Latens has launched its newest conditional access product, the Secure Distribution System (SDS).
Programmers and broadcasters are increasingly taking advantage of the cost and transport efficiencies that faster, high-capacity terrestrial distribution networks provide over satellite, the company said, especially in the delivery of heavy, valuable HD content. Working with U.S. programmers, Latens developed the SDS to address content security over the fiber backbone connecting content owner and service provider networks.
“Programmers’ recent shift away from satellite to terrestrial content delivery methods has raised new concerns over a significant security gap along the distribution chain. Up until now, securing the fiber backbone wasn’t considered necessary, nor vital, so content was, and still is, being sent in the clear,” said Philip Cardy, Latens’ product marketing director. “As traffic increases along terrestrial backbones, so do programmer calls for new, high-security conditional access solutions, like Latens’ Secure Distribution System, that are multi-network-compatible and designed for fiber environments.”
Latens’ software-based SDS conditional access solution – which is an extension of the company’s pay-TV content security product portfolio – is an encryption technology that allows content providers and pay-TV network operators to securely transport content via IP or fiber from distributor origin to the operator headend.
The SDS enables ops to comply with increasingly stringent HD and on-demand security requirements levied by programmers and broadcasters, while also shoring up potential, unrecognized holes in competitive legacy systems, Latens said. And according to the company, the solution is the only software solution capable of providing secure distribution over any type of network – from traditional DVB-S to IP and fiber.
Latens said the open-standards design of the SDS allows for easy integration over existing, legacy equipment, while its flexibility across varying network architectures makes it an ideal solution for hybrid networks.
The SDS gives content providers and operators Latens’ proactive product monitoring and diagnostic platform, providing an interface for managing secure content distribution. The SDS does not require specially trained network engineers to configure and monitor performance, allowing it to instead be managed from a central location by existing staff.
