Matrox Monarch HD fosters collaboration at Florida International University

This school chose this encoder because it fit into their existing Crestron infrastructure, as well as being able to send RTMP streams to the Wowza Cloud CDN.

Florida International University (FIU) It is among the ten best and largest in the nation. It has almost 54.000 students spread between two main campuses and other locations in Miami.

All aspects of student life are located on the Modesto A campus. Maidique (MMC), built on an abandoned airfield that encompasses 1,38 square kilometers (342 acres). It is like a city in itself with accommodations, restaurants and different entertainment options.
Centrally located in the heart of the Graham Center, the Pit is located, an open forum where students meet, advertisements are offered and more than 500 events per year.

Recent renovations to the MMC campus include modernization of the Pit, where a series of speakers have been implemented, a video wall of 3×3, as well as Led lighting. The renovation created a lively and attractive atmosphere, that Rigoberto Campos, AV project manager at FIU, I wanted to share with the students who couldn't attend. The goal was to provide an experience similar to being there in person.

Rigoberto Campos contacted ART (Audio Reinforcement Technologies); a professional lighting system contractor, video and control, to find a solution that would allow students who were not present on campus to access events.

Paul Bell, vice president of ART, determined that streaming would be the most effective approach. As I had previously worked on several projects at FIU, Bell knew it needed an encoder that would fit into the Crestron existing at the university. The encoder also had to be able to send RTMP streams to the CDN (Content Delivery Network) existing FIU, Wowza Cloud.

Crestron Compatibility

Bell knew that Monarch encoders Matrox supported Crestron control module. “As a Crestron Certified Integrator, I was already interested in Monarch HD because of its Crestron control module. Wowza later recommended Monarch encoders as compatible hardware”, remember bell.

Live webcasts give students traveling between campuses and remote students the ability to tune in from home, or even watch from your phone while on the go.

The Pit is equipped with an HD camera set to get an overall image of the audience and artists. The camera is powered directly with a Crestron DM matrix switcher that connects to the Monarch device via HDMI. There are two different types of audio; the one with the presentation, which is taken from a microphone, and the applause and questions from the audience that make it from an ambient microphone.

“For a complete experience, we take the submix output of the audio sources on the Monarch HD, resulting in an experience very similar to being there in person”, explains Campos.

Monarch HD sends 1080p RTMP streams to 10 MBps directly to Wowza Cloud. Then, this connects, Automatically transcodes and pushes webcasts simultaneously to Facebook Live, and to a designated page on the school's website where viewers can tune in and watch.
Full HD recordings are saved locally to an SD card as MP4 H.264 video files, and are mainly used for archival purposes at the university.

Besides, Recordings can also be stored on local USB drives or network mapped drives. Monarch HD offers the ability to create split files while recording, feature that is very useful when recording for long periods of time, if the storage capacity is reached or if something happens to the energy. The event is saved until any of those possibilities occur.

Monarch HD's ability to stream and record simultaneously in two independent processes, gives operators the option to record at a higher bit rate than what is being transmitted.
For larger events, the school creates featured reels that are then posted to the Graham Center Facebook page.

Campos is more than satisfied with the performance of Monarch HD in the Pit, and has since acquired several Monarch HDX dual-channel H.264 encoders, capable of streaming directly to Facebook Live and YouTube. Both Monarch HD and HDX are now located in various classrooms on campus.

FIU and ART plan to further expand infrastructure by building a giant array for the entire campus. This will give the events team the ability to broadcast presentations, conferences and events to overflow halls and classrooms throughout the campus, expand audience reach and improve school spirit.