We’re taking a look at the Matrox Monarch LCS - an encoder for live video production.
Who it’s for
Who is this for, well taking a look at their product page would make you think it is heavily pitched at lecture halls and classrooms in universities or colleges.
I think its design also lends itself to that sort of thinking.
What can it do
As a quick overview, it will allow you to encode and stream a single or multiple inputs to an RTMP or RTSP endpoint.
It has built-in modes for Picture-in-picture and side-by-side modes.
Pros
One device for one task
I am a fan of getting one device that is made for a specific task, in this case, the device is specifically made for encoding and it does that well.
Scheduler
A neat feature is the scheduler, which will let you set up live events that are coming up and the device will auto start and stop the streams. I can see this being useful in lots of places where constant management of the stream is not needed, it should just work.
Cons
Web interface UI
The design of the Command Center is a little intimidating. UI standards are very high these days so using a device like this can be a little off-putting at times. This could certainly be fixed with some easy improvements though.