AJA’s announced at Inter BEE in Chiba, Japan, this week that it’s adding 8K capabilities to its HDR Image Analyzer 12G, a real-time monitoring and analysis platform for HDR and wide-color-gamut workflow that it announced at IBC 2019.
Developed in a partnership with Colorfront, the HDR Image Analyzer 12G allows users to use image analysis tools, including waveform, histogram and vectorscope monitoring, with HDR formats including PQ and HLG. The newly promised 8K and UHD2 support will be added to the device through an upcoming free software release.
AJA HDR Image Analyzer 12G
AJA
In making the announcement, AJA acknowledged that the call for 8K UHD2 capabilities is largely originating in Asian markets. “Driven widely by 8K advances in Japan and across Asia, there is a growing international demand for powerful production tools that facilitate the creation and delivery of ultra-high definition content,” said Nick Rashby, the company’s president, in a prepared statement. “HDR Image Analyzer 12G was developed to support higher bandwidth content and provide customers with pinpoint color accuracy, and the new addition of 8K support will power the highest resolution workflows as 8K adoption advances across the industry.”
Here’s AJA’s list of feature highlights for the HDR Image Analyzer 12G:
- Up to 8K/UltraHD2/4K/UltraHD/HD 60p over 12G-SDI inputs
- UltraHD UI for native resolution picture display over DisplayPort
- Configurable layouts for placing desired tools in the preferred window
- Remote configuration, updates, logging and screenshot transfers via an integrated web UI
- Remote Desktop support
- Support for display referred SDR (Rec.709), HDR ST 2084/PQ and HLG analysis
- Support for scene referred ARRI®, Canon®, Panasonic®, RED® and Sony® camera color spaces
- Display and color processing lookup table (LUT) support
- CIE graph, vectorscope, waveform and histogram support
- Nit levels and phase metering
- False color mode to easily spot pixels out of gamut or brightness
- Advanced out of gamut and out of brightness detection with error intolerance
- Data analyzer with pixel picker
- Line mode to focus a region of interest onto a single horizontal or vertical line
- File-based error logging with timecode
- Reference still store
- SDI auto signal detection
- Three-year warranty
The HDR Image Analyzer 12G is expected to ship “soon” at an MSRP of $19,995, AJA said.
In other news from Inter BEE, AJA announced a new OpenGear 12G-SDI distribution amplifer, the OG-12GDA-2×4, which will also support HDR video and Ross DashBoard software for remote device control and monitoring.
Designed for broadcast, OB truck and live-event production applications, the OG-12GDA-2×4 takes in a 12G-SDI signal and reclocks the distributed signals to 4x 12G-SDI outputs. Doing the math, that means that an AJA OG-X-FR OpenGear frame loaded with 10 cards can distribute up to 20x 12G-SDI inputs to 80x 12G-SDI outputs.
Feature highlights follow:
- Dual 1×4 12G-SDI openGear Distribution Amplifiers
- Dual 1x 12G-SDI BNC inputs
- Dual 4x noninverting 12G-SDI BNC outputs
- Format agnostic 270 Mbps – 12 Gbps video formats
- Automatic input equalization and output reclocking
- Support for HDR video
- Passes embedded audio, all ancillary data including closed caption and time code
- Input Present and Input SMPTE Lock LEDs
- 10x 12G-BNC rear connector module included
- Power: 4.5 watts
- Hot swappable
- DashBoard Support with OGX, OG3 and DFR-8321 openGear frames
- Five-year warranty
The OG-12GDA-2×4 is expected to ship in December for an MSRP of $695.
Meanwhile, AJA announced the impending release of v1.5 firmware for the Ki Pro Go multi-channel H.264 recorder and player that adds timecode recording and playback, expanded primary and back-up recording to all USB ports, and new clip naming and segment recording.
Also coming soon is v5.0 software for the Ki Pro Ultra Plus multi-channel Apple ProRes and single-channel 4K Avid DNxHR and ProRes recorder, which includes an “infinite recording” feature that makes the unit perform like an always-on recording device for back-up purposes.
Both firmware updates will be released “soon” as free downloads, the company said.
Finally, a new version of AJA’s Desktop Software for Kona, Io and T-Tap products has just been released. It adds new functionality related to HDR and 8K workflow along with various performance upgrades. The software now supports Metal on Apple MacOS and is fully compatible with MacOS Catalina — that will be good news for anyone who plans to pick up Apple’s Mac Pro workstations when they ship next month. AJA said it also incorporates deeper HDR integration with Avid Media Composer 2019.11 and native 8K or 4K playback with Adobe Premiere Pro 2020.
The following features were cited by AJA:
- Full compatibility with macOS Catalina
- New Metal support on macOS
- HDR over SDI via VPID
- HDR Test Patterns for UHD2/UHD/HD
- Deeper HDR integration with Avid Media Composer
- Full 2SI SMPTE raster support for 8K on Kona 5
- RGB support for 8K capture and playback on Kona 5
- 8K downsample to 4K via HDMI on Kona 5
- Native 8K or 8K to 4K downsampled output with Adobe Premiere Pro
- HDMI input detection improvements
- New countdown functionality to mark out or end of clip in AJA Control Room
- New fan controls and fan speed indicator in AJA Control Panel
- DirectShow updates including addition of support for Kona 5 and Kona IP
- Support for Windows, Linux and MacOS
The new Desktop Software v15.5 is available as a free download from AJA’s support page.
