SGO revealed its recipe for 8K workflow today, announcing that it has integrated AJA’s Kona 5 I/O hardware, first introduced at IBC last year, in its Mistika Ultima finishing system.
AJA Kona 5
AJA
The Kona 5, which shipped in November, is an eight-lane PCIe 3.0 capture card with 12G-SDI input and output, HDMI 2.0 output, and deep-color and multiformat HDR support. An AJA-provided SDK for Mac, Windows and Linux systems allows third parties to exploit the card’s 8K capabilities.
The Mistika Ultima 8K supports 8K at 60p for compressed and uncompressed formats, SGO said. A complete system includes the Kona hardware and Mistika Ultima software running on an HP Z8 workstation connected to high-performance SGO storage; the rest is off-the-shelf hardware.
Mistika Ultima 8K systems have already been deployed for live broadcast applications in Asia, SGO said, where 8K is already a part of the landscape, thanks to special coverage of sporting events such as the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, as well as Japanese broadcaster NHK’s December 2018 launch of an 8K TV channel.
Systems integrator Kyoshin Communications, SGO’s local reseller for Mistika, said it has installed Mistika Ultima 8K systems for unnamed clients in Japan.
“8K production is complex and demanding, so we strive to equip our customers with the best technology out there,” said SGO MD Geoff Mills in a prepared statement. “[AJA’s] Kona 5 meets this requirement and was a natural choice for our Mistika Ultima 8K system. The card is durable and versatile, and its four 12G-SDI ports minimize cabling.”
The Kona 5 was also seen last week in the California desert, where Colorfront demo’d real-time 8K/HDR R3D processing and playback with Nvidia GPU acceleration at the HPA Tech Retreat 2019.
