Watermarks Flow Naturally From Digital Video Innovations

By Roger Franklin, President and CEO, Crystal

It’s rare that something invisible can become a tool powerful enough to change an industry, but that’s precisely the case with digital watermarks. This technology is rooted in digital video innovations and poised to take a giant leap forward, providing a sophisticated way for advertisers to reach a targeted audience.

The story of digital watermarks begins back in the 1980s with Sony’s introduction of digital video. The shift from analog to digital meant enhanced information could be transmitted with the signal. At first, this metadata was developed by The Society for Communication and Television Engineers for use by broadcasters to cue up videotapes for playback. Today, watermarks are easily added to video or audio signals and used in a variety of ways, including copyright protection and to quickly identify the origins of the content.

In the 1990s, ratings companies Nielson and Arbitron collaborated on technology to use metadata for audience measurement. At the time, identifying who had viewed a piece of video or listened to a certain radio broadcast required specialized equipment designed to read digital watermarks, which are invisible to viewers and listeners. Today, detecting watermark codes is done with software rather than hardware.

That evolution, along with new standards allowing anyone to read digital watermarking codes (currently controlled by companies like Nielson and Arbitron), promises to open up a world of possibilities for broadcasters, narrowcasters, and advertisers.

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