Rascular, the supplier of PC-based multi-device control, has launched a new version of its flagship product Helm. Helm allows customers to pick 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.” www.rascular.com
