51 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Matrox
YOU CAN’T REALLY COMPARE THIS PURPOSE-BUILT APPLIANCE TO GENERAL-PURPOSE COMPUTE PLATFORMS
latency. They can tag key moments, review tactics and adjust the strategy in real time throughout the rest of the game. THE EDGE OF THE CLOUD The EDGE allows for high-quality, latency-free video where it counts, but how can products like Monarch EDGE contribute in an increasingly cloud-centric production environment? “We see the future evolving where production software could reside entirely in an Amazon or Microsoft instance in the cloud, allowing the production professional to access that material from virtually any computer with the right credentials,” notes Daniel Maloney, technical marketing manager at Matrox. In the past couple of years, a host of cloud-based production platforms have appeared, and the EDGE encoder turns out to be a useful part of that cloud workflow. Its standard H.264 stream also allows for easy transport of low latency, high-quality video, using the public internet, to a remote production environment. A producer could view proxy streams generated by the cloud software in their browser, along with other clips and graphics already residing there, and select clips or angles on the fly that dictates the high-quality output stream sent to an online video platform. “The most important thing when it comes to live production is low latency,” says Maloney. “With the EDGE we’re boasting extremely low encode latencies – under 50 milliseconds.” When using public internet though, you want to be able to guarantee a robust signal. Monarch EDGE uses an open-source protocol called SRT (Secure Reliable Transport), which allows packets to be retransmitted if they are lost. It allows a signal to be reconstituted should there be any degradation. SRT also has the additional benefit of allowing streams to be encrypted and secured. Monarch EDGE allows video streams to keep in sync, too. “When you’re doing live production, the streams need to be linked and
reconstituted in the cloud in virtually the same way as they would using a baseband SDI signal,” says Maloney. “You need to be able to switch between the streams and not have any latency differences between them.” The Monarch Edge can stream RTMP, which is a robust protocol used by many encoders, but it does introduce longer latencies between encoding and receiving. It is also difficult for cloud software to synchronise RTMP streams without some help from proprietary assistance. “As a purpose-built appliance, the Monarch EDGE has many advantages over general purpose PC-based systems using third-party capture cards,” explains Maloney. “Our appliance has a tiny footprint with low power consumption, H.264 encoding horsepower and channel density that are off the chart, and the embedded Linux OS is not subject to arbitrary software update requests.” MULTICHANNEL ONLINE Matrox is hoping to serve companies with top-tier encoding requirements with a 4:2:2, 10-bit encoding version of Monarch EDGE, but it is also looking to fulfil the needs of online-only distribution with a 4:2:0, 8-bit configuration of the product. Producers using YouTube as a live multi-camera distribution outlet have the ability to stream up to six angles from any one event. Having an encoder like the EDGE that can encode multiple feeds simultaneously can have advantages for distribution, as well as production. When Matrox demonstrated this YouTube multichannel capability at NAB Show 2019, visitors to the booth took notice. “Quite a few people who saw our NAB demo weren’t even aware YouTube had that multi-camera feature,” adds Maloney. “They saw it was a great way to enhance their broadcast production by having secondary angles available online.”
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