CP Communications has acquired the assets of SportsCam, the innovator and creator of a wide range of wireless and robotic camera products for live sports production. The acquisition expands CP Communications’ range of wired, wireless and cellular content acquisition and streaming systems for its Red House Streaming brand, while also opening the door for new business opportunities in AV, security and public safety.
SportsCam changed the fan engagement game with wearable wireless cameras, among the first technologies to embed camera and transmission equipment into clothing. Their products emphasize wearable, cloud-connected cameras to capture close-up sports action from varied points of view. The SportsCam products have been used in hockey, boxing and college football broadcasts. They are also used by remote newsgathering teams, and serve many other content acquisition needs for broadcast and professional AV events.
CP Communication’s CEO Kurt Heitmann is bullish about where SportsCam can take the company beyond sports production, most notably markets such as law enforcement, public safety, and oil and gas that rely on wearable and robotic cameras to document events. He sees strong synergies between SportsCam and products that CP Communications and Red House Streaming regularly leverage for sports and live events, including Mobile Viewpoint’s IP streaming and bonded cellular solutions.
“SportsCam has developed an impressive product family that allow our customers to capture and stream live events as they happen, and deliver secure, encrypted streams back to a studio or command and control center,” says Heitmann. “We have long used these products in sports production, and we can now apply the operational efficiencies and benefits to a broader range of acquisition and streaming applications under our Red House Streaming brand. We are excited to bring a proven broadcast-quality technology to markets that today often use consumer technology to record and backhaul live video to central locations.”
“Our 35 years of broadcast experience has gradually transitioned into a wider universe of streaming applications for virtual corporate events, houses of worship and live-streamed athletic events such as bike races, marathons and triathlons,” adds Heitmann. “Our Red House Streaming brand was established to bring the cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency of IP, cloud services and bonded networking to more customers and markets. The SportsCam acquisition amplifies this strategy.”
Heitmann says that SportsCam founder, Chris Stramacchia, will remain with CP Communications and work closely with the company’s engineering and R&D teams.
“I am very excited that SportsCam is now a part of CP Communications,” says Stramacchia. “The combination of our specialty camera expertise with CP’s strengths in wireless acquisition, along with streaming and bonded technologies, will allow the creation of exciting new imaging systems for a wide range of applications from sports to corporate and industrial. CP Communications’ longevity and reputation as an innovator in broadcast and media technology services provides a perfect platform for the growth of SportsCam products and services.”
