Cypress-based Christie Digital Systems Inc., a maker of digital and film projectors, is buying a maker of video processing systems based in Phoenix.
Christie is buying Vista Controls Systems Corp., a maker of gear to help broadcasters and others mix and edit digital video feeds with graphics, music and visual effects.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Vista offers advancements in technology that no other image processing company has been able to achieve, making our two companies an ideal fit,” said Jack Kline, Christie’s president and chief operating officer. “We already share many of the same channel partners.”
Christie started in Los Angeles and moved to Cypress a dozen years ago to be near to its parent, Japan’s Ushio Inc., a maker of halogen lights that has its U.S. base nearby.
Ushio, which bought Christie in 1991, makes the lamps that go inside Christie’s projectors.
For 70 years, Christie has been making film projectors used to show movies in theaters.
A few years ago, Christie bought Canada’s ElectroHome Projection Systems to get into digital projectors, which are slowly being adopted by mainstream theater chains.
Christie has about $400 million in yearly sales, the company said.
Christie and Vista have a long history together, according to Clark Williams, president of Vista.
The two have teamed up to set up projection displays on the sets of CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and another major TV station in France, among others.
Vista’s Spyder is used by NBC Sports, CNN, the Arizona Cardinals’ Football Stadium, Deutsche Telekom AG’s headquarters and the Golf Channel, according to the company.
