Million-dollar TV manhunt has a secret weapon: Surveillance cameras from Axis Communications

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

The new TV show seemingly combines elements of such past hits as “The Fugitive” and “24.” Only in this new show, geeky gadgets play a big role, and among the specialized technology taking a star turn in tonight’s episode is a network of IP-video surveillance cameras made by Axis Communications Inc.

The one-hour show, scheduled to air tonight at 11 on the History Channel, is titled “Off the Grid: Million Dollar Manhunt.”
If it does well, “Off the Grid” could get picked up as a series that tours different cities, said Axis, a Swedish company with its North American headquarters in Chelmsford.

“Off the Grid’s” premise? Two contestants are dropped into downtown Los Angeles, armed with nothing but their wits, a cell phone, and a credit card. Their mission: Evade a highly trained team of expert urban trackers that have some of the latest technology, including a network of Axis surveillance cameras, at their disposal. If the contestants can complete four tasks and escape the city without being caught, they win $1 million, Axis said.

Product placements, of course, have become routine in Hollywood movies and TV shows. (See the big star swill a Coke or drive a BMW.)

Because Axis cameras and the company’s IP-based video surveillance technology aren’t consumer products, company cameos in “Off the Grid” aren’t product placements in the traditional sense, and no money was exchanged between Axis and the show’s producers, the company said.

Still, during the “Off the Grid,” the Axis logo gets its share of the visual equivalent of a shout-out. And law enforcement officials, a key customer group for the company, are likely to recognize Axis cameras and technology, said Domenic Locapo, a public relations specialist for Axis.

So how did Axis get its big Hollywood break? It seems that “Off the Grid’s” producers, Charlie Ebersol and Justin Hochberg, have a history of creating TV shows such as “The Wanted,” which spotlight the technology and the techniques used by law enforcement agencies. As a result, Ebersol and Hochberg were familiar with Axis, Locapo said.

At one key point during the show set to air tonight, an Axis camera capable of panning, tilting, and zooming spots a contestant hiding behind a Christmas tree in a train station.

So as not to spoil the suspense of the show, Locapo declined to disclose how the scene ends.

But when Ebersol first pitched his million-dollar manhunt idea for “Off the Grid” to Axis, Locapo said his first reaction was, “How can I be a contestant?”