Pearl Mini early look — use cases, applications, and technical comparisons
By Jim Bask
Epiphan Pearl Mini is the newest member of the Pearl family that contains all the qualities customers have come to love about Pearl-2, but on a miniaturized scale. The popular “all-in-one” design is represented proudly in the heart of Pearl Mini, offering users everything they need to capture, encode, livestream, and record professional-quality video.
All Epiphan products are built to be tough, reliable, and easy-to-use – and Pearl Mini is no exception.
Why Pearl Mini?
Pearl Mini fills a nice gap in our professional live production lineup – somewhere between our Webcaster X2 and Pearl-2 encoders.
On one hand, Webcaster X2 is an excellent choice for those who value simple, single-camera livestreaming to social media platforms Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. On the other hand, Pearl-2 is ideal for live event productions and other live streaming setups involving multiple sources, simultaneous streaming and recording of multiple programs, streaming to multiple endpoints, custom layouts, 4K encoding, and more. There’s quite a difference in design, technical horsepower, and price between these two popular products.
With Pearl Mini, we’ve developed a professional live streaming and recording system for those who require a more advanced setup than Webcaster X2, but who don’t need the comprehensive variety of features and capabilities that Pearl-2 offers.
Pearl Mini vs. Pearl-2
While Pearl Mini and Pearl-2 are similar in design and function, there are significant technical differences to be aware of between these two products.
Notably, Pearl Mini offers 3 inputs, 1080p resolution support, and 2 encoded programs. Pearl-2 supports up to 8 inputs, 4K resolution, and a greater number of encoded programs. See the table below for more detail.
 Pearl Mini |
 Pearl-2 |
|
| Video inputs | 2 × HDMI™ 1 × 3G SDI |
2 × 4K HDMI 2 × HDMI 2 × 12G SDI 2 × USB |
| Audio inputs | 2 × XLR/TRS 1 × 3.5mm 1 × RCA |
2 × XLR (stereo) 1 × Stereo RCA |
| RTSP inputs | No | Yes |
| Resolution support | Up to 1080p (Full HD) | Up to 2160p (4K) |
| Chromakey | No | Yes |
| Encoded programs | 2 × 1080p 30 fps | 2 ×1080p 60 fps 6 ×1080p 30 fps 1 ×4K 30 fps |
| Removable storage | Yes, SD card | No |
| Hard drive | No | Yes, 512 GB SSD |
| Additional models | No |  Pearl-2 Rackmount
|
Pearl-2 Rackmount TwinPearl Mini use cases
Epiphan Pearl Mini is an incredibly versatile live production system that enables professional live video across a variety of markets and industries. Here a few of the most popular use cases.
Use case 1: Marketing
Pearl Mini offers a valuable opportunity for marketing departments to include live streaming into their marketing mix.
With Pearl Mini, marketing teams can use live streaming to increase brand awareness, generate audience engagement, help tell their brand’s story, and stay at the cutting edge of marketing technology.
Examples of Pearl Mini applications in marketing:
- Webinars
- Product launch livestreams
- Live event coverage
- Streaming marketing announcements (e.g. promotions)
Use case 2: Education
Pearl Mini is the perfect choice for educational institutions looking to implement lecture capture technology. With Pearl Mini, users can easily capture, record, and stream lectures, conduct one-on-one remote tutorials, and/or create a library of video on demand in their LMS/CMS.
Advantages of using Pearl Mini for lecture capture:
- Enable delivery of programs at a distance
- Create blended learning formats
- Store lecture material in video on demand (VOD) format
- Simple to set up & integrates into existing LMS/CMS infrastructure
Use case 3: Corporate communication
Companies can tap into the power of live video to engage their customers, employees, partners, and shareholders using Pearl Mini.
Live stream meetings, presentations, training and more to increase stakeholder engagement, enhance communication strategies, and boost corporate brand.
Examples of Pearl Mini applications in corporate communications:
- Sales training & skills development
- Company meetings
- Conferences & live events
- Product/service demos
Use case 4: Live event production
Pearl Mini is an excellent encoding appliance for streaming and recording small live events.
Using a mix of sources, such as cameras and computers, users can create live switched programs, stream to multiple destinations simultaneously, and record in high-quality for post-production.
Examples of Pearl Mini applications in live event production:
- Sales training & skills development
- Company meetings
- Conferences & live events
- Product/service demos
Additional use cases:
In addition to the target use cases specified above, Pearl Mini can also be applied across a variety of industries which can benefit from live streaming and recording.
| Industry | Description |
| Healthcare | Recording and/or live streaming medical procedures and internal training sessions. |
| Legal / Government | Streaming and recording of courtroom proceedings and government council meetings. |
| Security / IT | Video walls for remote monitoring and recording of video feeds. |
| Worship | Users often stream worship services, events, or celebrations in a static picture in picture layout while recording sources as independent tracks. |
| User experience (UX) labs | Recording and monitoring the multiple cameras, sources, and devices used in UX research. |
Hungry to learn more?
Epiphan Pearl Mini isn’t available for order yet – but it will be soon.