Making Waves, Episode 27 - Lorne Trottier, Matrox
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How did Lorne Trottier decide to start Matrox in 1976?
Hello and welcome to AV Magazine's Making Waves podcast and today our guest is Lauren Trottier who is co-founder, president and owner of MapTrox Video. Welcome.
Well thank you for having me. Pleasure.
My pleasure. and congratulations on 50 years of Match Rox video. What I wanted to ask No. What I wanted to ask is what prompted you way back in nineteen seventy-six? to to create the company.
What prompted me well. Like in nineteen six that's fifty years ago. Nineteen seventy six was about the same time that A lot of A few of the companies that are around today like Microsoft and Apple got started. There are a whole bunch of other companies that are no longer around. Uh but anyway, uh that was uh sort of the very beginning of the microprocessor revolution and the personal computer revolution. Uh you know, it was an op accident that Apple and Microsoft started around around that time. And uh I was working with my then partner at a at a pretty large company. Um doing a video interfaces for mini computers. And uh when microprocessors came along, we got the idea. that making video interfaces of various kinds for microprocessors could be a a thing.
And it was. So Uh that's how Majorks started and Over our fifty years, pretty much all the products we then been based on that theme. But there are many, many, many ways video can be used and come combination with micro processes. We haven't done all of them but we've We've covered quite a range over over fifty years.
Indeed. And you you recognised quite early on the emergence of video interfaces for these microprocessors. I was wondering how easy was it again back then to raise funding for what must have been a relatively new technology concept? How did you explain this?
Well, that's a good question. Uh huh. Well believe it or not. Uh Ratrocks was self funded pretty much. The the total capital that we used to start the company was twenty thousand dollars. Um And the reason we're able to do that with relatively little money was because the first products we developed We're fairly Simple. did not take a lot of uh capital to design. Uh and so we were able to uh do them with with the start developing with that amount of money. And when we started initially announcing these products at magazines and editoring sales, The company became sort of profitable from day one. And we were able to self finance and bootstrap the company ever since. So we've we've never actually in the whole fifty years, we've never used outside capital.
What challenges did Matrox face raising capital and how was it self‑financed?
Entirely self financed.
Well, that's commendable. It's well done.
Well we were we got lucky at that time we pick something that we could do with relatively little capital. And so. Anyway.
That's good. No, uh thinking back to those young entrepreneurs. You're starting Matrix, you um I understand that you admired the management and philosophy of a certain Hewlett Packard company. And I was just wondering how you applied those principles to your new company.
Well, you know, uh for me uh For a lot of people, you know, they like movie stars, they like Hollywood, they like for me, Silicon Valley. It's my Hollywood. Okay.
You're based in Canada, of course.
based in Canada, but Silicon Valley has had a tr very strong attraction to us. It's the it's one of the centers of technology in the world. That's called Silicon Valley for a reason. Uh And so on. And so I've always had a great deal of respect and admiration for it. And the founders of Hewlett Packard, but Bill Hewlett and David Packard. Uh, were great managers, we ran a very Progressive company, HP, at that time that was very innovative. They had a really great management style that I greatly admired. Uh they were very generous with their wealth. They they gave away a lot of money that were into philanthropy. They were people that I respect. For for all those reasons. And so try I tried to model matrix and You know, my own my own life, uh
Somewhat along with their their exam. And since that time 'cause those guys passed away a long time ago. But there's been a lot of But Bill Gates has also been a big a big philanthropist, uh one of the biggest philanthropists a around
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Lorne Trottier decide to start Matrox in 1976?
0:03–2:56
2
What challenges did Matrox face raising capital and how was it self‑financed?
2:56–5:40
3
Which Hewlett‑Packard management principles influenced Matrox’s early culture?
5:40–8:43
4
Why does Lorne consider the analogue‑to‑digital transition the biggest industry shift?
8:43–11:44
5
What opportunities does Matrox see for AV integrators with new software‑based solutions?
11:44–14:39
6
How will Matrox’s open‑source codec and COTS hardware reshape pro‑AV workflows?
14:39–17:27
7
What new products is Matrox unveiling at InfoComm and how will they be released?
17:27–20:35
8
What advice does Lorne give to engineers starting a career in broadcast and video today?
20:35–23:52