Company in the newsIoimage acquires Unisor's technological assets

Published 8 March 2007

Ioimage, an important player in intelligent video, acquires technology which will bolster its offerings to the defense and homeland security markets

The market for intelligent video is growing, so we should follow what actors in it do. The latest news is that Herzliya, Israel-based ioimage has acquired the technological assets of Tel Aviv, Israel-based Unisor, a company specializing in software and hardware design for commercial and military markets. ioimage hopes that the acquisition will broaden and deepen its menu of offerings and give it an even more firm footing in the defense sector.

Unisor’s technology was attractive to ioimage, especially the former’s efforts in developing video transmission and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) solutions. Moreover, the acquisition will benefit ioimage in that it allows it to use Unisor’s patent-pending low latency video encoder (LVM) platform, aimed for high-end video-based applications used in remote surveillance, homeland security, and military organizations (Unisor’s LVM will now be marketed as part of ioimage’s ioibox series of video encoders).

Roni Kass, CEO of ioimage, said that the acquisition of Unisor would strengthen ioimage’s R&D and end-to-end product design capabilities, and would “further diversif[y] our wide portfolio of video encoders, which has played an integral role in our leadership position in the intelligent video appliance market, and also strengthens our standing in the military and defense market.”

ioimage was founded in 2000 and first introduced its products to the security markets in 2003. It opened its U.S. offices in July 2006. It uses networked, DSP-based devices for real-time detection, alert, and tracking of intruders, vehicles, and other threats. What is more, the company has packaged its entire video analytics solution into a single, stand-alone hardware-based appliance, something many end-users regard as a better alternative to the current offering of software-based solutions with multiple components.

Last November, Wellingborough, U.K.-based IMS Research named ioimage among the market leaders in intelligent video surveillance devices, with an estimated 26 percent of the world-wide market for such devices. The same month Frost & Sullivan named ioimage as the recipient of the “2006 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Growth Strategy Leadership.”

-read more in this news release; see Unsior’s Web site for details about its low-latency video module (LVM); and see details of the ioibox video encoders here