Rascular Adds Snell Rollcall Compatibility To Software Control System Helm

Rascular, the leading supplier of PC-based multi-device control, has today announced the launch of a new version of its flagship product Helm. With broadcasters and playout providers of all shapes and sizes already benefiting from the technology’s unique approach to third-party device control, Helm now delivers a range of significant enhancements.
Helm allows customers to pick best-of-breed systems – be that branding devices, routers, video servers, VTRs, multi-image display processors and modular gear, or any combination - from a range of different manufactures and provides a single, integrated, user-defined, PC-based control/monitoring surface for operators. This allows users to control channels, or pods of channels, from a single screen using bespoke, pre-defined buttons for complex workflows.
Helm now supports Snell’s RollCall system for device control, with Helm able to work with any of the company’s products that are RollCall-compatible. Roddy Pratt, Technical Director with Rascular, said: “Helm dynamically detects all cards and their capabilities in any Rollcall-enabled frame. This means that any new or updated RollCall cards can be used without updating the Helm software. Broadcasters can immediately take advantage of the latest Snell technologies in combination with Helm’s powerful capabilities."
Helm now also benefits from the inclusion of Lua scripting, the fully-featured, very fast programming language used in everything from video games to Adobe Lightroom. For the more complex, user-defined panel-building within Helm, Rascular can assist customers to design even smarter user interfaces, taking advantage of the flexibility of Lua.
The latest release also adds greater Unicode support, creating a fully internationalised version. This means that when users – or Rascular – design a control panel it will support a far wider range of languages, from Arabic, through Cyrillic to Japanese.
Pratt added: “Helm has already assisted many broadcasters around the world in a huge variety of ways, from relatively simple PC-based third-party device control to handling complex, multi-faceted workflows via a simple, user-defined interface. This is a step change in capabilities, particularly with the inclusion of RollCall compatibility and Lua Scripting. We genuinely believe Helm stands alone in the industry with its capabilities.”
Rascular is a broadcast software company based in the UK. It specialises in highly evolved device control and media management tools that provide operators with direct access to third-party hardware technologies. Flagship product Helm allows customers to pick best-of-breed systems – branding devices, routers, video servers, VTRs, multi-image display processors and modular gear - from a range of different manufactures and provides a single, integrated, user-defined control/monitoring surface for operators. Helm, along with Commander, Mediant and the ET Updater range, is deployed by broadcasters and playout providers globally.
Used by over 150 broadcasters globally including Discovery Communications Europe, BSkyB, Red Bee Media, M-Net, Sky Italia and ARD.
For more information visit www.rascular.com