Matrox Monarch HDX Signs with University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball

In order to meet the demands of an elite team with such a longstanding tradition of excellence, an encoder coming from a brand with an equally respectable history of quality was necessary. For Tim Asher, Director of Athletic Video and Team Technologies for UK Athletics, the choice was simple. “I looked at some other different products, none of which I felt were up to the specifications of Matrox, and I’ve known the Matrox brand since the early days,” he said. “I knew Matrox had a good reputation, and once I looked into their product and looked at some of the video that had been captured by the product, I felt very comfortable moving forward with the purchase.”

Before UK Athletics decided on purchasing two Monarch HDX units, their video team had been capturing most of the men’s basketball games, which number between 25 and 35 during the regular winter season, on cameras. However, the cameras’ 50-Mbps capture proved to be too high for the recordings the team needed to store on USB drives and SD cards to later be scaled and optimized for varying screen sizes.

 

What UK Athletics was searching for was a flexible solution that would allow them to record games in multiple bitrates; one high-quality version to record onto an SD card so that the video could later be edited for broadcast and viewing on the web, and at the same time, a standard-quality version to be recorded onto a USB drive to be quickly uploaded onto iPads for easy-to-access recruiting material. “What I found is that, there are not many products that allow you to do multiple bitrates,” said Asher. “So, when I was narrowing down my search, Monarch HDX was obviously one of the first products that jumped off the page at me.”

The Playbook

The 5-Mbps MP4 files are usually transferred from a USB drive to a laptop, where they are then edited to create videos to be shown to recruits. The H.264 codec, which requires no transcoding before editing, allows for the quick pivot between editing and uploading the MP4 file, and provides fast downloads for the content that the coaches need. For example, when games are filmed at night, and the next day need to be played back on an iPad® in a recruit’s living room, the video playback requires no special software.

According to Asher, UK Athletics is now looking into also leveraging the dual-channel streaming and recording functionality of the Monarch HDX units. For members of the media who are unable to attend the men’s basketball and football teams’ coaches press conferences, UK Athletics will soon be streaming them live via UKAthletics.com with one unit while recording them with another unit.

 

When it comes to sharing his appreciation for Monarch HDX, Asher does not keep to himself. “I’ve had multiple people at multiple venues ask me about the Monarch HDX,” he said. “Once I explain its operation and how I’m using it, they are very impressed with this piece of gear. One of the things that happens in the sports world is somebody sees something somebody else is doing, they immediately want to copy.”