specific PayTV subscriber or viewer.
Philips content Identification assumed, in September 2008, full ownership of its joint venture Teletrax and completed a spin-off from Philips Corporate Technologies as a stand-alone company Civolution B.V. backed by Venture Capital firm Prime Technology Ventures.
On July 21 2009, Civolution announced that it had acquired Thomson Software and Technology Solution (STS) watermarking business from Thomson. As a result of the amalgamation, Thomson became a shareholder in Civolution.
Civolution has offices in Eindhoven (The Netherlands), London (UK), Rennes (France), New York and Glendale (Los Angeles).
Technology
Civolution offers a suite of product and services using a proprietary and patented digital watermarking and fingerprinting technologies. Civolution digital watermarking technology is applied in a number of applications for pre-release, digital cinema, Pay-TV, online content delivery, remote triggering and broadcast monitoring. The fingerprinting solutions find applications in broadcast and internet intelligence including monitoring and monetization services.
Content identification technologies allows owners, distibutors, aggregators and publishers of video or audio content to protect their media content and deter piracy as well as measure usage and control their assets. The latest advancements in both digital watermarking and fingerprinting technologies have allowed new applications and business models for monetization of content.
Global operations
Civolution is headquartered in Eindhoven and has offices in Rennes (France) London (UK), New York and Hollywood. Its Teletrax service currently tracks and monitors over 1,500 television channels worldwide through a network of monitoring stations located in Europe, Middle East, Asia, North and South America.
Affiliations
Civolution is among the 12 founding members of the Digital Watermarking Alliance, an organization that was formed to promote and educate the public about the benefits of digital watermarking technology.
External links
References
Civolution acquires Thomson Software and Technology Solution watermarking business
Prime technology ventures and philips arrange for successful spin-out [2]
Civolutions new mediamarker gets forensic [3]
Digital Rapids Stream 3.0 Encoding upgrade to add new formats and features for new opportunities[4]
NAB Launch of Civolution Internet Services Enables New Business Models for Online Media Distribution [5]
Watermarking supplier expects earlier VOD window this year [6]Categories:- Media companies of the Netherlands
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
