Just as you might like to know where your content is coming from, you might also like to know the background of Mediahedge. Here are the highlights of our journey so far:

• The first watermarking activities started back in 1996 within the Philips Research labs. After several years of research and development, the technology was first marketed in 2000. In August 2002, a dedicated line of business Philips Content Identification was formed to support customers using Philips audio and video watermarking technology, and the then newly developed audio fingerprinting technology, in monitoring and forensic tracking applications.
• Philips watermarking technology was used to identify the source of illegal copies of the 2003 Academy Award Screeners, and ever since, has been relied upon by the major Hollywood Studio’s to protect their valuable dailies, pre-release material and theatrical releases content.
• In early 2006, Philips Content Identifications introduced CineFence, a forensic marking solution for digital cinemas, fully complying with the DCI specifications that, by the end of 2006, had already been deployed in thousands of digital cinemas.
• Mediahedge content clearing was introduced in December 2006. This automated copyrighted video Recognition solution is based on Philips video fingerprinting technology and can be used for video identification, for instance in Internet filtering applications.
• In April 2007, Philips announced its VTrack watermarking solution for additional protection of high value content in PayTV applications, such as high definition and early release content. VTrack is designed for set-top box integration, which is supported by major chipset vendors including Broadcom, ST and Texas Instrument.
• In early 2008, Philips, Gracenote, and various other partners teamed up in Mediahedge to create a full end to end solution for identifying, managing and monetizing media content.