One of the first fruits to stem from InFocus’ acquisition of Jupiter Systems is expected to be an integration of two of the company’s most well-known collaboration products—InFocus’ Mondopad and Jupiter’s Canvas CRS-4K.
“One of the interesting things you’ll see in the merged company is [that] the integration of the Canvas CRS-4K and the Mondopad, and that will be the first of many proof points that the two brands will produce some game changing stuff,” said Brady Bruce, Jupiter Systems VP of marketing and strategic alliances.
Jupiter, an innovator in collaboration long known for its display wall processors targeted at global organizations, launched its Canvas solution earlier this year to address growing demand for smaller-form, conference- and huddle-room style collaboration. As Jupiter was growing and expanding to new markets, Bruce says the manufacturer realized that it could grow faster as part of a bigger enterprise and had been searching for a logical fit.
InFocus is a perfect fit for Jupiter, according to Bruce. “It was almost inevitable that this happened. Jupiter and InFocus have shared this vision of collaboration. Jupiter has come from the control room side and with the Canvas into the conference and huddle room. Then InFocus comes from the classroom side and into the huddle room,” he says.
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“It all meets up in the conference room and that’s where you find Jupiter making a big push and InFocus making a big push. As we began to talk to each other we found kindred spirits looking to achieve the same objectives. Not a lot of overlap. Complementary, not competitive—and that if we put it together we’d really have great solutions that runs from video walls to huddle rooms to classrooms.”
The MondoPad was particularly appealing to Jupiter as it considered a potential acquisition by InFocus. “One of the things that got us interested very quickly was what the MondoPad from InFocus and the Canvas CRS-4K could do if they were one product instead of two,” Bruce says.
“With the CRS-4K we created a small box that lives in a conference room and allows anybody to bring a laptop in and present wirelessly, annotate, anything that is required to get work done. With MondoPad InFocus took the same focus and built this touch-enabled screen that you can hang on the wall, which is really a powerful, great PC which is also designed for collaboration.”
Extremely enthusiastic about the acquisition by InFocus, Brady emphasized that it will be business as usual in the short term for Jupiter. “You’ll continue to buy Jupiter products the way you’ve always bought them,” he said, adding the next few months InFocus and Jupiter will merge websites to showcase the broadened product line.
Related: Jupiter Systems Launches Huddle-Room Friendly Canvas CRS-4K
“We really aim to make it a seamless transition for both customers. Our goal is not to lose or confuse anybody in the process.It’s business as usual with an upside.”
There are “no layoffs, no cutbacks,” Brady added. “Everybody has a job. We need all the resources that both teams bring to realize [CEO Mark Housley’s] aggressive plan to grow InFocus.”
Watch Brady Bruce discuss Jupiter’s legacy of innovation and the evolution of collaboration:
