Turning CPIX into reality for video operators

Guest post by Steeve Huin | Irdeto VP Strategic Partnerships

The content and opinions in this post are those of the third-party author and AWS is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this post.

Part 1: CPIX, Your New Favorite 4-letter Word

If you offer an OTT video service or are launching one, you have probably experienced some challenges in integrating solutions from different vendors. However, things are getting better. The industry has been defining standards to help vendor solutions work more efficiently together. Most recently, CPIX was created by the DASH Industry Forum to unify the interface between Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems and packagers. But turning the standard into something useful for video operators requires more work.

Creating Value by Developing Practical Solutions

CPIX describes the “what”, i.e. the standard interface that can be used between all DRMs and packagers. But the “how” of implementing such an interface is not specified in the standard. Innovative technology vendors, including Irdeto and AWS Elemental saw an opportunity to define the “how”, and seized it.

AWS Elemental, Irdeto, and the AWS Elemental Technology Partner Network have collaborated to serve video operators worldwide. Irdeto’s multi-DRM management solution, AWS Elemental’s encoders and packagers, and AWS cloud infrastructure make up the backbone of many successful OTT services worldwide. To enable operators to benefit from the standard, AWS Elemental and Irdeto began an iterative process to deploy an integrated solution based on CPIX in mid-2017. We aimed to deliver a cloud-based implementation of CPIX featuring multi-DRM security from Irdeto with transcoding and packaging from AWS Elemental.

And we did.

A Single, Common API Specification

In the months leading up to AWS re:Invent 2017, AWS Elemental and Irdeto collaborated to complete API integration between the Irdeto key server and AWS Media Services. This simple REST API specification incorporates CPIX and defines a simple, trusted, highly secure interface between a DRM system key server and a transcoder or packager. The API is also used to encrypt live and video-on-demand (VOD) content for secure delivery to a wide range of connected devices. This single, common API specification was first announced publicly at re:Invent 2017 as part of the launch of AWS Media Services. Presentations during the launch included this API integration between the Irdeto multi-DRM solution and AWS Elemental MediaConvert, a file-based video transcoding service with broadcast-grade features, and AWS Elemental MediaPackage, a video origination and packaging service for live video.

With a CPIX-based interface, integration between DRM and packager solutions is slashed from months to days. No more time wasted on vendors’ proprietary interfaces, no more ecosystem politics holding up operators’ OTT deployments. While it’s not surprising that this single, common API specification was well received by AWS Elemental Technology Partners and customers, it is a significant advancement to have turned CPIX into a real-world solution in such a short time.

DASH Industry Forum Driving Wider Adoption

The DASH industry forum that defined CPIX has a strong working group that will continue to drive the adoption of the standard across the industry. This open API sets an excellent example for others to follow. As part of the working group, Irdeto and AWS Elemental are leveraging our experience to help the forum further define CPIX implementation guidelines and integration how-to. We hope to turn CPIX into reality for many more operators in the coming months.