Rack-Mountable Unit Records Apple ProRes to Pak Media at up to 60p in Full 4K Resolution
AJA significantly upgraded its 4K workflow options today with the release of the Ki Pro Ultra, a half-rack-wide 2RU recorder and player that captures Apple ProRes files at up to 4K (4096×2160) and 60p.
It's shipping now, AJA said, with a list price of $3,995.
"It's a playback solution for 4K 60p as well as a recorder," AJA Product Marketing Manager Bryce Button told StudioDaily, noting that the 5.8-pound (2.52 kg) unit can be toted around with a built-in handle for viewing captured footage on the screen. "We knew that we would have to support 4K at 60p if we wanted to enable broadcasters to make that leap."
Button described the form factor as "about the size of a phone book," and said it's designed to fit side-by-side with a second unit in a $79 shelf for rack-mount installations. "It's the natural heir to the Ki Pro Rack," he said, supporting ProRes recording in formats including HD, 2K, UHD, and 4K.
On the left side of the unit are two Pak SSD slots, providing a maximum total of 2 TB in recording capacity when loaded with Pak1000 media, or about two hours of 4K 60p footage (or a beefy 13 hours of HD). A rollover function allows seamless transfer of the target drive so that as soon as one Pak unit fills up, recording automatically switches to the second drive. If you're going to be recording for a long time, you can swap out the first drive for a clean one and let the rollover switch targets again when the second drive fills up.
On the right-hand side of the Ki Pro Ultra are a few dedicated control buttons, a rotary selection knob, and a headphone jack and volume control for audio monitoring. In the middle of the unit, below the 4.8-inch HD LCD screen, are the usual transport controls plus a "Slot" button for switching between Pak drives.
But the back of the Ki Pro Ultra is where the real action is. The unit boasts four 3G-SDI ins and outs, dual-channel fiber in and out, HDMI 2.0 in and out, ref loop and timecode in and out, eight-channel analog and AES/EBU audio in and out, RCA stereo out, dual 12V-18V inputs for redundant power, a LAN port for web UI control, an RS-422 port, and an SDI monitor output that can be used do output a downconverted HD signal at any time. "Not too many facilities are buying expensive 4K monitors," Button said, so the ability to monitor a 4K recording in HD should come in handy.
The highest quality recording will require the use of 1 TB Pak1000 media, which supports ProRes 422 HQ recording at up to 4K 60p. "That's our latest media," Button said. "It's got the best bandwidth and the best speed, and 422 HQ far exceeds the quality levels of anything that's used in broadcast right now." Pak1000 media has a $1,495 MSRP, while Pak512 is $1,295 and Pak256 media is $695. If you're recording at just 24p, you're in luck — any Pak media can handle ProRes 4444 recording at up to 4K 30p. A Pak Dock is available at an MSRP of $395.
The Ki Pro Ultra was the flashiest of AJA's announcements at the Inter BEE show in Japan, but the company had more news. The new Pak-Adapt-CFast is a $99 media adapter for recording to CFast media with products designed for Pak media — the AJA Cion production camera, the Ki Pro Quad and the Ki Pro Ultra. It has the same connector and form factor as Pak drives, as well as a green LED indicating when the mieda is mounted. AJA recommends that users load the adapter with SanDisk Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 media, but plans to release a list of qualified media.
And AJA extended its line of openGear-compatible rack cards with single-channel versions of the dual-channel cards introduced at IBC: the OG-Fiber-TR single-channel fiber/SDI transceiver ($645), the OG-Fiber-T single-channel SDI-to-fiber converter ($445) and the OG-Fiber-R single-channel fiber-to-SDI converter ($445). They will be available next month.
