“World over, piracy of music and films is a known problem, and there is little protection against duplication. With this new system in place, the source of any pirated copy can be identified immediately and the offender brought to book,” tells Ranganathan, who is also head Strategy and Business Implementation, Real Image Media Technologies which is enhancing cinemas across the country with this programme. The Rs 50-crore Real Image Media Technologies is a 22-year old company which is one of India’s larger developers and providers of digital media technology in film, video and audio. As he gets on to explain the whole system, we realise it’s pure rocket science. So, after much head banging, here’s what the part where we can proudly say, ‘we cracked the code’!

See, according to Ranganathan, earlier, the system in use was making visible markings on the original movie prints. “So, the moment a pirate lays his hands on it, he will run it through his editing machines and erase these markings. Pirates are smart, they protect the source, and cover their marks.” With the new Thomson’s Nexguard Forensic Watermarking (FWM) technology in place, he adds, the markings on the print will be invisible. “There are no standard markings, only minor alterations on bits and bytes of digital data. This puts out a secret code which is different for each show, making the FWM foolproof.” So, if a CD or a DVD is brought to Real Image, using ‘Thomson’s detection system’, the company will be able to identify exactly where and when the copy was made. Then it is up to the police. Also, these marks can survive compression of the image into a video CD, DVD or other forms of Internet download. “There are two steps, first an encryption that protects the print in the server and play it only when it identifies the projector. Second, the invisible code.” Today, tells Ranganathan, there are about 500 cinema theatres equipped with such products, which Real Image sells under the brand ‘Qube Cinema’. For more, log on to www.realimage.com.