Genetec acquires Sipelia

MONTREAL—In a buy that brings “personnel and products” Genetec, a provider of physical and IP security solutions, announced Dec. 15 it had acquired Sipelia, a seven-person privately-held software company based in Paris, France.

Sipelia's co-founders, Jose Breval and Remi Breval, will enhance Genetec's Professional Services offered to channel partners, Alain Cote, Genetec EVP, told Security Systems News.

The acquisition brings two important capabilities to Genetec, he said. First, it brings in house development of Plan Manager. Plan Manager is an interactive map-based command-and-control application built by Sipelia for use with Genetec's IP video surveillance system, Omnicast, using Omnicast's software development kit (SDK).

Second, the buy expands Genetec's custom solutions development team. Jose Breval will become the worldwide head of custom solutions for Genetec, leading the development and management of that team. Breval has 20 years' experience doing custom software development.

“We now will have custom solutions [resources] that we didn't have before. We only had those resources in North America,” Cote said.

“The idea is to provide more complex, higher-end custom solutions...when there is a job that's beyond the reach of most systems integrators,” he said.

“We are “not out to replace the systems integrator,” he emphasized, “but when there's a need for more in depth knowledge we have a team to help out.”

Remi Breval, the son of Jose Breval, whom Cote referred to as a “genius software developer” and the “main mind behind Plan Manager,” will be the technical lead from a programming perspective on Plan Manager.

Pierre Racz, Genetec's CEO, in a prepared statement, called Plan Manager “one of the best applications ever built using the Omnicast SDK.”

Sipelia's Plan Manager is installed in sports stadiums, airports and cities, among other places. “In a stadium application, for example, operators use an interactive map of the stadium layout to select a seat. Instantly, the closest cameras will pan, tilt and zoom to the requested seat and the videos will be displayed,” according to the statement. The Plan Manager application is currently offered to Genetec customers as an add-on module within Omnicast. It will be fully integrated in the future.

The Sipelia staff will continue to be based in Paris. Cote said those seven staffers and Genetec's Paris office will be combined and relocated to a new office in Paris early in 2011.