Broadcast Engineering Blog » MXO2 makes it easier to take Final Cut into the field

MXO2 makes it easier to take Final Cut into the field

Phil Kurz April 17th, 2008

Reporters in the field who edit their stories with Apple’s Final Cut Pro now have an easy way to input their raw footage into a MacBook Pro for editing.

With the growing presence of Final Cut Pro in newsrooms across the country, Matrox thought it was only natural to bet broadcasters would like to take the NLE into the field. From the appearance of its booth and the interest level in its new MXO2 interface box, Matrox won that bet.

The new 2.5lb MXO2 was designed for to slide into a laptop bag and head into the field. The unit provides the HD and SD video and audio inputs and outputs needed to make it easy to ingest raw footage and playout finished stories for terrestrial microwave or satellite backhaul to the station.

Inputs include:

· Software-definable HD-SDI or SD-SDI with eight tracks of embedded audio;

· Tri-level and bi-level reference;

· SD or HD component;

· Composite video;

· Y/C;

· HDMI input with support for eight tracks of audio;

· AES/EBU audio;

· Unbalanced and balanced audio.

Outputs include:

· Two identical software-definable HD- or SD-SDI signals, one each for a monitor and a deck;

· SD or HD component;

· Composite video;

· Y/C;

· HDMI output for monitoring on a consumer-grade monitor (The unit comes with a calibration utility that loads on a MacBook Pro to adjust color temperature of the monitor);

· Stereo AES/EBU output;

· Surround sound 5.1 monitoring;

· Balanced audio out

The MXO2 comes with a built-in hardware scaler to do SD-to-HD and HD-to-SD conversions and cross conversions in real time.

The MXO2 struck a chord among broadcasters, according to Matrox’s Frank Scartozzi, who was “absolutely surprised” to see how many broadcasters visiting the company’s booth had purchased Apple MacBook Pros and were looking for a way to get their footage in and out of the computer.

Listen to an audio clip from Matrox’s Frank Scartozzi.

Update: Matrox’s MXO2 won a Pick Hit award!