Matrox® Video Products Group today announced the immediate availability of Thunderbolt™-enabled Matrox MXO2™ I/O devices as well as Thunderbolt adapters for existing customers. Developed by Intel® with collaboration from Apple®, Thunderbolt is a high-speed I/O technology running at 10 gigabits per second that brings together high-speed data transfer and high-definition (HD) display on to a single cable. Thunderbolt is currently available on all new Macs. The Matrox MXO2 devices provide broadcast-quality video and audio capture, monitoring, output, and H.264 encoding for use with leading editing and content creation applications.

“Thunderbolt technology is bringing a whole new level of performance and versatility to PCs,” said Jason Ziller, director, Thunderbolt Marketing and Planning, Intel Corporation. “Matrox’s new MXO2 enables all their editing and streaming products to make great use of Thunderbolt technology, and will enable new levels of creativity for mobile media creators and web broadcasters.”

“Editing of uncompressed footage is now a reality on a whole new class of computers, all of which can take advantage of the Matrox MXO2 devices for I/O, professional monitoring, and lightning fast H.264 encoding,” said Alberto Cieri, senior director of sales and marketing at Matrox. “Our original vision for the Matrox MXO2 product line – to bring audio/video connectivity and encoding functionality outside the computer – is paying off for our customers who can simply purchase a Matrox Thunderbolt adapter to future-proof their editing systems.”

Key Features of Matrox MXO2 Family

• Convenient form factors for use in studio, on set, in the field, and in OB vans
• Connects via a Thunderbolt cable to all new Macs
• Connects via PCIe or ExpressCard/34 to other laptops and desktop systems
• Broadcast-quality HD/SD video and audio input/output
• Extensive application support, including Adobe CS 5.5 Production Premium, Apple Final Cut Pro X, and Avid Media Composer
• 10-bit HDMI input, output, and monitoring with the unique Matrox HDMI Calibration Utility
• 10-bit realtime hardware up/down/cross conversion on capture and output
• Matrox MAX option for lightning fast H.264 encoding

Price and availability

Thunderbolt-enabled Matrox MXO2 devices are now available from ArgonStore.ca and ArgonStore.com starting from $549 U.S. not including local taxes. Matrox Thunderbolt adapters for all MXO2 devices can be purchased as an add-on at $199 US.