8
News
ENENSYS snaps
up Expway
www.criticalcomms.com January 2019
Motorola buys another
video analytics rm
Motorola Solutions has acquired VaaS
International Holdings, a data and
image analytics company that had
an initial focus on automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR), based in Livermore,
California and Fort Worth, for
$445m in a combination of
cash and equity.
VaaS’s image capture
and analysis platform,
which includes xed
and mobile licence
plate reader cameras
driven by machine
learning and articial
intelligence, provides
vehicle location data
to public safety and
commercial customers. Its
subsidiaries include Vigilant
Solutions for law enforcement users
and Digital Recognition Network (DRN) for
commercial customers.
VaaS and Motorola Solutions claim that the
former’s platform enables controllable, audited
data-sharing across multiple law enforcement
ENENSYS, a designer and manufacturer
of digital TV transmission systems that
run over mobile, terrestrial and satellite
networks, announced the completion of
its acquisition of Expway, a provider of
LTE Broadcast infrastructure software
and solutions.
Expway has participated in all three of
the mission-critical LTE (MCX) plugtests
that have been run by ETSI (more are to
follow). It is also a member of the Mission
Critical Open Platform (MCOP), which is
working to dene and develop an open
terminal software with a standards-based
API between the different software layers
(LTE Broadcast middleware in Expway’s
case) to reduce integration efforts and
speed up public safety terminal adoption.
Both ENENSYS and Expway will work
together to aggressively build and market
5G Broadcast solutions. They claim
that the acquisition will give Expway a
boost in engineering and sales resources
to accelerate innovation along with its
market presence and customer service
growth, and will allow them to provide a
wider array of services and have more
depth to their offerings.
They expect that their combined
technologies will also enhance
ENENSYS’s terrestrial, satellite and
cable market offering, given the inherent
efciency of broadcast technology, which
will enable operators to provide over-thetop
(OTT) services at greater scale.
Expway’s Multicast ABR and LTE
Broadcast technologies will work with
ENENSYS’s local advert insertion solution
allowing DTT, satellite and cable network
operators to increase their revenues. The
two companies added: “The combined
technologies will also be a perfect match
for mission-critical communication
solutions and connected or even
autonomous cars (V2X).”
“We are excited to have reached this
agreement with ENENSYS, which is an
accelerator for Expway,” said Thierry
Sergent, chairman and CEO of Expway.
“It will enable faster geographical growth,
particularly with a strengthening of our
presence in the United States, and a
quicker adoption of Expway’s technology.”
agencies. Vehicle location information can
help to reduce the time it takes to resolve
incidents and improve outcomes for public
safety agencies, particularly when combined
with police records. For example, law
enforcement has used VaaS’s
solutions to quickly apprehend
dangerous suspects and nd
missing persons.
Vigilant Solutions’
portfolio includes
ANPR, body-worn
video (it acquired
BWV vendor Edesix
last October) facial
recognition, ballistics
analysis and gun crime
mapping hardware and
software solutions. DRN,
VaaS’s other subsidiary, entered
into an agreement in November
with Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems to
provide ANPR-based repossession management
services to the car hire industry. In March 2018,
Motorola acquired Avigilon, a video-surveillance
solutions and analytics software provider.
NPS acquires
APD Communications
Northgate Public Services (NPS), a
supplier of IT solutions for police
forces and a wholly owned subsidiary
of NEC Corporation, has acquired APD
Communications – a software supplier to the
emergency services, public safety and control
room markets – for an undisclosed sum.
APD will continue to operate under its
current name, and its management team and
operational sta will remain in place. APD
will remain based in Hull, East Yorkshire and
operate as a business unit within NPS’s Safety
Division. NPS sees APD’s solutions as being
highly complementary and natural additions
to its existing public safety portfolio and
customerbase.
According to NPS, more than 50 per cent
of UK police forces are currently using its
crime, custody and intelligence management
system CONNECT to manage information
on victims and crimes. APD’s mission-critical
communications command and control
solutions are used by more than two-thirds
of UK police forces, as well as by major
transportation hubs and airports, including
Gatwick and Dubai international airports and
the London Underground.
Mike Isherwood, APD’s managing director,
said: “Joining the NPS team enables us to
accelerate our strategic plan and achieve our
ambitions. e synergy between our products
and customers is really exciting. Together, we
will be stronger and have the resources and
capability to provide innovative solutions that
keep our customers at the forefront of digital
public safety delivery.” He added that “being
part of the NEC family gives us a global reach
that we didn’t have before”. He explained
that a lot of APD’s growth has come from
international markets, so “having that additional
reach and the backing and support from a
global business is tremendous”.
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