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 A digital watermark is a kind of marker covertly embedded in a noise-tolerant signal such as audio, video or image data. It is typically used to identify ownership of the copyright of such signal. "Watermarking" is the process of hiding digital inf ...

(audio and video) and digital audio and video fingerprinting technology for media protection:

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimin ...

tracking of media assets in pre-release,

digital cinema Digital cinema refers to adoption of digital technology within the film industry to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to be s ...

Pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, bu ...

and online; media intelligence:

audience measurement Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Some ...

, broadcast monitoring, internet and radio tracking; media interaction:

automatic content recognition Automatic content recognition (ACR) is a technology to identify content played on a media device or present within a media file. Devices implementing ACR can allow the device or the manufacturer to collect content consumption information automatic ...

and triggering for second screen and connected television.

History and ownership

Civolution is a spin-off from

Royal Philips Electronics Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

of the Netherlands. The first

activities started in the Philips Research labs in 1996, after several years of

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

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

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 An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informati ...

. Philips Content Identification

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 unlicensed copies of content from digital theatre to be traced back to the time, date and location where the illegal copy occurred. A few months later a

solution for the Pay TV environment was deployed. Designed for

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of si ...

integration, the technology uniquely watermarks and identifies content delivered to individual Pay TV subscribers and hospitality TV screens. Whenever Pay TV content is accessed or distributed, a

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

is applied into the video stream in real-time. Any redistributed content can be traced back to a specific Pay TV subscriber or viewer. Philips content Identification assumed, in September 2008, full ownership of its joint venture Teletrax and completed a spin-off from

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

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. In December 2014, WPP's Kantar Media acquired Civolution's SyncNow audio watermarking unit supporting Audience Measurement and Second Screen synchronization applications Following the Kantar Media acquisition, Civolution announced the launch of two separate business units, NexGuard and Teletrax. Civolution has offices in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(UK), Rennes (France),

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, Burbank (Los Angeles). In July 2016, Kudelski Group acquired Civolution's market leading NexGuard Forensic Watermarking business supporting content tracking solutions for pre-release, digital cinema, pay TV and streaming.

Technology

Civolution offers a suite of products and solutions using proprietary and patented digital watermarking and fingerprinting technologies. Civolution

(audio and video) technology is applied in a number of applications for pre-release, digital cinema, Pay-TV, online

content delivery Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other so ...

, synchronization, remote triggering, broadcast monitoring. The fingerprinting solutions find applications in synchronization, content triggering, broadcast and internet intelligence including monitoring and monetization services. Content identification technologies allow owners, distributors, aggregators, advertisers and publishers of video or audio content to protect their media content and deter copyright infringement 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 A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, soci ...

for synchronization, triggering and monetization of content. The latest development in watermarking and

fingerprinting A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

technologies are now seeing new applications enabling the

and triggering of specific events to smart devices. Upon client-based identification through audio watermarking or fingerprinting, Civolution enables identification and synchronization between broadcast, on-demand or recorded television content and interactive applications on devices such as a tablets, smartphones or laptops. The automatic content recognition technology is available for integration with smart TVs. The automatic content recognition and synchronization technology has been deployed by

Red Bee Media Red Bee Media, formerly Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services (EBMS), is an international broadcasting and media services company and the largest access provider in Europe. Red Bee has its headquarters in London, England, with branch offices in ...

for The Walking Dead'' by

FX (UK) Fox (stylised as FOX) was a British pay television channel serving the United Kingdom and Ireland, owned by Fox Networks Group, a unit of Disney International Operations. It launched on 12 January 2004 as FX289, then changed its name to FX in A ...

. RedBee launches watermarked companion app . Another capability offered by the technology for 2nd screen and smart TV application providers, as well as social TV platforms, is a server-side content triggering service that provides real-time recognition of broadcast content such as advertisements, movies, TV series, music, and more. By automatically notifying application providers in real time of what content is airing on which channel, such service allows for the synchronization of value-added functionality such as content-specific background information, hyperlinks, and synchronized social newsfeeds, all within the developer's second screen or smart TV applications. Application providers can thereby offer users a more powerful and engaging TV-synchronized experience. The service enables application providers to work more deeply with advertising agencies and brands to further monetize their app platforms. Through the real-time ad identification and triggering service, synchronized ads or ad-interactivity can be delivered to 2nd screens, extending the advertising experience over multiple screens in a synchronized manner. The company has also partnered with Vetrya on mobile platform technology.

Global operations

Civolution is headquartered in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and has offices in Rennes (France) London (UK), New York, Hollywood and Hong Kong. Its Teletrax service currently tracks and monitors over 2,000

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

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 The Digital Watermarking Alliance is a group of like-minded companies that share a common interest in furthering the adoption of digital watermarking. The mission of the Digital Watermarking Alliance is: * "''to create awareness and promote the v ...

, an organization that was formed to promote and educate the public about the benefits of

technology.

References

{{reflist Mass media companies of the Netherlands Mass media in Eindhoven