Stop choosing: why pro AV workflows no longer need to compromise

The pro AV sector has long accepted trade-offs because there were few alternatives – but video workflows are changing the game dramatically

For years, pro AV workflows seem to have been built around compromise. If you want ultra-low latency, you accept massive bandwidth demands. If you want bandwidth efficiency, you sacrifice image quality. If you want visually lossless video, you prepare for network complexity, rising infrastructure costs and difficult scalability challenges.

Today’s environments are no longer isolated AV systems operating independently from the rest of the organisation. Video now moves across converged AV, broadcast and IT infrastructures, supporting everything from live production environments and control rooms to corporate collaboration spaces, remote operations, esports, digital signage and distributed content delivery.

However, the emergence of next-generation AV-over-IP technologies is beginning to challenge one of the industry’s oldest assumptions: that organisations must choose between in low latency, high image quality and bandwidth efficiency.

Traditional AV-over-IP: what are the limitations?

The last decade has seen accelerated AV-over-IP adoption, with the industry gaining enormous flexibility in how video could be distributed, managed and scaled – but as mentioned, these came with hidden operational compromises.

A key example of this is when high-quality video streams would consume enormous quantities of network bandwidth, which ultimately meant low-latency workflows required infrastructure investments that became difficult to scale. You’d naturally then think about bringing in compression tech. That would certainly reduce network load, but that too came with baggage, frequently introducing image degradation or responsiveness issues.

When it comes to live production and control room environments, even small delays impact usability. In collaborative environments, responsiveness directly affects user experience – while in large-scale deployments, network congestion and infrastructure costs can quickly become major concerns.

Evidently, a need surfaced for video transport technologies that deliver high performance without overwhelming network resources.

Rethinking what’s on offer

Advancements in codec technology, network architecture and workflow design are beginning to change that equation – which is where the Matrox Maevex MGX Series enters the conversation.

Designed for professional AV, live production, enterprise and mission-critical environments, the Maevex MGX Series was developed to address the growing performance and scalability challenges facing modern IP-based workflows.

As an IPMX-ready device, it gives organisations the flexibility to support interoperable, open-standard AV-over-IP deployments while maintaining the performance and scalability required by modern video environments.

Rather than forcing users to choose between responsiveness, image quality and network efficiency, Maevex MGX is designed to deliver all three simultaneously.

Maevex MGX supports high-quality 4K/60p streaming using H.264 and H.265 codecs, including H.265 4:4:4 support for visually rich workflows where image fidelity matters.

To address the responsiveness challenge, the Maevex MGX Series incorporates Matrox IQ Mode, an advanced streaming architecture designed to deliver industry-leading low-latency performance while dramatically reducing bandwidth requirements.

The result is glass-to-glass latency as low as a single frame while using up to 1/20th of the bandwidth of virtually all current pro AV codecs.

That combination fundamentally changes the economics and scalability of AV-over-IP deployments.

Interoperability at its core

Modern professional video environments rarely rely on a single workflow. The Maevex MGX Series was designed with this reality in mind.

Maevex MGX encoders and decoders support multiple simultaneous streams using a combination of formats and protocols from the same device, enabling organisations to distribute content across a wide range of endpoints and workflows simultaneously.

Support for protocols including RTSP, MPEG-TS, SRT and IPMX provides deployment flexibility while simplifying interoperability across evolving infrastructures.

At the same time, integrated USB support for keyboard, mouse, webcam and peripheral connectivity extends workflows beyond traditional video transport. Instead of simply viewing remote content, users can interact with remote systems and applications in real time. This creates opportunities for more collaborative and responsive operational environments while simplifying distributed workflows.

The end of choosing

As professional AV continues converging with broadcast and IT infrastructures, flexibility and interoperability are becoming increasingly important. Organisations want infrastructures capable of adapting alongside evolving standards and workflows without requiring complete architectural redesigns.

Maevex MGX supports open-standard IPMX workflows alongside Matrox IQ Mode, allowing organisations to optimise for interoperability, performance or both depending on operational requirements.

Support for NMOS discovery and routing functionality further simplifies deployment and management within modern IP-based ecosystems. At the same time, the industry itself is moving toward increasingly software-defined and hybrid infrastructures.

Future developments surrounding the Maevex MGX ecosystem, including software-based encoding and decoding approaches, reflect this broader industry evolution toward more scalable and adaptable video infrastructures.

To learn more about Maevex MGX, click here!