As part of its Awards coverage, Digital TV Europe asked Tom to reflect on his accomplishments in 2011, and provide his vision for 2012. Here is an excerpt of the interview.

1. What for you were the professional highlights of the last year?

We delivered a number of multi-network, multi-screen projects to our customers, and we completed the acquisition of an excellent technology company (Comvenient, a DVB conditional access specialist based in Munich). Plus, our company passed an important milestone as we added our 500th operator customer.

2. What was the year’s most significant wider industry development in your opinion?

The embrace of multi-screen delivery by pay-TV operators.  It’s hard to believe that the iPad was launched less than two years ago, when it seems that every pay-TV operator is now racing to support tablets along with mobile phones, Blu-ray players and connected TVs.

3. What are your goals for next year?

The complexity of multi-network, multi-screen systems poses a huge challenge for pay-TV operators. We have a great solution to abstract away much of the complexity and related cost. In 2012, our plan is to take a leading market position for these rollouts.

4. What do you think are the main challenges and opportunities facing the industry over the next year?

Challenges are global economic concerns and the complexity of multi-screen systems. Opportunities are the half-completed transition from analog to digital networks, and the fact that pay-TV will be ascendant as the legacy advertising model erodes.

5. What would have been your career of choice if you had not worked in the digital TV/media industry?

There are other industries?  I’m very intrigued by biotech and the medical advances that are being driven by an aging population and new genetic advances.

6. Which individual in the public eye do you most admire and why?

Well, I certainly appreciate the unique entrepreneurial spirit of Steve Jobs.  To start a business in the garage and make it the most valuable company in the world, to return from exile, create a powerful culture and brand – that’s quite a life story.

We laid out our product roadmap to show how we are meeting the needs of both our DVB and IPTV customers that are broadening their services to hybrid DVB-IP and multi-screen delivery. We haven’t received an RFP in the last 12 months that didn’t include some multi-network, multi-screen component. Even if customers are not ready to make that type of network transition now, they certainly want to understand their future options.

The Summit also provided a valuable forum to exchange views with experts and industry peers on the state of revenue security, potential threats and the piracy scene, and what’s next in the pay-TV marketplace.

We brought in two guest speakers to provide a broader view: Alan Constant and Steve Bjuvgard of Imediaco, a firm that provides technical and strategic consulting services across the entire range of media distribution technologies with particular expertise in video security. Alan offered an insightful perspective on the next 10 years of pay TV, by examining the previous 10 years. His convergence prediction is that DTH will be initially replaced by some form of hybrid network and then OTT on unmanaged networks.

Steve dug deep into piracy issues with some regional case study examples. He deftly broke down the status of piracy, along with the regulatory and legal enforcement environments in Asia and the Middle East. For example, in some Middle Eastern countries, it is estimated that up to 40% of urban households accessing pay-TV signals are unauthorized – meaning non-paying users.

Fresh from IBC, I also had some reflections to share. The most obvious was the lack of 3D “noise” on the show floor when compared to 2010. We saw only modest advancements in the positioning and development of 3D solutions and services. The 3D hype was soundly replaced by multi-screen services – although definitions differ, it is clearly the evolution of network convergence and it is no longer considered “new and mysterious” as it has been in years past. And it is worth pointing out that the falling prices of DVB set-tops are opening new markets, particularly in emerging regions.

Of course, operators are making decisions on the best ways to secure assets on these different delivery networks. As a validation of the software-based security approach, we saw even the legacy smartcard providers announce their software-based, multi-screen solutions. Of course, the other piece to the multi-network, multi-screen puzzle is content rights, which we find are dragging out these next-generation implementations.

We are working on some ground-breaking research regarding content rights across different networks and devices, so stay tuned.

All in all, the attendees at the EMEA Autumn Summit were a very interesting and dynamic group, representing both technical and business disciplines, with very ambitious and advanced business plans.  The speakers shared the difficulties of combatting piracy, not only through technical means but also through judicial, commercial, and creative mechanisms.

Of course, fun was had by all during our “extracurricular activities,” such as the visit to the Erdinger brewery with an extended tour of its facilities, where we learned everything worth knowing about beer making, and the Oktoberfest event itself, which was a totally OTT event (pun intended).

We look forward to hosting more events in 2012. We would love to get your input on what you’d like to hear from Verimatrix. Leave a comment and let us know.

But we would like to underscore the rationale, with all the current industry hype around OTT video and TV Everywhere, for why the leading IP revenue security company would be investing in DVB broadcast conditional access?

The answer is found in the global perspective we have gained in working with many different types of network operators and system integration partners around the globe. Today’s digital TV global landscape is still dominated by DVB broadcast systems – but these broadcast only networks of today are certainly the hybrid networks of the future.

Based on compiling a number of industry metrics and reports, we’ve identified 700+ operators, today with more than 160M subscribers, will switch the technology base of their network over the next couple of years – perhaps from analog to digital, or from MPEG2 to MPEG4 digital technologies. Operators that fit this description will grow to 220M subscribers in the same time frame.

