Creative Video Design – The Edit Company – is a fullservice production and post facility based in Capelle a/d IJssel, Holland. We specialise in video production for the entertainment industry and also take on corporate and digital signage projects. We pride ourselves on giving our clients affordable ways to disseminate their messages and tell their stories. We’ve become experts at repurposing video assets for the full gamut of delivery formats – TV broadcast, Blu-ray, Flash for the web, YouTube, and mobile devices such as iPad.
As Chief Executive, it’s my job to keep costs low, so I search out versatile gear that lets us complete our projects very quickly. That’s where the Matrox MXO2 I/O devices with the MAX H.264 encoding technology and Adobe CS5 Production Premium come in.
As a cameraman, I appreciate the portability of the MXO2 and its wide variety of inputs and outputs. I can easily take it in my laptop bag on location with the confidence that I will be able to connect to virtually any video device I am confronted with in the field, be it SDI, component, Y/C, composite, or HDMI. MXO2 can even run off a camera battery when needed.
On set, we often hook up the MXO2 to drive a lightweight, inexpensive HDMI monitor so we can set up our shots and check framing. We can also drive a second preview monitor that gives the client a good look at the video before we move on to the next shot. MXO2 lets us use an HDMI monitor exactly as we would a broadcast HD/SD monitor thanks to Matrox’s colour calibration tools for hue, chroma, contrast, brightness, and blue-only.
On multi-camera shoots we use the Matrox realtime secondary colour correction feature to grade and colour match everything within a few mouse clicks into one rock-solid colour setting.
When we’re shooting footage for chromakeying we use the power ful realtime Matrox chroma keyer to make sure we have a good shot, reducing the tweaking we need to do in post. The Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame codec is great for this application because its 4:2:2 colour space provides better results for keying than 4:2:0 codecs.
As an audio editor, I like the MXO2’s professional audio inputs and outputs with 5.1 surround sound monitoring. Creative Video Design has been certified by Dolby and DTS since 2000 for in-house 5.1 editing on any production that requires it, particularly Blu-ray discs. Our audio editing software can load up an .avi stream of the final video edit and the MXO2 outputs video in sync with audio on my output monitor. Matrox calls that the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) feature and again, we’re happy to have that unique productivity tool.
As a video editor, I love the extensive codec support offered by Matrox. I can simply come from virtually any codec in the world and export to virtually any codec in the world. I have complete flexibility. More and more of our work ends up as H.264 files these days for the web, mobile devices, and Blu-ray.
The Matrox MAX H.264 encoding accelerator that is built into my MXO2 devices really speeds up turnaround time for client approvals and for the ultimate deliveries to the H.264 formats. We save untold hours of rendering time.
We are very happy that Matrox thinks the way an editor thinks. I have never seen another piece of hardware that facilitates smooth workflow in as many ways as the multi-purpose MXO2 devices with MAX.
At the end of each project, you will see me with a big smile on my face! I’ve just placed an order for another MXO2 with MAX so my shooters and editors don’t have to fight over the two we currently own. No one wants to be on a job without their trusted Matrox device.
Louis van Waversveld is Chief Executive, cameraman, and editor at Creative Video Design. Visitpostproduction.nl to view some of his work.
Contacts
Matrox Video
T: +44 (0) 1895 827220
E: video.info.emea@matrox.com
