MATROX MONARCH HD PROFESSIONAL STREAMING AND RECORDING APPLIANCE

Church Production by Mark Hanna

THIS AWARD-WINNING DEVICE IS A GREAT SOLUTION FOR THE HOUSE-OF-WORSHIP MARKET BECAUSE IT OFFERS TWO SOLUTIONS THAT CHURCHES ARE LOOKING FOR, ARCHIVE AND STREAMING, AT A COST THAT IS ACCEPTABLE FOR EITHER SOLUTION SEPARATELY.

In recent years the demand for live streaming has skyrocketed, and manufacturers have responded, making it easier and cheaper for almost anyone to live stream. Not too long ago live streaming required a computer, a robust network and specialty video interface or card to ingest your video. Now manufacturers have developed products that shorten the space from recording in camera to live stream. At NAB 2013, Matrox introduced the next step in this evolution that actually makes streaming and recording simultaneous: the Matrox Monarch HD with a list price of $995. This award-winning device is a great solution for the house-of-worship market because it offers two solutions that churches are looking for, archive and streaming, at a cost that is acceptable for either solution separately.

A closer look …

The little brushed aluminum box looks right at home on Mac Pro tower. The small form factor (5.6 by 4.3 by 1.2 inches) also fits three devices on a 1 RU tray and houses a deceptive amount capability. On the front of the Monarch HD are the capture interfaces: two USB ports and an SD card slot, along with streaming and recording buttons and status LEDs for power and warning. On the back of the device there is a power connector, a gigabit RJ45 Ethernet port, HDMI in and out, and 1/8-inch analog audio in and out. The USB ports allow the Monarch to capture to a thumb drive or USB external hard drive. While these are good options, it doesn’t stop there. The SD card slot gives an alternate option, but since the device connects to the Internet it can also record straight to a networked hard drive. This option is particularly interesting because it gives you the opportunity to speed up your workflow dramatically. Lets say, for example, the networked drive was attached to an editing station with a non-linear editor (NLE) on it; the capture could be ingested into the workflow very quickly. While the options for recording codecs are limited to MP4 or MOV, they are the industry standard codec options, so at least you are capturing known and trusted formats. read more...

How to Stream Live and Record your production for under $1,000 with the Matrox Monarch HD Posted by: jim November 18, 2013 11:05 AM Matrox’s new Monarch HD is a portable live encoder that can send a stream to your streaming server and also record a master-quality copy to a network drive, or local USB or SD storage. The Monarch HD costs less than $1,000, and is available from the sponsor of this tutorial, Videoguys.com. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the Monarch to stream a live event and record a master-quality copy. (Read More)

Tutorial: Streaming and Archiving Live Events with StreamVu and the Matrox Monarch HD Posted by: jim January 7, 2014 3:57 PM StreamVu is a simple, inexpensive and well-featured service, and Matrox Monarch HD is the only hardware encoder that can produce one stream for live distribution and the other for archiving. In combination, they make an ideal solution for your live and on-demand video production requirements. (Read More)