The electronics firm Humax has partnered with Irdeto to produce the first HD enabled set top boxes made for the Middle East market, with technology to tackle piracy as a key component of the machine.

It has been estimated that piracy is costing regional businesses something in the region of £30 billion a year, so any effort to reduce this amount would be ideal for the industry.

According to Humax, tackling the piracy issue is a concern for the industry in the Middle East, with HD content being at a premium, and the secure chipset technology used in the new set top box should provide content protection.

The set top box created by Humax and Irdeto will become available in the first part of 2010.