As the world gets smaller and more interconnected, companies competing on a global level must establish unique value. Key to that end, is the ability to adapt, champion and leverage increasingly fast-paced, disruptive innovations. Matrox epitomises steady growth through intelligent adaptability.
Since 1976, Matrox has come up with numerous industry firsts that helped propel the age of graphical computing into the mainstream. Highlights include:
• The first 64-bit graphics processor to ably handle the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface and corresponding Microsoft Office productivity software suite
• The first to drive multiple different monitors from the same graphics processor and memory frame-buffer
• The first graphics accelerator to drive 3840x2400 (and 3840x2160) at full refresh rates
Beyond the PC
Building on innovations born at Matrox and in the computer world at large, Matrox pursued disruptive change, intelligent productivity and open standards. These developments include fully-featured video wall controller boards—capable of dealing with any input and output requirements—in hybrid video wall controllers that drove PC and video content simultaneously, as well as ‘video capture’ products used in dozens of industries.
Matrox has also provided opportunities for the market to build their own solutions by not only offering advanced hardware-related capabilities and useful out-of-the box experiences, but by providing high- and low-level developer tools for all manner of third-party UX, ecosystem and industry-specific software. Matrox has cultivated a necessary and trusted feedback loop with the market that marries direct engagement with millions of customers with deep, multigenerational road map planning with leaders from both well-established as well as new and disruptive markets.
Matrox has been faithful to its promise to provide long life-cycles and support to well-established technologies while simultaneously driving a world-class pace of core tech research and development to stay best-of-breed in a fast-changing market place.
Streaming Video; Similar Types of Problems We Helped Overcome in Graphical Computing
"It’s easy and cheap to reach millions of people with video. It’s easy and cheap to do signal management of high-performance video over IP. What’s not so easy to do is to cost-effectively get high-performance, low bitrate, low latency video to play nice with everything your stakeholders want to connect it to. That’s one of the problems we’re focused on." – Dave Chiappini, VP Research & Development, Matrox.
From the moment the internet was born, the packetising of data, communications and video into universally compatible networks has meant a constant migration of text, audio and video over IP.
While data was mostly assimilated by IP in the 1990s and communications followed shortly thereafter, video over IP advanced more slowly because of the enormous bandwidth it represented compared to audio and text.
Notwithstanding a few niches applications, where hardwired technologies still have necessary features and performance, the world is now several generations into the AV-over-IP era. Traditional content delivery from entertainment houses and broadcasters via regional infrastructure is now being replaced by live and on-demand streaming over cloud and internet-based services. Over-the-top (OTT) streaming directly between content producers and the viewing consumer is also experiencing phenomenal growth.
Organizations are following suit with their private content and leveraging all of these IT-world technologies to make their converged corporate data, communications, and AV assets all the more useful.
In 2012, Matrox launched its Maevex line of enterprise encoders and AV-over-IP infrastructure products to complement its rapidly-evolving KVM technology, advanced video wall and multiviewer technologies.
Matrox correctly predicted that the market was being built-out by many and varied players with different knowledge, workflows and priorities.
Matrox proceeded to plot the backbone infrastructure and mass consumption technologies alike into numerous studies to ascertain the trajectory of many of its markets and customers.
Some of these comparisons have since been published and even become part of the lexicon adopted by the market. In one example, Matrox plotted infrastructure and mass market technologies onto a two-dimensional graph focused on “REACH” and “PERFORMANCE”, Matrox was thus able to clearly identify all the technologies and road maps designed for each.
On the “REACH” axis, we included open-standards, patent pools and royalty studies, number and types of interoperable devices, supply chain factors and the ability for the market to incrementally absorb technologies (evolution versus revolution).
On the “PERFORMANCE” axis, we looked at what is possible vs. what is needed, for topics such as resolution and video quality, low latency, real-time processing effects and other aspects that valuate real-world requirements versus industry-marketing.
Not only was Matrox able to overlay its own portfolio onto studies of this type, but did the same for thousands of existing technologies and those being planned by global leaders. This allowed Matrox to discuss the future with standards bodies, industry peers, customers and material influencers.
With forty-two years of consecutive progress and noteworthy contributions to the world of technology, Matrox continues to innovate and lead in imaging, broadcast infrastructure, and enterprise/government/industrial IT and AV.
In 2016, Matrox refreshed its award-winning video wall portfolio to again take a leadership role in building out IP videowall and multiviewer ecosystems with its partners.
In 2017, Matrox octupled the capabilities of its flagship Maevex brand enterprise encoders with award-winning multi-channel 4K encoding for both professional end-points and in-cloud design-ins with many of the important companies in the streaming world.
Multi-market reinvigoration has continued in 2018 with the award-winning Extio 3 KVM-over-IP line. Matrox once again leaped beyond all others by delivering 4Kp60 4:4:4 KVM extension over standard IP; but doing so in 10% of the bitrate of rival technologies. Matrox is grateful to its many customers and partners.
As we march towards our golden anniversary, we have MANY more signature announcements that will continue to help change the world—one useful technology at a time—alongside some fascinating peers and collaborators.
Matrox Graphics
Tel: +44 (0) 1895 827300
Email: graphics@matrox.com
www.matrox.com/graphics/inavate