Pre-Show Interview with Spiro Plagakis, Vice President, Product Management at Matrox
We briefly spoke with Spiro Plagakis, Vice President, Product Management about what to expect from Matrox at the upcoming NAB Show.
What's something you're really looking forward to at this year's show?
We look forward to connecting with customers, stakeholders, and friends! Every spring the NAB Show gives us a unique opportunity to assess the industry and engage in face-to-face conversations that give us valuable insight into the needs of customers and trends affecting their business.
Can you share what your company is showcasing at NAB 2024?
The solutions we’ll showcase at the 2024 NAB Show empower customers in their shift toward IP and cloud-based workflows. To that end, we’ll demonstrate products for IP video (ST 2110 and IPMX), live production, remote production and contribution, and infrastructure and control. On the Matrox Video booth and at a variety of partner booths, attendees will have the chance to see how our ConvertIP IP video converters enable interoperable, cost-efficient, and scalable workflows in any environment. We’ll also showcase the Matrox Monarch EDGE high-quality, low-latency 4K/multi-HD H.264 video encoders and decoders, highlighting new features and capabilities in the upcoming 2.07 release that make this popular Matrox Video product a highly capable solution for backhaul and contribution that supports distribution and delivery workflows. Finally, we’ll highlight Matrox Extio 3 IP KVM extenders and KMLync USB keyboard/mouse switches, which allow remote operators to seamlessly control multiple systems across a multimonitor workspace — up to four 4K or 16 full-HD displays — with automatic switching over Gigabit Ethernet LAN, WAN, and the internet.
What trends are you looking out for?
At this year’s NAB Show, we’ll be looking at the acceleration of the industry’s shift to IT- and IP-enabled technologies, which has been one of the most notable industry trends over the past year. An increasing number of our own customers are adopting SMPTE ST 2110 workflows, and interest in IPMX has been on the rise, as well, as broadcasters and other media organizations become more aware of the benefits that IPMX-enabled products can offer. Ongoing convergence and a blurring of the lines between broadcast and AV will be another big trend at NAB Show. Crossover among corporations, broadcasters, streamers, and studios will be evident in the media technologies being shown and how their feature sets target users across various domains.
Anything specific you're excited to see this year?
Matrox Video staff are planning to take in a screening of “Postcard from Earth” at the Sphere and getting a tour of Allegiant Stadium. We are fans of the technology that our customers have provided for venues of all kinds, and these are great examples of how some of the most innovative sports and entertainment venues are leveraging IP-based solutions to deliver exceptional fan experiences.
How do you think production technology is evolving? Where is the future of the industry heading (in your opinion)?
Matrox Video invested very early in IT- and IP-based technology, so our solutions are already “under the hood” of ST 2110 gear being deployed as broadcasters worldwide move to IP. We’ve long believed that IT and IP are the future of production technology, and we’re seeing this manifest every day in the infrastructure and workflows implemented to support innovative, high-profile entertainment, sports, and news production. More specifically, the advent of IP video for backhaul and contribution has been driving a broader move toward IT-based video production. Looking forward, we expect that broadcasters and other live content producers will embrace software-defined solutions running on COTS systems and IT infrastructure that allow them to operate, build, and develop scalable, best-of-breed workflows, whether on premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid model.
What tech/booths are you most excited to see/visit?
We will be checking out leaders in IP video workflows and distribution platforms. GlobalM will be in our booth, and we’re excited to see our friends at Techex who select Monarch EDGE for demanding workflows. We’ll drop by AWS, Stagenet, RED, Panasonic, B&H, and others — and make sure to catch up with our friends at all the leading broadcast suppliers who use our OEM core technology in their products.
Where can we visit you at the show?
Come visit Matrox Video on booth SL5073 — and look for our products throughout the show!
Featured Booths