Digital Bridge

Digital Bridge is to pre-integrate world class system components into an end to end solution.

This is to enable more operators cross the chasm to advanced pay-TV operation.

Standard configuration gives good economy and reliability both for the operators and Abel and our partners.

Digital Bridge motivation

The content protection system is the hub

The content protection system has the most central role in a pay-TV operation.  It is the only subsystem with components both on transmit/server and receiver/terminal side.

In worst case scenario, the CAS needs to be integrated with STB, CAM, Head-end/Scrambler, PSI/SI generator,  EPG generator, Subscriber Management System/CRM and Applications/Middleware. 
Also, the infrastructure becomes very complex as so many sub-systems need to communicate or be consistently configured.

Quintic interfaces are well defined

Being designed way later than most CAS, Quintic has no legacy of design choices done when technology was less powerful and while having less overview of functions required.  Quintic could be designed under predictable surroundings, and based on experience of what is necessary to support.

Quintic therefore has fewer, and simpler interfaces to the other subsystems than most (all?) other CAS.The effect is that Quintic is easier to integrate into a full digital TV eco-system, and easier to configure.

Lowering the threshold

Many TV distributors who either do not want to be deeply involved in the eco-system integration or do not have people who can manage it face a problem when to digitalize or start more advanced pay-TV operation.  There are system integrators who can assist, but also that has a price.

Having to face integration anyway, Abel tries by promoting Digital Bridge pre-integration to lower threshold for the operator.   Digital Bridge is in its simplest form a pre-integration of the core components, namely head-end/scrambler, CAS and STB.

Abel has a quite wide selection of partners and integrations already in place.  The Digital Bridge combinations are therefore many, but the DVB framework and Quintic’s clean interfaces make a particular combination easy to configure – it is normally plug-and-play.

Note that Digital Bridge is not a fixed framework.  Quintic can configured with one, several or all components different from any Digtial Bridge combination.  It is a help – not a lock-in.

Brief technical overview of the Quintic interfaces

SMS/CRM : Based on XML & Web services, the most common server to server communications.

Head-end: Based on DVB-Simulcrypt. Quintic supports the various IP and ASI low level communications. Configuration coordination via Access Criteria reference.

STBs/CAMs: Quintic does not require specific data in PSI/SI, so only the CA_ID needs to be processed.
ECMs and EMMs are acquired by the STB/CAM, but thereafter processed by the Quintic card. Descrambling according to DVB-CAS.
The messages to the user and the management of the responses from the user are Quintic specific.

PSI/SI, EPG: PSI contains the Abel CA_ID according to the standard. Except from that no Quintic information is required neither in PSI/SI nor in the EPG.

Applications/Middleware: Quintic is normally “below” the middleware, and thereby transparent. Specific applications may make use of Quintic card security functions.