Quantel Says No Overlap From Snell Merger

At its first major press event since acquiring Snell in mid-March, Quantel reassured customers that their investments in the companies’ technology will not be made obsolete by a consolidation of duplicated product lines.

Speaking at a pre-NAB press conference April 6 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Ray Cross, executive chairman and CEO of Quantel and Snell said there is “zero product overlap” between the two companies.

Among the benefits customers will realize from the acquisition will be more products across the delivery chain and more local support at a greater number of locations worldwide, he added. Prior to the March 12 acquisition of Snell, Quantel had eight regional offices around the globe. Now it has 13, he said.

“Together we have created a new force in media technology in the broadcast industry,” he said. Combined, the companies will devote between 150 and 160 people to research and development, Cross said. He added that the technology road maps for both companies “will continue separately but will come together.”

For broadcasters needing to deploy a distributed workflow to produce news, such as news organizations with remote bureaus, Quantel said it has expanded the capabilities of its QTube product line.

Quantel has added a complete effects toolset and enhanced ingest to QTube Edit. Together, these new capabilities support common editing requires at news bureaus. QTube Edit makes it possible to edit video ingested locally while integrating material from other sites into the story. Titles and effects can also be added. Finished stories can be published to any playout location on the wide area network.

The company also has added QTube Browser, a web browser that gives users access to content worldwide via QTube. Quantel also has added the ability to see and control the QTube infrastructure via a new management layer added to QTube Interstice.