Anaheim’s Extron Electronics Inc., a maker electronics for projector systems used in classrooms, boardrooms and auditoriums, earlier this month acquired a division of Burbank-based Electrosonic Inc.
Extron picked up the products engineering and development unit of Electrosonic, which designs, installs and supports big audio and visual installations.
Privately held Extron didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, which includes products currently designed and made by Electrosonic, as well as patents.
The products include devices that allow for streaming video from the Internet and processors for displaying multiple images on video walls or single displays.
“At Extron, we have been in development of a complete line of (audio and visual) streaming products for over three years and will be announcing additional streaming solutions later this year,” Extron President Andrew Edwards said. “We see the Electrosonic products as great complements to our continually evolving product line.”
Some Electrosonic workers are set to join Extron, the company said.
The Electrosonic systems integration and service business is not part of the acquisition and will continue on as a stand-alone company.
Extron is a fairly big player in audio and visual electronics, but it keeps a low profile here.
The company designs and makes a slew of electronics, including devices that transmit data between computers and video projectors, switches, amplifiers and other signal processing devices.
The Business Journal estimates the company has yearly sales of about $150 million.
Extron sells to specialized resellers that install and service what’s called professional presentation displays used by government agencies, companies and schools.
Extron started in 1983 in Garden Grove. Its headquarters moved to Santa Fe Springs for a few years and then ended up in Anaheim in 1995.
The company has some 1,000 workers here and has sites in the Netherlands, Singapore, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and North Carolina.
This week the company plans to break ground on an expansion of its headquarters in Anaheim. The roughly 200,000-square-foot building also will have a first-floor restaurant and concert venue tentatively dubbed The Ranch.
Quartics in China
Irvine’s Quartics Inc., a maker of chips that help consumer electronics stream high-definition video, opened a development center in China.
Quartics set up a site for video algorithm development and systems engineering in Shanghai.
It’s part of a larger push to grow sales in China, where Quartics has some 20 engineers. The chipmaker is looking to bring another 30 on board this year.
“The new center in China will allow Quartics better access to some of the world’s top video engineering and product development talent as well as a closer physical location to our future customers in the region,” said John Yuan, vice president of engineering.
Quartics’ chips are designed to improve both standard and high-definition video from a variety of sources, including online streaming video, as well as Blu-ray discs and high-definition movies and games stored on computers.
Quartics is aiming to sell its chips to companies that make PCs, digital TVs, set-top boxes and graphics cards—which help video and other graphics load faster.
The Chinese consumer electronics market grew 19% last year and is expected to grow an average of 13% for each year through 2015, according to Phoenix-based Semico Research Corp., which tracks chip sales.
“Demand for enhanced high-definition viewing experiences across a broad range of device platforms is exploding within China,” said Rich Wawrzyniak, senior market analyst at Semico.
Quartics’ technology “has the potential to establish a significant share of market in China,” he said.
RFaxis Adds to Board
Irvine-based chip startup RFaxis Inc., which designs chips for networked mobile devices, added a Cisco Systems Inc. veteran to its advisory board.
RFaxis added Malachy Moynihan, vice president of video product strategy at Cisco, as a board member.
Moynihan has been at Cisco since 2000, when Cisco acquired Redwood City-based InfoGear Technology Corp. for $301 million.
RFaxis targets what’s known as front-end circuitry, the most finicky part of a circuit board.
The front-end circuits deal with power consumption, amplification of signals, filtering of signals and the switching back and forth between receiving and transmitting functions. It’s also the most sensitive—and most costly—part of the chip.
The company, which has a dozen workers here, is seeking customers among makers of networked devices, including Taiwan’s D-Link Corp., which has its U.S. headquarters in Fountain Valley, Netgear Inc., Cisco and others.
Telogis Ramps Up
Aliso Viejo-based Telogis Inc., a maker of GPS software for delivery fleets, recently expanded an existing deal it had with Navteq Inc., a Chicago-based provider of digital maps and related data.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The two companies are set to work together to stimulate software development within their industries.
Telogis is making a kit, called GeoBase, available for use by others that’s set to aid in software development. Navteq is providing sample map data, real-time traffic information and specialized data geared toward helping large delivery trucks get around.
Telogis, which started in 2001, has offices in Europe and Latin America, as well as a development center in New Zealand.
