Content security provider Irdeto is set to provide one million smart cards to Shaanxi Broadcasting and TV Information Network Co. to secure the migration to digital TV of China's first unified provincial network. The agreement marks the single largest contract for smart cards awarded to any content protection vendor in the country to date, the company said.

According to the contract, Irdeto will provide its Epsilon smart cards - the company's 5th generation security device - to Shaanxi, China's largest digitalization project covering 4 million TV households. Irdeto will be the exclusive content security provider for the first phase of Shaanxi's digitalization.

Irdeto's Epsilon Card, using an advanced microchip technology, employs the company's new FlexiFlash, a technology allowing smart card software to be securely updated over the air after cards have already been deployed. The tech enables security and functionality changes to the software without the operational costs associated with a physical smart card swap, the company said.

Shaanxi's cable network was developed and integrated into a high-speed, two-way broadband network covering 11 cities, 106 counties and 920 townships totaling 4 million users in all. The network supports multi-media applications including voice, data and video.