MOBOTIX targets resi with new camera technology

NEW YORK—MOBOTIX is using its new hemispheric camera technology to launch into the home automation space.

The T24 IP Video Door Station, which the developer of network-based, high-resolution surveillance technologies introduced last year, offers a 180-degree view of what's occurring at a door. That's much more expansive than the 90-degree view offered by most door stations, Steve Gorski, MOBOTIX general manager, Americas, told Security Systems News. The company is based in Germany, but its North American headquarters is located here.

“The company thinks that this is a very exciting marketplace and because we have that unique functionality with our product, with that 180-degree view, it's really going to set us apart from the competition,” Gorski said.

He said the IP-based door station product “is going to be ideally suited for high-end homes and apartment complexes and even small businesses.”

He also told SSN this week that MOBOTIX “will have a big announcement, hopefully later this month, where we will be announcing a partnership with one of the largest home automation distributors in the United States” to distribute the product.

MOBOTIX also is partnering with Savant Systems, a Hyannis, Mass.-based manufacturer of integrated solutions for the home and commercial automation markets, in its new effort to expand into home automation. Savant has integrated the T24 Door Station into its home automation management system, so the homeowner can do such things as have a two-way conversation with someone at the door and lock and unlock the door, Gorski said.

“If you look at our distribution channel and our channel in general, it's primarily security and IT … so we really need to branch out into the home automation market space,” Gorski said. “We're excited with the partnership with Savant because that's going to help us do that. It's going to help get us introduced to their partners so they can take a look at our technology, and, vice versa, our partners can also be introduced to the Savant technology.”

Bob Ross, Savant's director of business development, said in a prepared statement the company anticipates that Savant dealers “will encounter the new MOBOTIX access/entry products in the field and we will maintain updated profiles to accommodate our integrators.”

Savant said that the core of its technology is “an open programmable platform built upon the Mac OS X operating system.”

Gorski said MOBOTIX has “a really good synergy” with Savant because the company's technology is “tightly integrated with Apple,” and so is MOBOTIX.

“We're a 100 percent Macintosh-based company. There are no PCs in MOBOTIX,” Gorski said. He said Savant has “a lot of Apple iPhone and iPad applications” and “we'll be coming out with iPad and iPhone apps for our camera and also the T24 Door Station very, very soon.”

He said MOBOTIX's door station stands out because it's 100 percent IP-based and affords more security than typical 90-degree door stations do.

“If somebody was trying to break into your home, for example, and they had an accomplice who was kind of kneeling on the ground to the right or to the left [of the door] with a baseball bat, you would see it with our product where you wouldn't with the competition,” Gorski said.

MOBOTIX this summer introduced a new “flexible” double hemispheric camera that it called ideal for hotel and bank applications.