Tait Communications buys m-View critical-video companyTait Communications buys m-View critical-video company

New Zealand-based Tait Communications this week announced its acquisition of m-View, an Australia-based company with a portfolio of video offerings for critical-communications users, including body-worn cameras, in-car video technology and a digital-evidence management platform.

Tait Communications CEO and Managing Director Yoram Benit said that the m-View purchase represents Tait’s entrance into the video market after building its reputation providing critical land-mobile-radio (LMR) devices and systems.

“We have been a land-mobile-radio company for decades,” Benit said during an interview with Urgent Communications. “And even though we have some LTE device that we have developed, such as the wearable and LTE mobile, we didn’t get into video at all.

“As you can see, in the public-safety market—also utilities and so forth—that we’re interested in serving, there is a high demand for video. And in order to make sure that Tait provides an end-to-end solution, we had to bring a strong video solution to Tait.”

And m-View proved to be ideal, offering many of the key characteristics that Tait officials were seeking in the video arena, according to Benit.

“The uniqueness of m-View is that it’s a proven technology,” he said. “Police officers are using that technology in Australia and elsewhere. It’s an end-to-end solution based on open standards.

“Our competitors don’t have what m-View has, in terms of the fact that we can onboard any camera that exists on the market, … [because] m-View is an open-standards solution. So, the body-worn camera that m-View has today can be replaced by any other, or we can onboard any other body-worn camera that exists in the market.”

Benit described the m-View in-car video solution as “very robust” and said the digital-evidence management platform was a key factor in Tait’s decision to purchase the company.

“I didn’t want to get to a point where I’m negotiating an acquisition … with someone who didn’t have an end-to-end solution,” Benit said. “On top of that, I wanted to get to a point where we have an open-standard solution. Because we always say that our LMR technology is an open-standard technology, and I wanted to get something in video that is open-standard, as well.

“So, the combination of having both—having end-to-end, with a digital-evidence management platform, which has AI embedded into that—is the beauty of it. We now can tailor a solution—whether it’s [public-safety] agencies or utilities—for their needs.”

For m-View, Tait’s global sales channels—and reputation—promises to expand the video company’s user base beyond Australia, Benit said. For Tait, having an end-to-end video solution from m-View potentially opens doors to new business with both existing and prospective critical-communications and enterprise customers that would be unavailable to an LMR-only company, he said.

“The acquisition is a great acquisition, because that solution is a proven solution, and m-View has a few opportunities lined up already with other agencies around the world—not only in Australia,” Benit said. “There is excitement [about m-View] in the Middle East, there is excitement in Brazil, there is excitement in North America.”

Over time, m-View products will have a “Tait look and feel,” but Benit said the m-View business unit will operate as it has been since being founded in 2005, including maintaining its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, as m-View was a private company.