At Castlabs, we’re excited to introduce major updates to our groundbreaking single-frame forensic watermarking technology — now officially named STARDUSTmark. Designed to provide enhanced security and seamless integration, STARDUSTmark ensures content producers, distributors, and content security teams can track and protect their valuable assets with greater precision and efficiency.
As we prepare for the NAB Show in Las Vegas this April, we’re eager to showcase how our new updates redefine forensic watermarking for today’s evolving media landscape.
Seamless cloud encoder integration
With STARDUSTmark, you can now integrate forensic watermarking directly with our cloud encoder, Video Toolkit, and Dolby Hybrik’s cloud encoder. These integrations provide more embedding options, allowing watermarks to be easily applied during encoding. As a result, they simplify workflows and enhance scalability, making watermarking an integral part of your content production pipeline.
Additionally, we’ve expanded compatibility with FFMPEG, allowing you to quickly embed our single-frame forensic watermarking technology as an FFMPEG filter. This enhancement ensures maximum flexibility, whether you’re working in a cloud-based or on-premises environment.
Avid Media Composer integration
We know that seamless integration with industry-standard tools is crucial for professionals, and that’s why we’re thrilled to announce STARDUSTmark’s integration with Avid Media Composer. Now, video editors can easily apply and track forensic watermarks to every frame within their existing editing workflows, ensuring that media protection is as streamlined as the content creation process itself.
Support for multiple resolutions
The digital content landscape is as diverse as it is expansive, with media being shared across countless devices and platforms, each requiring different resolutions. STARDUSTmark ensures watermark integrity across all formats – from high-definition streaming to mobile playback – so your content is preserved no matter where it’s viewed or shared.
Watermark tracking
One common challenge with watermarking has been the lack of visibility into past actions. With STARDUSTmark, we’ve implemented activity history that tracks watermark embedding and extraction actions. Users can now easily view and manage all past watermarking activities and identify any discrepancies. This makes it easier to spot potential errors or security threats and enhances the overall transparency of watermark usage.
Client-side watermarking for scalability
For greater scalability and efficiency, we’re introducing client-side watermarking, an innovative solution that seamlessly embeds imperceptible watermarks into the playback experience. It ensures compatibility across platforms—including web browsers, smart TVs, and other devices—and supports DRM-protected content, all while reducing server-side processing. This method optimizes the watermarking process and enhances security by embedding watermarks that are resistant to removal or alteration.
On-prem extraction now available
In addition to our powerful cloud-based watermark extraction, we recognize that some content requires enhanced security and cost-efficient processing. That’s why we’ve developed an on-prem, cross-platform extraction app which identifies watermarked frames within a video – or even an entire content library – without any data leaving the security of your own infrastructure.
This solution ensures that sensitive content remains under your full control while minimizing cloud processing costs.
Looking ahead: See STARDUSTmark in action at NAB Show 2025
With these exciting new features, STARDUSTmark is set to further redefine how content producers secure and track their valuable assets. Whether you’re streaming, producing in Hollywood, or securing media in the entertainment industry, STARDUSTmark offers the cutting-edge protection and scalability you need to keep your content and workflows safe.
Join us at the NAB Show in Las Vegas from April 6-9 and stop by our booth W2369 to see firsthand how STARDUSTmark can help you safeguard your content and optimize your media workflows more efficiently than ever before.
Explore the exciting lineup of demos we have planned for you at NAB 2025
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