DECE’s Ultraviolet Solution Set for Midyear Debut
LAS VEGAS -- The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) delivered a 2011 roadmap for its Ultraviolet digital content purchasing solution Thursday. The system is designed to enable consumers to buy digital content that’s viewable on home and mobile devices for “wherever, whenever” access. At CES, the cross-industry consortium announced technical specs and a licensing program enabling studios, distributors, and device and application makers to begin developing UltraViolet-based offerings for consumers. DECE said the UltraViolet Account system infrastructure, developed by Neuter and now operational, will be available to support the launch of UltraViolet products and services in mid-2011.
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Ultraviolet will allow consumers to buy movies and TV content and view it on computers, connected TVs, game consoles, smartphones and tablets, the group said. Each UltraViolet household can create an account for up to six members who can access the content via participating retailers, streaming providers and devices, it said. Consumers can register up to 12 devices that can download or share content. UltraViolet streaming access allows consumers access to their collections via set-top boxes and from “most places they can access the web,” according to the consortium, including computers, connected TVs and Blu-ray players and smartphone and tablet apps. And the UltraViolet Account system infrastructure will enable retailers to provide consumers a physical disc or flash memory copy of the content for playback on DVD players or other devices, it said.
To support the rollout, DECE released an evaluation suite of technical specs including DECE Common File Format. Under the specs, video files are encoded and encrypted once but used by multiple compliant DRMs, DECE said. The format provides “substantial efficiency improvements” while allowing consumers to transfer UltraViolet movie and TV show files to any of their registered devices, regardless of brand, it said. The consortium also released design specs for each major category of company, including content providers, retailers, streaming services, device and application providers and digital distribution infrastructure providers, it said.
DECE said the UltraViolet licensing program will allow members to use the technical specifications, interact with the UltraViolet Account infrastructure via a suite of application programming interfaces, and use the UltraViolet logo for promotion and marketing of UltraViolet content and devices. To help spread the technology, DECE plans to make the Common File Format “widely available for use in other areas of video content preparation and delivery.” Details will follow in coming months, it said.
Rollout plans are subject to the individual plans of UltraViolet licensees, DECE said, with expectations of a midyear launch of initial products and services, it said. Offerings will expand to include titles available from studios or retailers, either electronically or as digital copies, it said. Retailers will enable consumers to downloaded copies on many devices they already own, DECE said, and streaming services will allow consumers access to their UltraViolet library via websites or registered devices.
UltraViolet apps, due later in the year, will roll out via software updates to PCs, game consoles and smartphones and tablets that consumers own, as well as new UltraViolet-specific devices, DECE said. The first UltraViolet CE products are due in early 2012 and will likely include connected Blu-ray players and TVs and set-top boxes, it said.
The consortium is made up of 60 companies. Recent additions include Akamai Technologies, Arxan Technologies, BSkyB, Dell, Fanhattan, Fujitsu and QuickPlay Media. The consortium also announced expansion to Canada and the U.K.