Overview
SmarDTV, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company, is the international leader in modules enabling the reception of pay television.
We design and manufacture highly secure, interchangeable modules and associated enabling technologies, which provide authorized access to scrambled television services on all screens: Televisions, but also PC Personal Computers, mobile phones and portable devices.
SmarDTV Conditional Access Modules (CAMs) are used daily by millions of subscribers around the world.
Our products and technologies cover all aspects of the CAM ecosystem, from the various flavors of the CAMs themselves, to the tools, adapters, chips, and software necessary to help partners such as CE device manufacturers and TV operators successfully test the interoperability of their devices and services with SmarDTV’s CAMs.
Market
The rapid transition from analogue to digital television has being driven by consumer demand for higher quality video and personalized interactive services.
A major challenge is how to limit access to new content and services so that only paying subscribers can enjoy them.
In today's pay-TV digital broadcasting market, the content is most often protected by the use of proprietary set-top boxes, which typically connect to an analog television set to receive and descramble broadcast signals using encryption/decryption technology known as Conditional Access.
The DVB committee defined a Common Interface (DVB-CI) slot and associated removable security module to allow for open and flexible access to pay television services. Use of DVB-CI allows STB and TV manufacturers to design products that can work in various regions with various Conditional Access systems, just by changing the Conditional Access Module (CAM). Furthermore, television subscribers can switch to a different service also by changing the CAM.
More recently, a new specification has been successfully introduced on the market: CI Plus, a technical specification that adds additional security and features to the proven DVB Common Interface Standard. Combining the convenient form factor of DVB-CI CAMs with advanced security, CI Plus has rapidly spread amongst a wide range of consumer electronic devices, such as Integrated Digital Televisions and Set Top Boxes.
Recognizing the end-users willingness to enjoy their premium content on all screens, SmarDTV also proposes Conditional Access Modules fitting not only the living room type of equipments (typically Digital Televisions and Set Top Boxes), but also the secondary screens of the households such as Personal Computers, or battery powered portable Televisions and mobile handsets.
With the acceleration of analog to digital transition in many geographies, moving from a niche to a mass market volume, the benefit of using CAMs to enable access digital pay-TV service directly inside an integrated Digital TV (iDTV) is rising. Along with this rise comes better comfort and higher flexibility for subscribers, lowering electrical power consumption while offering a best-of-breed reliability and cost efficiency to all parties in the value chain.