Technical Blog

Blockchain is the fundamental technology underlying digital currencies and new transaction processing solutions. Some technologists are generalizing the concept now and using the term distributed ledger technology, or DLT. Blockchain technology uses cipher-chaining to cryptographically link blocks of transactions. The most famous implementation of this approach is Bitcoin. Over the last couple years new trends […]

At CableLabs, we have been deeply engaged in ensuring that Wi-Fi and other technologies continue to thrive as LTE mobile technology is newly brought in to unlicensed spectrum. We have participated in the international standards process at 3GPP, and we are glad to say that there has been some progress by that body to lay […]

There are four main concepts involved in securing premium audio/visual content: Authentication Authorization Encryption Digital Rights Management (DRM) Authentication is the act of verifying the identity of the individual requesting playback (e.g. username/password). Authorization involves ensuring that individual’s right to view that content (e.g. subscription, rental). Encryption is the scrambling of audio/video samples; decryption keys […]

(Disclaimer: the author is a regular contributor to the dash.js project) A crucial piece of any standards development process is the creation of a reference implementation to validate the feasibility of the many requirements set forth within the standard. After all, it makes no sense to create a standard if it is impossible to create […]

The basic solution that streaming video provides is that an entire video file does not need to be downloaded before it is viewed. Little chunks of media may be grabbed for playback in order to achieve the same effect. The one caveat is that the media must be received as fast of the player consumes […]

Background Carriage agreements between content owners and Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs) are likely to contain clauses that require the MVPD to provide ample protection against content theft. In the traditional, QAM-based delivery model of cable television networks, the desired level of protection was relatively easy to implement and manage due to the fact that […]

We have always wanted more information about our world: Where is our next meal coming from; what’s the weather like; are my kids OK; did my team win?  Past information delivery systems, such as the telegraph, the telephone, and broadcast television, have all been supplemented with the Internet.  At a basic level, the Internet exists, […]