Time for a Triple: i-PRO, Mobotix and Konica Minolta Strengthen Strategic Collaboration

This collaboration will allow the companies to mutually leverage the strengths of the portfolio offering of i-PRO and Mobotix, both specialists in imaging and sensing technologies, and combine their products with Forxai, a cutting-edge imaging IoT platform of Konica Minolta.

i-PRO offers a wide range of video surveillance products incorporating edge AI technology. Together with the renowned reliability and durability of Japanese products, that has enabled the company to increase its presence in the global market. On the other hand, Mobotix offers decentralized processing (edge computing) IP cameras worldwide, which satisfy the rigorous durability standards required for made-in-Germany products. With their high-end thermal imaging cameras, they have the critical ability to accurately detect temperature anomalies and variations.

What Kind of Products Can Be Expected?

Mobotix, i-PRO, and Konica Minolta jointly developed a system by visual and thermal cameras in 2020. The new strategic cooperation says that Mobotix will use selected high-performance i-PRO camera hardware. Combined with unique Mobotix DNA feature sets on an ODM/JDM (Original Design Manufacturing/Joint Development Manufacturing) basis, with the first product scheduled to be launched in 2023, the hardware will be compatible with the existing Mobotix and Konica Minolta system landscape.

The collaboration will strengthen solution offerings for the vertical markets – e.g. industry & production, government, healthcare, logistics – in a targeted manner with performant end-to-end solutions. It enables customers to meet their needs in terms of improved processes, higher profits, and support more social safety and security in society.

AI in Video Surveillance: Detection, Analysis, and Prediction

The surveillance and video solutions market now demands much more than video monitoring and post-event verification. Detection, analysis, and prediction using AI, and the provision of data services that leverage it, are increasingly coming into focus as new growth areas.

Connecting i-PRO and Mobotix systems with Konica Minolta’s Forxai imaging IoT platform opens up integrating and using various other devices and systems through open partnerships. Thus, the companies hope to develop unique solutions based on Konica Minolta’s state-of-the-art imaging AI technology, integrate the technologies of Forxai partner companies, expand their customer base, and continuously utilize customer data.

Shohei Ozaki, COO of i-PRO, said, “Since its establishment in 2019, i-PRO has been building collaborative relationships with partners around the world, and in 2020, entered into a partnership with Konica Minolta and Mobotix. Konica Minolta, Mobotix, and i-PRO are pioneers in image-based intelligent services and are reputed for the quality and reliability of their products. I believe that this partnership will help our extensive lineup of products incorporating edge AI technology contribute to solving a wider range of social issues.”
“Mobotix and i-PRO share many common values and have matching quality standards, especially regarding performance and cybersecurity. Together with Konica Minolta, we can bundle our competencies and offer innovative solutions including thermal technology and AI for our central vertical markets,” said Thomas Lausten, CEO of Mobotix. “The focus of video technology on data usage is a common starting point for the cooperation partners. Intelligent video technology is much more than delivering safety. It is about effective operations, increasing sales, and making people’s lives easier.”

Toshiya Eguchi, Konica Minolta’s Executive Vice President and Executive Officer Responsible for Technologies and Imaging-IoT Solution Business, commented as follows. “We are looking forward to this intensive partnership. Through this collaboration among Konica Minolta’s imaging IoT platform Forxai, Mobotix and i-PRO, we are confident that their competencies, high-quality standards, and strengths complement each other perfectly. The cooperation will be a win-win-win for the three companies. The biggest winners, by far, will be our customers and users.”

GIT SECURITY exclusively asked Gerard Figols, Senior Vice President, EMEA Region, at i-PRO how the partnership came about:

Gerard Figols: “We’re proud to see other market leaders in image-based intelligent services relying on i-PRO products and give EMEA customers access to value-adding usage of video technology for data insights. The partnership first started during the pandemic, when all three companies worked on a joint approach, leveraging their strength to provide measurements for ‘infection risk reduction’. Now we are seeing this initial initiative expand into other areas where i-PRO products can be incorporated into market opportunities for solutions utilising AI sensor technology.
This makes the strategic collaboration a clear example of i-PRO’s open policy and the move of the surveillance and video market towards powerful edge AI applications. i-PRO is a hardware manufacturer focusing on the development of powerful edge-AI cameras, our field of expertise. Different to our legacy from Panasonic when the approach was to develop and maintain the whole vertical solution, since the establishment of i-PRO we have actively endeavoured to rebuild partnerships. This reorientation towards our open policy has become the major driving force for our market growth, enabling i-PRO EMEA to grow roughly three times faster than the overall CCTV market.  Together with Mobotix and Konica Minolta, we look forward to giving more customers access to this rapid business growth, and i-PRO’s high quality open edge-AI hardware.”