Making the Cut: Matrox Helps the Australian Screen Editors Guild Webcast Inaugural Edit Royale Event

The Edit Royale event leverages Monarch HDX in creating a portable TV studio to webcast the video editing competition.

Edit Royale: A Game of Cut-Throat Timing

The Australian Screen Editors (ASE) guild is dedicated to the pursuit and recognition of excellence in the arts, sciences, and technology of motion picture film and televisual post production. It aims to promote and protect the role of the editor as an essential and significant contributor to all screen productions. One such promotional event held by the guild is the Sydney Edit Royale, where five emerging editors are given just two hours to edit and complete a one-minute music video using never-before-seen video footage and music. To make an impression, editors have to demonstrate their creativity and speed using only an Apple® iMac® computer and the editing software of their choice. At stake are two tickets to attend the Annual Australian Screen Editor Awards (The Ellies), and more importantly, an opportunity to make an impression across the industry.

ASE wanted the competition’s video editing content to be displayed onto a large screen for the in-house audience to follow every contestant’s progress in the competition and gain insight about each editor’s unique approach to the challenge. The same content had to be live streamed for those unable to attend, and recorded for VOD consumption after the event. To help co-host the upcoming event, the ASE guild approached Digistor, a technology and services solutions provider to oversee the technical implementation of webcasting the entire two-hour long event.

Large in-house projector and multiviewer of contestants’ computer screens.

Getting everything ready before the event.

Digistor, already familiar with Matrox® products, contacted Matrox Video to help select an encoder that fit their needs. The Matrox Monarch HDX dual-channel streaming and recording appliance had all the features that were required—an easy set up design, input for a switcher, output for a projector, a compact form factor, and the ability to push streams to many compatible content delivery networks (CDN), including Digistor’s IBM Ustream cloud video service. Monarch HDX, capable of streaming and/or recording to two separate destinations simultaneously, and equipped with selectable HDMI and SDI inputs—both with internal frame synchronizers to ensure uninterrupted streaming operations—more than met ASE’s needs.

Using an Ethernet connection, Monarch HDX streamed the SDI output from the switcher (which alternated between the six video inputs—focusing individually on each editor’s screen and the roaming camera). The Monarch HDX appliance was set up to stream at 1280x720p60 to Ustream—a low enough bandwidth that ensured online users watching from home would have a smooth and consistent viewing experience. Monarch HDX simultaneously recorded the same content, that would be uploaded to YouTube for VOD at a later time. Monarch HDX’s output was connected via HDMI to an Optoma® DLP® projector, which pushed video from the switcher onto a large screen to conveniently allow in-house audience members to follow the live stream service as well. For convenience, Monarch HDX can be controlled and configured using the Monarch HDX Command Center using any device on the network that supports a standard web browsing application, but is also equipped with control buttons directly on the unit to start/stop encoding.

Interview mid-event with contest winner, Marlena Ianni.

Live audience enjoying the competition.

Cutting-Edge Results

“Overall, the event was well received—the competitors, emcee, and audience, all had a great evening,” said Greg Taylor, technical services engineer, Digistor. “I guess anyone can stream from a personal device these days, but Monarch HDX giving us the ability to be a portable TV studio that can push a clean, professional looking show to the web is the next level! The Matrox Monarch HDX encoder was key to our live stream solution for the Australian Screen Editors guild’s Edit Royale event. We certainly plan on using this for similarly-designed setups in the future.”

About Monarch HDX

Matrox Monarch HDX is a versatile dual-channel encoder designed for today's most demanding video delivery workflows. The Monarch HDX is ideal for use in broadcast or wherever a SDI or HDMI source needs to be sent to Facebook Live or YouTube Live, while simultaneously recording or streaming to a second location. Able to retrieve closed-captioning data from the SDI VANC, the Monarch HDX's caption-enhanced H.264 media can be streamed to video hosting platforms, media servers, or a variety of content delivery networks (CDNs). MOV/MP4 files recorded with Monarch HDX preserve captions, which can be included in video on demand (VOD) or archiving workflows.