DOLBY BUYS CINEA, EX-DIVX SECURITY DEVELOPER
Electronic security firm that developed encryption for defunct Divx DVD system was acquired by Dolby Labs Mon. as part of that company’s expansion to specialized digital imaging technologies. Company is Cinea, Herndon, Va., think-tank that developed 128-bit Triple D.E.S. encryption for Divx conditional- access DVD system once promoted by Circuit City subsidiary Digital Video Express.
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Addition of Cinea to Dolby fold would bring content protection to Dolby’s efforts to branch out into digital cinema space. Company in April acquired DemoGraFX, leading developer of specialized digital video signal processing and image coding technology such as emerging MPEG-4 JVT/AVC H.264 Advanced Video Coding standard. In acquiring Cinea, Dolby said group would continue anti-piracy work in Va. Cinea founder and CEO Robert Schumann will run new Dolby subsidiary, reporting to Dolby professional division Vp Tim Partridge.
Cinea, founded in 1999, has portfolio of anti-piracy measures for entertainment content, including digital cinema, in- flight entertainment, high definition DVD and VOD. Clients have included Universal, Disney, MGM/UA, Turner, AOL Time Warner, Matsushita and Thomson as well as trade groups such as MPAA and SMPTE. In 1999, Cinea performed research for Thomson to find reasons why Warner DVD The Matrix caused DVD players to malfunction. Part of incompatibility issue was that disc was out of spec, Schumann told us at time.
Besides Divx project, Cinea has worked on security and encryption for early-window release DVDs for airline industry. More recently, it teamed with Sarnoff in March on govt.-sponsored research to defeat camcorder recording of theatrical movies -- major source of pirated copies of films. For project, Cinea received $2 million grant from Advanced Technology Program of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As part of collaboration, Cinea received exclusive license to Sarnoff’s previously developed camera-defeating technology, and Sarnoff will also provide digital video expertise in support of program.
To combat camcorder piracy, Cinea and Sarnoff will develop methods of encoding films with artifacts that are invisible to human eye, but play havoc with electronics of camcorder. Effects won’t harm camcorder, but cause it to generate erratic disruptions in recorded image, such as pulsing, radical color shifts, or other irritating behavior, Cinea said. Company’s other effort in anti-piracy arena is COSMOS Digital Cinema Security Solution, announced last year.