Video analytics company VistaScape will be joining the folds of building systems integrator Siemens Building Technologies, the companies announced today.
Siemens reported this morning that it has signed an agreement to purchase Atlanta-based VistaScape in its entirety. The purchase price was not disclosed.
VistaScape, which was founded in 1999, has gained note in the security industry recently as the trend of intelligent video has made headway. The video analytics technology essentially aspires to take standard surveillance video camera feeds and turn that video data into usable security information by automatic algorithms that can do such things as identify trespassers, count vehicles and persons, set virtual tripwires. VistaScape's primary solution has been the SiteIQ system, which merges video analytics with core security features like intrusion detection and access control.
In an announcement of the purchase agreement, Jens Michael Wegmann, the president of the security systems division for Siemens Building Technologies, called video analytics "a core enabling technology for security integrators globally," and said that the VistaScape system made sense as a platform for security systems integration.
In an interview with SecurityInfoWatch.com, George West, vice president and division head for the security systems division of Siemens, noted that the two companies had worked together in the past for the security at the Port of Illinois, and are currently working on other projects together. Like the Port of Illinois project, the VistaScape technology has been primarily adopted by critical infrastructure, including the Port of Wilmington, Del., and Boston's Logan International Airport.
West added that VistaScape's SiteIQ product made sense for the Siemens product portfolio. "Both from a technology standpoint and from an innovation standpoint, it fits very well with our model for the security marketplace," said West. "If you look at the core VistaScape product, SiteIQ, it really is a platform for security integrators. The technology is there to get an ever increasing amount of video information, but the challenge becomes how you distill that information down to actionable intelligence."
According to Noelle Britton, head of marketing for Siemens security division, the acquisition agreement will still need to go through the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS), the committee that approves sales of defense technology and companies of interest to national security. Britton siad the timeframe on the close of the acquisition could be over a month.
