Complementary products and technologies allow Bird to offer complete range of RF products from components to complete turnkey RF distribution systems

Bird Technologies, a leading provider of radio frequency based products, systems, and services, today announced that is has acquired DeltaNode from Scandinavian Health Ltd. (SHL Group) for an undisclosed amount of cash. The transaction was completed on September 1. Founded in 2005 by a group of engineers with decades of wireless experience DeltaNode has since established a strong presence in Europe, the U.S., and Canada as a supplier of RF-over-fiber distributed antenna systems and repeaters designed to enhance the coverage of commercial wireless and public safety communication systems.  DeltaNode will continue to operate from its facilities in Stockholm, Sweden.

The acquisition brings substantial benefits to Bird, as the technologies, product lines, and markets of each company seamlessly complement each other, making Bird one only a handful of companies in the world to offer a complete line of RF products and services from the component through system levels for both commercial wireless and public safety communications systems.

Founded in 1942, Bird pioneered the development and manufacture of RF instrumentation and transmission line products, and has since vastly broadened its capabilities to include advanced measurement systems, RF base station components and subsystems, amplifiers, antennas, and many others. It most recently added advanced RF signal recording, analysis, and signal generation tools for defense and commercial applications via its acquisition of X-COM Systems. Bird has 5 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and sales and service offices covering more than 130 countries.

“The acquisition of DeltaNode gives Bird the technical expertise and products to serve the rapidly growing market for RF distribution systems for both in-building and outdoor scenarios such as stadiums, transportation and many other applications,” said Mark Johnson, Chief Executive Officer at Bird. “It also allows us to dramatically broaden our leadership in providing public safety in-building coverage solutions to include outdoor networks and repeaters to serve commercial wireless carriers.”

Henrik Huss, Chief Executive Officer of DeltaNode, said that “the acquisition aligns us with a company recognized for its RF expertise and will give DeltaNode greater global reach in sales, marketing, and services so that we can better serve our growing customer base.”

DeltaNode’s technology and products offer some significant advantages over competing systems, such as fanless remote transceivers even at the 50 Watt level (which is unique to DeltaNode), light, compact head-end and remote transceivers, the lowest system noise figure in the industry, and perhaps most important, enclosures that are compliant with the stringent IP65 (NEMA4) rating including the head-end. This is an essential requirement for public safety, defense, and other applications. In addition, DeltaNode’s repeater products cover all U.S. and international wireless bands and complement the frequency coverage of Bird’s products.

About DeltaNode

DeltaNode, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, was founded in 2005 as a project within the SHL Group by a team of Swedish wireless professionals with backgrounds from Ericsson, Allgon, Powerwave, Radiosystem and Motorola. Its first major success was creating an RF subsystem to help provide 3G wireless hotspots on Swedish trains. It launched its first small and medium-power repeaters in 2007 and expanded its presence in Asia and Europe, adding new frequencies to its high-power models. In 2006, DeltaNode signed a long-term contract with a U.S. company to develop a DAS system that incorporated its repeaters and added fiber optic compatibility as well as Web-based control and configurability. DeltaNode has also developed products for the European safety network Tetra as well as for many other applications. The company has a full range of design, prototype, testing, and manufacturing facilities.