Scallop Imaging is back

BOSTON—Scallop Imaging, a camera manufacturer that introduced its  “distributed imaging” technology in 2009, has new ownership and management who plan to make Scallop Imaging a well known name in security.

New CEO Olaf Krohg has hired Steve Gorski, who was most recently GM Americas for Mobotix, to head up sales and marketing. Krohg, working with investors he declined to name, purchased the assets of Scallop Imaging from Tenebraex, an optical technology company, about a year ago. Gorski joined the company in April.

Scallop Imaging offers digital and analog cameras that “stitch together” images from multiple sensors to form an undistorted (non-fisheye), high resolution, 180-degree-or-larger view on a single video frame.

Krohg described the recent history of the company this way: “It was introduced with some fanfare in 2009, but the oomph fizzled with the parent company and [Scallop Imaging] was left to fend for itself without a sales and marketing effort.”

But Scallop Imaging products continued to sell and the company continued to support those sales. “There are thousands [of cameras] already installed in the field,” Krohg said. It provided solid state M6-200 IP cameras with a 200-degree panoramic view for perimeter security at the Statue of Liberty project, for example.

Gorski explained, “The product was supported from a technology perspective, but [support] was a reactive approach.”

Gorski plans to “expand the number of distributors we work with and focus on putting a channel partner program together.” Scallop already works with ADI, Anixter and Tri-Ed, and Gorski expects to announce new distribution partners in the next 30 days. The channel partner program will be launched within the next 90 days, he said.

Importantly, Gorski said, Scallop Imaging is based in Boston and also manufactured here.

“While it's a unique technology that definitely stands out, it uses a standard codec, H.264, and is compatible with most VMSes,” he said.

The form factor is unusual and it can be customized, Krohg said. “It's can be recessed into the wall, hidden in crevices. It works in a car [or other transportation vehicles],” he said.  

Gorski said the vertical markets where it's used currently include health care, retail and education. He is particularly excited about Scallop's “extreme low-light camera that does not require infrared illumination,” which he said is ideal for critical infrastructure applications.