How our DRMtoday licensing service works
DRMtoday handles your content protection by managing playback authorization and digital rights management (DRM) license key distribution through our scalable cloud service.
When a user wishes to view a video, your server delivers encrypted content to their device while the player software receives a license from DRMtoday to allow playback.
Here’s how it works.
Encryption & packaging
Before you distribute your video, it must be encrypted to use DRM protection and packaged into a delivery format of your choice. When encrypted, the content key and metadata needed to unlock the video are ingested into our secure DRMtoday database for future delivery to end-users.
DRMtoday supports Common Encryption (CENC) which enables an encrypted file-set and its key to be used across multiple DRM systems.
Our Video Toolkit service can quickly encrypt, encode, and package VOD content with keys securely delivered to our DRMtoday servers.
Content delivery
After packaging and encrypting a video file, it’s ready for delivery from your CDN or server structure.
When a user wishes to view content, their device first accesses a manifest file which is the “table of contents” for the video’s file-set. The manifest contains the encrypted video’s location as well as DRM system information and other metadata.
For content to be viewed, DRMtoday must first supply the user’s player with a license key to decrypt the video. Your content cannot be played without this key.
License delivery
To acquire a license key, the DRM layer in the user’s player app takes the information from the manifest file to launch a request. There are a few ways to achieve this, but below are two common methods.
You can learn more about what’s delivered during a license request on our FAQ page.
Method 1: Callback authentication
The player first requests a license from DRMtoday. Upon receiving a request, we validate the user with your system’s authorization API to check if they’re allowed to watch the content. Upon approval, we receive confirmation. Our DRMtoday server then sends a license, including a decryption key, to the user’s player for the content to be unlocked.
Method 2: Upfront token authentication
The player first checks with your system if the user is allowed to view the content. Upon approval, your system sends a secure authorization token to the user’s player app. Only your system and DRMtoday can view the contents of the token. Using the token, the player requests a license from DRMtoday. The token becomes invalid at this stage to prevent re-use. Our DRMtoday server then sends a license, including a decryption key, to the user’s player for the content to be unlocked.
To stream protected content, you’ll need a DRM-capable player. Discover our feature-rich PRESTOplay technology.
Globally available
DRMtoday is built on reliable AWS infrastructure. We operate servers in multiple regions worldwide for speedy and scalable global coverage. No matter where your customers are, they can quickly access our powerful license delivery network.
Fault-tolerant redundancy
DRMtoday uses proven load balancing and auto-scaling features for redundancy in each server region. In the highly unlikely event that a complete region becomes unavailable, users are automatically switched to the next-closest region to avoid service interruption. This network structure allows DRMtoday to avoid acting as a potential failure point for your streaming service by keeping things running smoothly.
DRMtoday allows customers to reliably enjoy your protected video, all while being safely secured along your delivery chain.
Take a closer look: FREE trial
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