NTT, BayTSP Begin Joint Field Trial of NTT’s Robust Media Search Technology on BayTSP’s Content Authentication Platform

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BayTSP announced today that it has entered into agreement with Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation to begin field trials of NTT’s Robust Media Search (RMS) technology integrated with BayTSP’s Content Authentication Platform (CAP).

“Content Filtering is a key growth market among the applications enabled by fingerprinting and watermarking technology”

The combination of NTT and BayTSP’s technologies will allow content owners to use proven video and audio fingerprinting technologies to monitor and manage how their intellectual property is used online, primarily on user-generated content sites like YouTube, Daily Motion, Google Video and Yahoo Video.

NTT has been researching and developing media search based on proprietary audio and video fingerprinting technologies since 1996. The company’s previous generations of media search technologies have already been deployed in Japan and China to do statistical analysis of television broadcast commercial advertisements, to support a broadcast music title listing service, and to implement a “name that tune” service for mobile phones. The newly announced field trial in collaboration with BayTSP is the first application of NTT’s most advanced third generation robust media search technology to Internet content authentication applications on a large scale, and the first deployment of NTT’s Robust Media Search systems in the United States.

BayTSP’s Content Authentication Platform, announced in 2007, provides content owners with a comprehensive solution that incorporates digital fingerprinting and watermarking technologies to protect and monetize the online use of their intellectual property. Key to the platform is a fingerprint library, maintained by BayTSP, that can be referenced by even the largest sites like YouTube using proactive content filtering to determine whether user-generated content includes copyright infringing material.

“NTT’s Robust Media Search technology performed exceptionally well in our ‘Gladiator’ test, which we developed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of video and audio fingerprinting technologies available today,” said BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa. “NTT is recognized as a world leader in developing advanced media processing technology. The goal of this trial is to roll out a video and audio fingerprinting service that will allow content owners to manage how their intellectual property is used worldwide with new types of fast, accurate, reliable and cost-effective Internet content authentication services for both audio and video assets.”

“We appreciate BayTSP’s proven ability to implement effective approaches to online anti-piracy detection and enforcement on behalf of their customers, some of the most well-known global companies in the movie, television and music industries. We are very pleased that BayTSP has agreed to integrate NTT’s most advanced media search engine with their CAP content authentication platform to filter and authenticate huge volumes of online content. We believe that the practical feedback we will receive from BayTSP will help us further refine our technology to meet the next generation needs of digital media makers, distributors and users around the world,” according to Yoshinobu Tonomura, Director of NTT Communication Science Laboratories.

“Content Filtering is a key growth market among the applications enabled by fingerprinting and watermarking technology,” according to Mark Kirstein, President of Multimedia Intelligence, a market research company based in Scottsdale, AZ. MultiMedia Intelligence recently reported that the key markets and applications associated with fingerprinting and watermarking will grow to over $500 million worldwide by 2012, with content filtering and identification as the largest segment.

At the conclusion of their joint field trial, both companies expect to offer a commercial service that will allow content owners to easily generate audio and video fingerprints and begin monitoring UGC sites to ensure that their intellectual property is not being misused.

“Combining NTT’s expertise in digital fingerprinting and media search with BayTSP’s expertise in intellectual property monitoring and enforcement means that a commercial application based on our combined technologies will give content owners worldwide versatile new tools for reliably and quickly monitoring and monetizing their valuable digital media assets online,” according to Ishikawa of BayTSP.

“The benefit of our Content Authentication Platform is that it works with or without the cooperation of the UGC sites. Preliminary tests have shown that we can provide timely feedback that would allow UGC site operators to remove unauthorized content before large numbers of people can see it,” Ishikawa said. “For UGC sites that want to implement content filtering and negotiate revenue sharing arrangements with content owners, CAP provides independent verification of how the content is displayed, how many people view it, and can calculate revenue sharing using business rules set by the content owner and UGC site operator that can be tailored to each offering.”

About NTT Communications Science Laboratories

NTT Communication Science Laboratories, located in Kyoto and Atsugi, Japan, has more than 100 researchers working on basic or innovative information science and technologies for advanced communication applications. The laboratory is part of NTT Corporation; NTT Corporation is the holding company in NTT Group, Japan’s largest telecommunication group. Visit http://www.kecl.ntt.co.jp/index.html for more information about the NTT Communication Science Laboratories and http://www.ntt.co.jp/index_e.html for more information about NTT Corporation.

About BayTSP

BayTSP, founded in 1999, provides online copyright monitoring and enforcement for the entertainment industry, software and videogame makers and the publishing industry. The company has its headquarters in Los Gatos, California. For more information, contact (408) 341-2300 or visit www.baytsp.com.