AJA Advances IP and HDR Workflows with Latest Releases at IBC 2024
Sponsored by AJA
Modern media workflows continue to progress with new innovations, and at IBC 2024, AJA doubled down on its commitment to supporting production, post, and AV professionals through these advancements. The company unveiled several exciting new products and updates tailored to the unique demands of IP environments, live production, and data management, and they’ll all be available this year.
Streamlining transitions
IP adoption is progressing rapidly, while many production professionals remain reliant on SDI workflows. AJA’s next-gen SMPTE ST 2110 IP video and audio I/O card, KONA IP25, streamlines the adoption of the latest IP video standards. Designed for broadcast, TV/film, truck, venue, studio, school, HOW, greenfield station, and post environments, the 8-lane PCIe Gen 4.0 card boasts 10/25GbE SFP connectivity, multichannel UltraHD support, and other features that match the demands of full and hybrid SMPTE ST 2110 ecosystems. It provides up to UltraHD 60p uncompressed bi-directional SMPTE ST 2110 support, is compatible with many third-party creative and streaming apps and AJA’s Developer SDK, and will be available through AJA’s worldwide reseller network in Q4 for $6995 US MSRP.
For professionals still working with analog signals, AJA’s new OG-C10DA features eight BNC outputs, plus one BNC output with an option for loop out or processing. A hot-swappable openGear distribution amplifier card, it supports NTSC or PAL analog video, bi-level and tri-level video reference, AES3-id digital unbalanced audio, and LTC signal type distribution. Built-in compatibility with Ross DashBoard software makes remote OG-C10DA configuration and control intuitive so production teams can distribute multiple copies of a signal and extend the composite video content with gain adjustment for long cable runs. OG-C10DA will be available in October through AJA’s worldwide reseller network for $449 US MSRP.
Comprehensive color management
Audience expectations for visual quality are higher than ever, which is why high dynamic range (HDR) color management has become a hot topic. With live production in mind, AJA packed the powerful color management and conversion toolset and intuitive UI of AJA ColorBox into an openGear form factor, OG-ColorBox. The new card delivers ultra-low latency, high-density 4K/UltraHD HDR wide color gamut (WCG) video processing, extensive HDR/WCG conversion options, color correction, and custom LUT processing for live production. From color-correcting specialty cameras to processing camera Log, real-time SDR/HDR transforms, and more, OG-ColorBox gives professionals the confidence to meet nearly any live production color needs. It will be available in October through AJA’s worldwide reseller network for $1995 US MSRP.
Expanding the functionality of ColorBox, AJA also revealed a free v3.0 firmware update that brings users several new features. Releasing in October, the update adds SDR to Dolby Vision Preview mode, ARRI Alexa 35 LogC4 Wide Gamut 4 WVO support in Live Mode via the optional Colorfront license, a configurable ACES AMF pipeline, support for .CLF and .CTF files, and the ability to configure the SDI and HDMI outputs for color space and bit depth.
Data wrangling simplified Content libraries are growing by the second, so media owners need to employ smart strategies to ensure efficiency and visibility. AJA Diskover Media Edition has proven a key solution for organizations looking for powerful, streamlined control over data, wherever it may be located. New plugins for PixitMedia’s Ngenea data orchestration solution and Spectra Logic’s RioBroker, plus a v2.3 Diskover Media Edition software update, further enhance the data management software, giving users more flexibility to work with a broader range of toolsets and data catalog with greater efficiency.
The PixitMedia plugin provides direct access to the Ngenea Data Orchestrator solution within the Diskover UI so that users can view data across their storage in Diskover and transfer it to the appropriate destinations using Ngenea, a secure solution for transporting data to/from globally distributed cloud, object, and tape storage, and traditional network-attached storage (NAS). The BlackPearl RioBroker plugin ensures that M&E organizations can view, access, and make more informed decisions about the content in their archives (object/tape/cloud). Both plugins are available now for free to AJA Diskover Media Edition users.
Additionally, AJA has improved the Discover Media Edition UI. An administrative upgrade, v2.3 reduces the time it takes to install, configure, and administer Diskover Media Edition and mitigates potential human error when working with text files. Users can now easily make changes to settings directly in the UI, versus executing those changes via multiple configuration files. Additional v2.3 improvements give users expanded flexibility, such as the addition of a convenient PDF viewer that lets users pull up and see the contents of PDF files saved to their storage, without giving access to the source file to protect their production network.
Looking to the future
Supporting cloud-based creative, streaming, and broadcast solutions built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), AJA also previewed Virtual KONA, a new software-defined, virtualized video capture/playback solution developed in collaboration with AWS. Virtual KONA is a new component of the AJA Software Development Kit (SDK), which is deployed by developers worldwide to build high-quality workflow solutions with AJA video I/O cards. Together with AWS Cloud Digital Interface (CDI), a network technology for transporting high-quality, uncompressed video inside the cloud with ultra-low latency, the technologies provide an easy onramp for application developers to leverage the AWS CDI cloud. Virtual KONA is expected to be released in 2025.
Learn more
For full details about AJA’s IBC lineup and more, visit www.aja.com/what’s-new.
Pippa Considine
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