News 12 Westchester, based in Yonkers NY, reaches more than 270,000 homes through Cablevision and other cable systems. Director of Operations, Henry Ramos, has recently equipped his in-house editing systems and his OB SNG van with Matrox MXO2 input/output devices.

“In-house we have an XDCAM HD workflow with Apple Final Cut Studio. We needed a solution to ingest SD legacy video into our timelines for quick editing without re-rendering. As we transition to HD we wanted to digitize either HD or SD from our Sony PDW700 camcorders and DVCPRO archive without conversions or sacrificing quality,” said Ramos.

He found his solution in Matrox MXO2. For in-house editing he installed MXO2 devices on eight Mac Pro- and MacBook Pro-based Final Cut Pro editing stations. In-house stations are all connected to a SAN which gives editors the flexibility to work from any station. This set up supports the XDCAM HD file-based format for realtime playback without going to an intermediate codec like other I/O products require.

Another important benefit of Matrox MXO2 at News 12 is HDMI output for monitoring. “This feature saves us money,” said Ramos. “The Matrox calibration tools turn our low-cost HDMI monitors into video displays we can rely on. Also, MXO2’s simultaneous outputs give us the possibility to rapidly place video on tape for footage that is needed in the field or even hotroll a last minute story to air from an edit bay via our router.”

For field editing, News 12 has equipped their OB van and fly kits with Matrox MXO2 units. Ramos explains, “Our toughest challenge was to find a portable solution that would fit in our trucks, and also be small and light enough to carry in our field kits. We needed to get video into our MacBook Pros from a baseband signal and the MXO2 provided that capability. With all its input capabilities, we can basically feed any signal through it – analog, digital SD, HD. This is ideal when a pool feed is distributed – we can capture directly to our MacBook Pro and not worry about quality and portability. The MXO2 output also allows us to play timelines straight to satellite or air without rendering.”

“The MXO2 helps us achieve maximum field coverage with its portability, flexibility, and versatility. It basically turns our MacBook Pro into a ‘superdeck’ with its multiple live video and audio I/Os in both SD and HD,” concluded Ramos.