News

Matrox Ships 500 Matrox Axio LE Realtime HD/SD Editing Systems (23/4/2006)

Matrox(r) Video Products Group today announced that over 500 Matrox Axio(tm) LE realtime HD/SD editing systems have been shipped to users worldwide in the first 60 days of production. Matrox Axio LE will be demonstrated at NAB 2006 in the Matrox booth SL1137.

Matrox Axio LE is the latest entry in the Matrox Axio family of products that makes Adobe(r) Premiere(r) Pro the foremost realtime HD and SD editor for demanding broadcast and post-production environments. It features no-render HD and SD finishing in compressed and uncompressed formats, superior realtime color correction tools, advanced realtime effects, and a full complement of analog and digital audio and video inputs and outputs. It also lets users work seamlessly with the other Adobe Production Studio applications, fully supporting Adobe Dynamic Link and providing WYSIWYG video output support for Adobe After Effects(r) and Adobe Photoshop(r), as well as other industry-leading animation and compositing packages. Matrox Axio incorporates Matrox Flex and Power of X technologies to leverage CPU and GPU power to provide the ultimate HD and SD post-production experience.

"It's obvious that Matrox Axio LE has hit a sweet spot in the market, making realtime HD editing much more affordable and bringing huge productivity and workflow advantages to creative professionals whether they are working in HD or SD," said Alberto Cieri, Matrox director of sales and marketing. "Broadcasters, post facilities, and project studios across the globe have discovered the benefits inherent in this complete post-production solution."

"The responsiveness of Axio LE really impresses me. Large projects are handled with ease. Import from and export to tape are seamless. The effects set is a vast improvement on the ones with standard Premiere Pro," said Bob Glover, Timeline Productions, Perth, Western Australia. "Axio LE makes Premiere Pro a viable, if not irresistible, first choice editor."

"Scrubbing and playback on Axio LE are as smooth and responsive as on our Axio HD including all the great effects like color correction, chroma keying and 3D. We can easily share projects between the two systems with no worries about compatibility issues, said Elie Zakaria, Reel Media Technologies, Richmond Hill, Ontario. "I am extremely happy with this setup, and it sure brought our costs down!"

"The Axio LE price point makes it easy for us to present HD solutions to clients who thought it was out of their price range," said Charles Meyer, Wet Cement Productions, Edina, Minnesota. "Here at Wet Cement we may go through 10,000 frames in a day and having Axio LE as part of our total edit solution for CGI shows is smooth and fast."

"With Axio LE, Matrox has done it again! This newest offering has taken me to the next level of video editing, enabling me to work seamlessly with DV, HD and SD video. It is capable of achieving quite a number of realtime layers of video and graphics in HD and SD and it's truly scalable which means that it will continue to improve as computer hardware continues to improve," said Ronen Grunberg, ReelStories, Aurora, Ontario. "I can honestly say that Matrox has created a technology that easily allows me to fully express my creative potential."

Key features of Matrox Axio LE

€ Full-resolution multi-layer realtime editing of HD and SD video, graphics, and effects € Realtime Matrox Flex CPU effects such as color correction, speed changes, and chroma/luma keying € Realtime and accelerated Matrox Flex GPU effects such as 2D/3D DVE, blur/glow/soft focus, and shine € Uncompressed HD and SD editing € Native HDV and DVCPRO HD editing € Compressed HD editing (offline and online finishing-quality MPEG-2 I-frame) € DV, DVCPRO, DV50, and MPEG-2 I-frame SD editing € Realtime mixing of HD codecs or SD codecs on the timeline € Realtime playback of SD clips in a 1080i HD timeline € Realtime mixed-format multi-cam € 24 fps editing in HD and SD with pull down and reverse pull down € Accelerated export to DVD, multimedia formats including Flash Video, and Adobe Clip Notes € WYSIWYG for Adobe After Effects and Photoshop, Autodesk Combustion and 3ds Max, eyeon Fusion, and NewTek LightWave 3D € DV-1394, composite, Y/C, HD/SD analog component, and HD/SD SDI input and output € Realtime high-quality downscaling from HD to SD € Simultaneous HD and SD output € 2-in/6-out AES/EBU audio, 2-in/6-out XLR audio, 2-in/6-out SDI embedded audio, 1/4" output jack for stereo monitoring

Price and availability

Priced at $4,495 US in North America, Matrox Axio LE is available through a worldwide network of authorized dealers. Matrox Axio LE system prices vary depending on workflow requirements. System selection guidelines and lists of validated workstation-class PCI-X computers and motherboards, as well as recommended GPUs and storage devices are posted in the support section of the Matrox website. Complete Axio LE-based turnkey systems are also available from Matrox Axio LE authorized dealers.

www.matrox.com/video

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