HDR Image Analyzer Is Coming Soon, and Software Updates Abound
AJA has decided it’s time to bump the venerable Kona card up a notch — at IBC, it showcased the Kona 5 ($2,995), an eight-lane PCIe 3.0 I/O card with four bi-directional 12G-SDI ports and HDMI 2.0 output.
12G-SDI means that the Kona 5 supports 4K UHD, high-frame-rate HD, deep color and HDR over a single cable. Frame rates of up to 60p are supported in 4K YUV 10-bit 4:2:2, and up to 30p in 4K RGB 12-bit 4:4:4. AJA is also offering an SDK supporting multi-channel I/O for multiple 4K streams in or out over 12G.
AJA Kona 5
AJA
Other Kona 5 features include 16 channels of embedded audio on SDI and eight channels on HDMI; eight-channel AES audio I/O, LTC I/O and RS-422 control via breakout cable; 10-bit 4K downstream hardware keyer; simultaneous 12G-SDI capture and passthrough monitoring; and compatibility with standard NLEs from Adobe, Apple and Avid.
“With today’s audiences expecting the highest quality content, high resolution, high frame rate and deep color are quickly becoming the norm across broadcast and post productions workflows, prompting the need for faster, more efficient approaches,” said AJA President Nick Rashby in a prepared statement. “Kona 5 combines the flexibility of AJA’s popular Io 4K Plus into a desktop I/O solution with an even more powerful feature set.”
AJA is also upgrading its Desktop Software for Kona, Io and T-Tap to v15. The new version will including full-screen playback (media assets can now be previewed without AJA hardware attached) and host system audio monitoring. Desktop Software v15 will be a free download.
Both the Kona 5 and the software upgrade will be available later this fall, AJA said.
AJA HDR Image Analyzer interface
AJA
AJA also had a status update on the new HDR Image Analyzer, its second product incorporating technology from Colorfront (after the FS-HDR converter). The unit supports monitoring of HDR and wide-color-gamut content, with tools for analyzing HLG and PQ standards in 4K and UHD workflows, Colorfront Engine color-space conversions, LUT support, and more. Shown at NAB 2018 as a “tech preview,” the 1RU appliance is set to ship this fall and will have an MSRP of $15,995, AJA said.
In other news for HDR mavens, the FS-HDR is getting a free software upgrade to v2.6, which includes various enhancements including support for uploaded 3D LUTs, enhanced color transformations, and the ability to gang multiple units for 8K workflow.
AJA’s Ki Pro Ultra Plus software v4.0 will support multichannel file naming
AJA
Meanwhile, the Ki Pro Ultra Plus is getting upgraded to v4.0, with firmware updates including multichannel independent file naming, an option to force recording to rollover to the second AJA Pak media slot at any point during capture, the ability to move the TC super into one of six positions, and the ability to map analog audio channel pairs on input without recabling.
Finally, v3.0 firmware for AJA’s Helo H.264 streaming/recording device will add RTMPE (encrypted) support for Facebook, enhanced security via HTTPS, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean language support for the web UI.
All of these software/firmware updates are coming, yes, this fall.
AJA: www.aja.com
