“NAB is about 4K,” said AJA President Nick Rashby as he introduced the Ki Pro Quad, a new solid-state portable video recorder that is slated for availability later this year for $3,995. The device — similar in size to the Ki Pro Mini — captures files in 4K, Quad HD, 2K, and HD to create a “camera-to-editorial” path with 10-bit 4:4:4 and 10-bit 4:2:2 colour support, writes Carolyn Giardina. The development goes hand in hand with Canon’s announcement of a Cinema EOS C500 camera that is capable of recording 4K. “We have been working very closely with Canon headquarters in Japan to optimise performance between Canon’s upcoming Cinema EOS C500 digital cinema camera and our Ki Pro Quad,” Rashby said. “Ki Pro Quad offers some amazing new ways of working; by creating post-friendly files to removable SSDs, moving the original camera RAW files to a Mac, and allowing 4K monitoring all at the same time.” AJA explained that Ki Pro Quad accepts RAW camera output via SDI simultaneously outputting that data via Thunderbolt. The recorder also performs debayer processing of the RAW data that can be used to produce on-board Apple ProRes recordings to SSD media. The debayered image can also be used for real-time 4K monitoring. Aimed at file-based workflows, AJA also introduced Ki Pro Rack, now available for $3995. “We’ve seen a lot of our customers use their Ki Pro units as a portable, cost-effective VTR alternative. Those customers in particular have been asking for Ki Pro functionality in a slim rack mountable unit,” Rashby explained. “Ki Pro Rack is a great recording and playback system for facilities migrating from tape to file-based workflows.” The Ki Pro Rack uses the same SSD or spinning disk storage modules as the Ki Pro with recording capacities scaling up to 500GB in a 1RU rack mount. It can be used to create Apple ProRes 422 or Avid DNxHD files. AJA’s next new product is T-TAP, a $249 bus-powered device that enables SDI and HDMI output from a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac. “Packing a lot of power into a remarkably small form factor is what T-TAP is all about,” Rashby said. Also at NAB, AJA announced v4.0 firmware for Ki Pro Mini, offering support for Avid DNxHD. Ki Pro Mini lists for $1995, and the downloadable firmware upgrade is free. SL3305
