Bosch to buy Extreme CCTV

Dec. 14, 2007
Plans to acquire Canadian firm specializing in hardened systems, active IR illumination

Extreme CCTV, which was known for its night vision/low-light surveillance technology, is set to become a part of Bosch Security Systems.

Bosch announced this morning its intentions of acquiring Extreme CCTV, a firm run by Jack Gin, and based in Burnaby, Canada.

Shareholders at Extreme CCTV are being offered $5 (CAN) per share, for a total of roughly $93 million in Canadian dollars.

Extreme CCTV is best known in the security industry for their active infrared LED illumination devices, enabling surveillance cameras to see farther in the dark and in low-visibility situations. The company gained an early advantage in the area of license plate recognition systems, and also earned a reputation for weather- and explosives-hardened enclosures.

Notable products from the firm include recent product launch Black Diamond, an infrared illumination system that seeks to solve one of the main problems with IR illumination -- that such systems often couldn't illuminate the scenes evenly. The SuperLED array product with Extreme CCTV's "Black Diamond" technology claims to put an even range of illumination across a field of view extending to 982 feet, and up to 135 degree wide.

The company also is noted for its Moondance PTZ, what the company calls a "ruggedized" PTZ camera. The Moondance has been deployed in airport environments, and was brought into Extreme CCTV with the acquisition of firm Forward Vision.