The VIVA project: digital watermarking for broadcast monitoring

The main objective of the VIVA project (Visual Identity Verification Auditor) is to investigate and demonstrate a professional broadcast surveillance system. Broadcast material is pre-encoded with an invisible and unique watermark identifier. By automatically monitoring television broadcasts and registering which assets have been pre-encoded, a mechanism for IPR protection is provided. The applications of such a system include copyright protection and proof of ownership, verification of commercial transmissions, assessment of sponsorship effectiveness, protection against illegal transmission, statistical data collection and analysis of broadcast content. The watermarking technology is optimised for the high picture quality needed in a broadcast environment. At the same time, the watermark survives signal processing operations which routinely occur in broadcasting systems such as digital to analogue conversion, editing and compression. The monitoring system detects a 36-bit payload every second, which guarantees an operation time of more than 13 years, without recourse to repeat identifiers. The detection algorithm has reasonably low complexity, enabling real time watermark detection for many broadcast channels simultaneously. We report on the first results of a field trial, using a satellite link between Sweden and Belgium, proving the feasibility of the system.