SAM: Snell Advanced Media

Next-Generation Solution Brings Integrated, Enterprise-Level Control and Monitoring to Complex Media Operations

READING, U.K. — Sept. 23, 2010 —Snell today announced that its new Centra control and monitoring solution was recognized with a 2010 STAR (Superior Technology Award Recipient) award by the editorial staff of TV Technology Europe magazine at IBC2010. Launched at the show, Centra brings unprecedented levels of content monitoring, system intelligence, and reporting to multi-vendor media environments. 

"Centra is the latest example of Snell's many years of experience and core of expertise in control and monitoring. In addition to complete integration of Snell products, Centra provides one of the industry's most comprehensive third-party driver libraries and uses open protocols such as SNMP — bringing a new unified approach to controlling media technology," said Neil Maycock, chief marketing officer at Snell. "Centra also integrates seamlessly with Snell's existing MCM Workbench and RollCall suite of control and monitoring products."

Recognizing that flexible control and monitoring is much more than device control and simple alarms, Snell developed Centra to serve as a powerful real-time solution that not only manages multi-vendor equipment failures, but also includes simple interfaces and wizards for the easy setup and configuration required of a typical broadcast operation. Offering more than just configuration, Centra provides a truly operator-focused interface in which simple recalls are possible with the press of a button, and built-in intelligence eliminates confusion and increases efficiency. This makes Centra the ideal choice for broadcast and real-time production environments, as well as OB trucks, studios, and post-production facilities. 

"STAR awards are given to interesting new products that help a user save money or accomplish a task in an easier way," said Mark Hallinger, editor of TV Technology Europe. "The products selected help advance the industry — some were chosen because of technical novelty or innovation, some because they filled an important gap in the production or transmission chain, and some because they were just cool products."

"I'm delighted that Centra has been recognized so soon for its technical innovation. While developing this product we constantly focused on ease of use for the operator, but behind its simple-to-use GUIs and wizards, it is incredibly powerful and can help to streamline workflows and increase efficiency across an extensive media environment," said Kirsty Aldridge, Snell's new product manager for control and monitoring.