Vicon acquires CONTEMPLAS GmbH

CONTEMPLAS adds yet another way to measure motion via video-based movement analysis and brings niche market strengths to Vicon with new product offering, new customers, and new addressable market in swimming

Vicon, a world leader in motion capture, today announces that it has acquired CONTEMPLAS GmbH, specialists in video-based movement analysis.

Stefan Klippel, managing director of CONTEMPLAS, said: “We’re excited to become part of the Vicon family and we are looking forward to working with both Vicon’s technology and the team worldwide. We are delighted to join forces with the market leader and provider of gold-standard motion capture technologies in this highly competitive market. We are looking forward to playing our part in Vicon’s continued success. This acquisition will also help support our future growth and allow CONTEMPLAS to bring new solutions to existing and new markets faster than ever before.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Imogen Moorhouse, CEO of Vicon, said: “I am delighted to welcome CONTEMPLAS to the Vicon family. Our strategy is to strengthen and grow a profitable market leader; with the need for quick, reliable video analysis greater than ever, this acquisition is a good strategic fit, supporting our ‘amplify the core’ strategy, providing an opportunity to further diversify our leadership position in motion measurement and grow a recurring revenue stream for Vicon.

“As motion measurement continues to enter the everyday, we continue to see a broader range of applications emerging. Today with CONTEMPLAS – already well-respected leaders in their field of video-based motion measurement – we’re adding another new way to accurately measure motion, broadening our growing range of applications across even more use cases, such as a swimming race or sprint start, amplifying our existing capabilities, consolidating our leading market position as well as expanding our addressable market.”

Acquisition Highlights

This complementary acquisition is a strong strategic fit. The rationale is clear with CONTEMPLAS bringing a number of attributes to Vicon, including:

• Amplifying the core of what we do – our strategy for Vicon is to strengthen and grow a profitable market leader. CONTEMPLAS reinforces Vicon’s technology leadership, adding video-based movement analysis to our offering.

• Strength in niche markets, including a dominant position in swimming which opens up a new addressable market. The need for markerless measurement for quick use cases such as a swimming race or sprint start analysis is on the rise, providing Vicon with growth opportunities to explore.

• Strengthening Vicon’s presence in Europe with opportunities to benefit from Vicon’s existing infrastructure to expand into new geographical markets.

• Bringing a customer base with different technical and use case requirements – CONTEMPLAS customers demand a more accessible price point and a different level of precision, bringing further diversification to our offering.

• Complementing Vicon’s strong heritage and leadership position in motion measurement at a time when the need for reliable video analysis is greater than ever. CONTEMPLAS brings valuable IP which over time, will assist with Vicon’s product development plans.

Ultimately this acquisition will drive Vicon software into yet more applications. Vicon will continue to invest organically to drive growth as well as exploring acquisition opportunities which can accelerate our strategies in our chosen markets.

CONTEMPLAS brings a great video product and differentiated capabilities

Founded in 2005 in Kempten, Germany, CONTEMPLAS is one of the leading providers in the field of video-based movement analysis, developing and distributing worldwide software solutions for general motion analysis. CONTEMPLAS’ Templo software can record and track motion across a range of activities including walking, running, sprinting and swimming among many others, whether in training or in competition.

CONTEMPLAS will be integrated into Vicon and has been acquired from its founders Stefan Klippel and Thomas Seeholzer who will continue to run day-to-day operations, bringing over 25 years of experience in motion analysis and know-how in hardware technology. 14 employees in total will be transferring to Vicon adding over 4,000 licences and over 3,500 customers worldwide including Olympic training centres and, NHL and NFL teams. In swimming its customers include Aberdeen Sports Village, focused on high performance swimming, and the Malaysia Diving Team, who are world leaders in diving. CONTEMPLAS has also worked with FINA, the International Swimming Federation, at various world events.

CONTEMPLAS’ Templo motion analysis software measures a wide variety of applications and provides 2D and 3D insights using the latest video technology and sophisticated image processing. The addition of CONTEMPLAS will also give existing Vicon customers more choice on how they measure motion with enhanced video-based analysis options, providing accurate motion measurement across even more use cases such as in-store running analysis or jumping analysis, providing Vicon with growth opportunities to explore.

In sports the video analysis is used to analyse swimming, running, starting, jumping, balance and agility and in health to analyse clinical gait, posture and ergonomics. CONTEMPLAS is also currently developing a cloud-based video analytics solution which will over time create a valuable recurring revenue stream.

-ENDS-

For more information, please visit https://vicon.com/ and https://contemplas.com/

Vicon press contacts:

UK & ROW: Wildfire | [email protected] | +44 (0)208 408 8000

Vicon global marketing | [email protected]

About Vicon 

Established in 1984, Vicon is an award-winning, leading provider of tailored motion capture systems for the life sciences, media and entertainment, location-based virtual reality and engineering industries.

Through Vicon’s premium motion capture technology, the company is able to analyse and enhance the potential for human motion for the benefit of all.

Vicon is a subsidiary of Oxford Metrics (AIM: OMG), the international software company servicing government, life sciences, entertainment and engineering markets and Yotta, a provider of software and services for infrastructure asset management.

In 2017, Vicon acquired New Zealand based wearables company, IMeasureU to accelerate its Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) product offering to enable researchers, coaches and elite athletes to benefit from data-driven performance insights.

Vicon is currently working with a large range of global clients, including The University of Southampton, Stanford Hall, Loughborough University, UC Berkeley, TU Dortmund, Framestore, The Imaginarium, Sony, Dreamworks, EA and many more.