SAM Confirms Acquisition Of Mantrics

SAM has announced the acquisition of Mantrics. The workflow and asset management specialists, based in Italy, is a privately-held joint venture, established in 2008 by Digital Video and Video Progetti. It is understood the acquisition will help enhance development of MAM.

SAM already has a presence in the MAM and workflow management area with Momentum, which launched in 2014. The core technology behind Momentum was originally developed by Mantrics. With the company purchase now agreed, the development team in Italy is working alongside the SAM team in the UK to expand Momentum and its toolset.

Neil Maycock, EVP of Marketing at SAM & MD of Mantrics, said: "When we were looking at entering this market sector several years ago, after considerable research we identified Mantrics' technology as having the core capabilities that we were looking for. It allowed us to enter the marketplace in 2014 far more rapidly than if we were developing from the ground up. We have taken this integration a considerable step further with this acquisition, allowing Momentum developers to really push further forwards in what is an evolving landscape."

When SAM looked at existing providers as part of its research, they fell into two categories; the first comprises systems that handle complex workflows that meet the requirements of major customers, meaning a lot of bespoke work and coding/scripting. In the other camp were, and still are, products with simple drag-and-drop UIs, but they tend to be focused on specific applications such as file delivery, and can be constrained in what they can accomplish.

Maycock continued: "With Momentum you have the best of both worlds with users able to define and manage their own workflows via an intuitive user interface while also being able to scale to handle complex real-world scenarios. Modern businesses aren't static: they are evolving rapidly and are very dynamic. The ability for customers to be able to grow to support different platforms/formats and to scale Momentum accordingly, without having to come back to us every time something changes, is very important."

Momentum is targeted at both the production and playout side of SAM's business and is one of its core products.

Claudio Mattei, Managing Director with Digital Video, explained: "When Digital Video decided to invest in workflow management technologies, we started from a strong background in building products for professional markets. This expertise, developed at a time when the broadcast industry was still heavily relying on tape, has given us a significant competitive advantage. The sale of Mantrics to SAM is the next logical step to push both the ongoing development and sales of Momentum. It will also increase the speed of integration across the SAM product portfolio. We are proud of the working relationship that we have developed with SAM and we look forward to deploying our skills across other joint projects and products for the broadcast industry."

Carlo Struzzi, Managing Director, Video Progetti, commented: "We have worked very closely with SAM on its Momentum product and we decided to sell Mantrics in order to create a stronger market position with full integration into the SAM portfolio. Mantrics was the first MAM supplier to create a powerful, totally integrated workflow manager. Combined with an easy to use graphical user interface, which allows complex business rules to be applied across a tapeless infrastructure, it has proved immediately successful."

www.s-a-m.com

(JP/LM)