Snell, the new company formed through the merger of Pro-Bel and Snell & Wilcox, announced today that it has significantly strengthened the capabilities of its industry-leading Morpheus Control & Monitoring (MCM) system. The enhancements, which enable MCM to handle the increasingly complex infrastructures of today’s media environment, include the ability to monitor all products in an entire broadcast facility via a single graphical view; improvements to the system’s rules engine; and a new Web interface, which is available free-of-charge.

Industry-Leading Control and Monitoring Platform Continues to Meet the Increasingly Complex Needs of Today’s Media Environment

Based on an SQL database, MCM is a facility-wide control and monitoring system that is capable of operating over virtually all types of networks – including via the Internet thanks to a new freely available Web interface.

MCM allows users to access and control products from Snell as well as those from a wide variety of third-party vendors – in both the broadcast and IT domains – from a single application and with a common look and feel for all controls. MCM’s ability to integrate seamlessly with third-party systems provides a future-proof capability that is essential for the delivery of multiplatform media in today’s highly competitive market.

In addition to powerful monitoring and control, MCM’s intuitive design enables users to assign or modify signal paths with a click-and-drop interface, assisted by a list of alternatives automatically generated by MCM in accordance with device availability.

Advances in MCM’s innovative rules engine have created what amounts to a self-healing system, as signals are automatically diverted in the case of specified failures according to instructions set by the user. This reduces both down time and the need for human intervention, dramatically improving efficiency and program availability.

“MCM enables customers to achieve system-wide control, while at the same time increasing operational efficiencies,” said Neil Maycock, chief marketing officer at Snell. “With MCM, operational decisions can be made in accordance with predetermined operational rules that automate even complex issues such as the allocation of secondary signal paths and the prioritization of fault management. At the same time, the system is intelligent enough to alert operators to unusual situations, enabling them to respond swiftly when it really matters and where human judgment is required.”