Creative Solutions, a Division of The Vitec Group, has acquired Amimon Inc. If you aren’t familiar with Amimon, they are the largest wireless video chip manufacturer in the world. They are also the only company whose chips are tested and approved for legal use by the FCC. Amimon’s authentic chips are the de facto standard in the Pro-Video market. Amimon chips are used by Teradek, ARRI, smallHD, Paralinx, Freefly and SWIT just to name a few.
Teradek which is already owned by Vitec has had a relationship with Amimon since 2012. The acquisition seems to be a logical step for Vitec, considering they have Teradek, Paralinx, and smallHD all under their umbrella. All three of these brands should benefit from this announcement. We have already seen Vitec incorporate technology from one brand into another, such as the Bolt 703, which is a combination of products from both Teradek and smallHD.
Amimon already showed us a sneak peek at their new 4K wireless video technology at IBC. Given the companies acquisition by Vitec, I would expect to see this technology find its way into future Teradek, Paralinx and smallHD products. Given Amimon owns a lot of patents on wireless video technology, Vitec companies will certainly be at forefront of the industry when it comes to this sector.
Currently, Amimon provides chips to Teradek, ARRI, smallHD, Paralinx, Freefly, SWIT, and Vaxis. It will be interesting to see if these arrangments with non-Vitec owned companies continues. If Vitec decides to not make the chips available to other competing companies they could end up with a monopoly when it comes to wireless video transmission systems. To my understanding, Amimon is the only company that makes chips that are tested and approved for legal use by the FCC.
Established in 2004, Amimon’s main R&D center is in Tel Aviv, Israel, where the majority of its 60 employees are based. Dr. Zvi Reznic, Amimon’s Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Tal Keren-Zvi, General Manager and VP Operations / R&D, will remain with the company to lead the team post-acquisition.
This acquisition is part of Vitec’s strategy to continue to grow the Teradek brand, to bring Creative Solutions products to market faster and to expand further in the on-location sports and news markets.
