Who is NagraStar? - Nagrastar Forums

Celebrating 25 years of technology partnership with DISH

In 1995, EchoStar ordered a Conditional Access System (CAS) from Nagravision for the launch of the DISH Network DBS service. The CAS provides encryption / decryption of the signal, which allows DISH to control which customers can access which channels, provides the Program Guide, and provides many other technical elements of the transmitted signal. The deal marked the arrival of Nagravision in the North American market.

In 1998, the DISH / Nagravision collaboration resulted in the formation of NagraStar a joint venture created to address the specific security needs of DISH Network and to optimize its security solutions. NagraStar is co-located with DISH on the Inverness Campus in Colorado. NagraStar has evolved over the years to serve the security and anti-piracy needs of DISH and both its international partners, Bell Canada and DISH Mexico, as well.

Today, Nagrastar provides a number of services to DISH. Among the most important ones are:

Conditional Access / Smartcards
Anti-piracy services
STB apps
Some Wireless Components

We’ll share a few highlights of those activities with you here.

Conditional Access System / Smartcards

The Conditional Access System (CAS) is at the core of what we do for DISH. The teams support the delivery of smartcards and BGAs, as well as write code for the CAS software to enable advanced services to customers. In addition to securing smartcard refurbishment service.

The DevOps and Systems teams support Continuous Integration (CI) and deployment efforts, and staff a 24/7 hotline for critical issues.

NagraStar provides the critical encryption components for the IPVOD and PushVOD systems. Which enables DISH to secure and monetize access to DISH’s huge catalog of PPV and subscription VOD assets.

NagraStar also provides a Persistent Rights Management (PRM) system to DISH. This secures the OTT content for the STBs and is also used in several use cases by the DISH Anywhere platform.

Anti-Piracy Services

A successful CAS strategy goes hand in hand with effective anti-piracy action. NagraStar has a strong track record in fighting both traditional and emerging forms of piracy.

The NagraStar Field Security & Investigations department works to stop the spread of illegal content to pirate viewers in North America.

NagraStar owns and operates several anti-piracy labs (such as the one below) on behalf of organizations such as IBCAP, the International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy. Activities include the detection of unauthorized content using automated systems to monitor pirate set-top boxes, websites, and other streaming platforms. The NagraStar team also deploys technical countermeasures to disrupt / takedown illegal services. In partnership with DISH, NagraStar pursues civil and criminal actions against piracy organizations and end users who consume pirated content. Over the last 20 years, strong relationships have been created with local, national, and international law enforcement agencies worldwide (e.g. FBI, ICE, IRS, RCMP, Mexican Federal Police, Interpol) to setup surveillance and raids on sites from which criminals operate.

STB Apps

The NagraStar User Experience (UX) team focuses on delivering enhanced interactive features on the DISH Hopper platforms.

A total of 25 apps ranging from weather to sports to music to customer service receive a combined 10M visits per month.

The MyDish customer service app alone gets 2M visits per month, helping to reduce call center calls by enabling customers to pay their bill, upgrade, or change their current package, and view promotions using their DISH remote. It handles over 500K service upgrade requests each year.

The UX team also ingests live sports information from various providers, combines this data with the TV Schedule and provides this information in real-time to various DISH Technologies and SlingTV teams.

Wireless

Starting in 2017 with the launch of DISH’s NBIoT initiative, NagraStar’s wireless team has been supporting the evolving needs of DISH. The initial focus for IoT was on providing a robust security layer on top of the standard IoT network infrastructure.

With the shelving of the IoT effort, NagraStar has begun to support DISH in the 5G space.

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