And we feel all of these networks will use the transition point to consider new CA/DRM solutions that enable cost optimization and position the network service to grow into IP service delivery of one sort or another in the medium term.

Even during the next transitionary few years, the subscriber base of virtually all of these operators may well be dominated by broadcast-only technologies. But at the same time as adding a number of premium IP-based service options, operators will almost certainly want to explore a range of client options including cost-effective cardless security.

Therefore they will see a flexible DVB broadcast solution as a major component of an overall growth trajectory that includes broadcast, hybrid, and Internet network delivery. And that they will want to manage the rights for content across all these networks in a holistic manner.

Think of it this way: the operators that “only” need broadcast DVB security now, will need VCAS 3 later in their deployment. With this acquisition, not only do we maintain our focus as digital TV security specialists, but we can now offer a full security migration plan for DVB operators that want to move to a hybrid network – all under a single security architecture.

By adding Comvenient’s deep DVB expertise and hard-earned reputation for secure and reliable products, which are very complementary to Verimatrix’s, we will reach our goal to be the most successful and innovative CA/DRM company in the market.

To put a finer point on it, here is how our company profile has been enhanced with this acquisition:

Founded: 2000

Scope: Content and Revenue Security for multi-network, multi-screen applications: IPTV, DVB, hybrid & over-the-top to STBs, PCs, connected TVs, web tablets & mobile devices

Locations: San Diego, California, with European HQ in Munich, Germany; Sales offices in The Netherlands, France, Russia, China, Singapore and Argentina

Customers: 450+ operator customers in 50 countries, including 20 Tier 1s and 2s – protecting more than 18M screens for IPTV, DVB, PCs and other devices

Partners: More than 110 ecosystem channel & integration partners Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks, Technicolor and ZTE

Investors: Goldman Sachs, Mission Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, Cipio Partners, JK&B Capital and SunAmerica Ventures

NAB is a great opportunity for us to continue to discuss the benefits of our broadened DVB capabilities. You will see the Verimatrix booth (#SU6207) and the Comvenient booth (SU3024) adopt the new “Expect More” messaging and an emphasis on combining smart card and cardless security, DVB migration strategies and multi-network/multi-device security options.

Please come by to hear more.

I mentioned this earlier this year, and the main themes still exist. Operators are evaluating the best, and most-cost effective ways to enhance their network that will improve their competitive profile, capture additional revenue or simply better serve current subscribers.

Technically, the challenges may be coming from a transition to MPEG-4 for HD and, eventually, 3D TV, the integration of hybrid services onto an existing broadcast network or the delivery of video services to PCs, portable players, game consoles and mobile handsets.

Another category of operators are those that are still in transition from analog to digital TV delivery that have the opportunity to leapfrog some of the technology choices made by earlier adopters of digital standards. The push to digital usually factors in changes in local regulations, breaches in outmoded security systems and competitive pressures.

A consistent pressing need is to move towards a unified platform that integrates the management of multiple delivery networks and a much greater variety of client devices inside and outside the home. And of course, commercial paid services need an effective answer to the question of revenue security across this delivery landscape.

Depending on the balance of many factors, service providers will typically adopt one of the following approaches to the transition . . .

I’ll stop there because you can read the entire opinion piece in the IBC Show Daily. Or leave a comment and we can continue the conversation.

It is definitely worth visiting our booth at IBC 2010. We are in a new location – Hall 4, Stand B84, and will have some interesting demos and comfortable chairs!

We look forward to seeing you later this week at the show!

Now, we’ve all complained about tradeshows – they are costly, require a large amount of company resources to make them successful and can be murder if you don’t have the right footwear.

But at the end of the day, it provides us with a great opportunity to meet with customers, partners and prospects and have meaningful conversations about their conditional access and content security plans. In speaking with service providers – cable, satellite, IPTV – we have picked up on a major theme. They are all contemplating landmark updates to their network to improve their competitive profile, capture additional revenue or simply better serve current subscribers.

More specifically, we are seeing four main trigger points for operators to transition their network and upgrade their content security platform.

• Analog-to-digital transition
• Digital cable-to-IPTV migration
• Cable switch-out to all IP
• Hybrid digital terrestrial/IPTV
• The adoption of IP for video delivery of satellite

Fortunately for us, these transition scenarios take advantage of proven IP-based standards and technologies. It also reinforces our position that eventually all pay-TV networks will be categorized as simply digital TV. Two-way interactivity of IP will underpin almost every aspect regardless if it is a telco TV network or a hybrid satellite/broadband combination. 

Based on strategy sessions with customers, we have identified a unique set of complex issues operators need to consider when upgrading their content security. Namely, they need to make decisions around their long-term “revenue security” strategy.

 Our team has developed a white paper that explores these issues and provides common migration approaches that can be downloaded from our site, “New Content Security Strategies Transform Pay-TV Service Migration: What Operators Should Consider when Upgrading their Networks.”

We have received positive feedback on the paper so far. Please let us know what you think.

And we’ll see you at our next tradeshows: Philippines Cable Television Show (Mar 16-19), IPTV World Forum in London (Mar 23-25) and Convergence India (Mar 23-25), with comfy shoes!