Dual Encryption Solution

HLS/FairPlay + DASH/Widevine

If your subscribers encounter unstable playback on iOS devices, then you have the only way — to integrate the native iOS player into your client apps.

Such a solution involves two challenges: 

• DASH/WideVine is not supported natively by Apple. And Google’s solution based on Shaka player embedded has many issues with unclear deadlines for Google to fix. Apple’s recommendation on this is to use HLS/FairPlay.
• It is not possible to use the same copy of content for HLS/FairPlay and DASH/WideVine because they use different encryption algorithms.

We have a solution!

The SmartLabs platform provides you two options:

• Creating two copies of content
• Performing on-the-fly re-encryption

To avoid using extra storage, we recommend a combination of both options — using a separate HLS copy for Live channels, keeping just a few minutes of recorded content in both formats, and performing on-the-fly re-encryption for recorded programs and xVoD content.

The diagram below will help you understand the solution workflow better.

Benefits

SmartMEDIA Recryptor — the module responsible for the on-the-fly re-encryption — uses the AES New Instructions (AES-NI) supported by a wide range of Intel or AMD CPUs. So, for example, if you need to adapt 50 TV channels for iOS subscribers, an installation with commonly used server processors will save you more than 23TB* of disk space and significantly in costs!

*Calculated for the 1-week TSTV service for 50 channels with adaptive bitrate: HD (4.5 Mbps) + SD (2 Mbps).