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Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a set of technologies and policies designed to protect copyrighted digital content from unauthorized access, distribution, and piracy. In the context of live video streaming, DRM ensures that only authorized users can view content while preventing activities such as illegal recording, redistribution, or tampering.

DRM systems work by encrypting video content and enforcing playback restrictions through license management. These licenses define how, where, and when content can be accessed, taking into account factors like user authentication, geographic restrictions, and device compatibility. Vindral supports Google Widevine, Apple FairPlay, and Microsoft PlayReady, ensuring DRM compatibility across almost all devices, including desktops, mobile phones, smart TVs, and streaming devices.

To facilitate DRM license management, Vindral provides DRM support through EZDRM or Irdeto, two leading DRM service providers that offer cloud-based solutions for handling license distribution and content protection.

Device support​

Vindral supports CBCS, a widely used encryption mode for DRM-protected content. CBCS is required for Apple FairPlay DRM and is also compatible with Google Widevine and Microsoft PlayReady on many platforms. This ensures secure playback across a broad range of devices, including iOS devices, macOS, Apple TV, Android, Windows, and Smart TVs.

While CENC is not natively supported by Vindral, it may be possible to enable it in certain scenarios depending on the specific DRM provider and playback environment.

Enabling DRM​

Please contact us and we will help you get started.

Apple Fairplay​

To use Apple FairPlay DRM, customers must obtain a FairPlay Streaming (FPS) deployment package from Apple. This process includes applying for a server certificate, which is required to encrypt and deliver FairPlay-protected content. Apple issues this certificate only to approved content owners or distributors. Customers need to complete Apple’s application process and agree to the necessary licensing terms before integrating FairPlay DRM into their streaming workflow.

See instructions here

Client integration​

Integrating DRM into a client application depends on the chosen DRM service provider. Vindral supports DRM through Irdeto and EZDRM, each requiring different approaches for license acquisition and playback.

Irdeto​

Irdeto requires an authorization token to be included as an authorization header in every license server request. Below are minimal examples of how to add it to your Vindral integration.

Core SDK​

...

const instance = new Vindral({
  ...
  drm: {
    headers: {
      "Authorization: Bearer" : "Authorization token goes here",
    },
  }
})
...

Full documentation for using the Core SDK

Vindral Player​
<vindral-player
  ...
  drm-headers="Authorization:Bearer Authorization token goes here">
</vindral-player>

Full documentation for using the Vindral Player

EZDRM​

EZDRM requires a user ID to be passed as a query parameter in every license server request. Below are minimal examples of how to add it to your Vindral integration.

Core SDK​

...
const instance = new Vindral({
  ...
  drm: {
    ...
    queryParams: {
      "user_id": "User ID goes here",
    }
  }
})
...

Full documentation for using the Core SDK

Vindral Player​
<vindral-player
  ...
  drm-queryparams="user_id:User ID goes here">
</vindral-player>

Full documentation for using the Vindral Player