The latest version of Adobe’s Premiere Pro non-linear editor now supports broadcast high-dynamic range, using the Hybrid Log Gamma standard, with AJA Video Systems announcing full support for this in its Kona and Io interfaces.

Adobe AJA-1

Adobe: The Kona 5 desktop PCIe card supports Premiere Pro’s HLG HDR

Kona and Io users will be able to easily access the new HLG HDR features in Premiere Pro using the AJA Control Panel interface and AJA Control Room software (including the latest, soon-to-be-released version 16). Users simply need to open the AJA Control Panel, click the HDR tab and turn on HLG to ensure seamless monitoring when editing and colouring HDR content. It will work with Kona 5, Kona 4 or Kona IP desktop PCIe cards and Io 4K Plus, Io 4K or Io IP Thunderbolt-enabled mobile interfaces.

“HDR is becoming a standard deliverable for Adobe Premiere Pro customers working in broadcast and post, and our collaboration with AJA allows those users to take advantage of production proven tools like Kona and Io to ensure a pristine output for an accurate, high-quality monitoring experience,” said Sue Skidmore, head of partner relations for Adobe video.

Launched at IBC SHOWCASE, the latest update to Premiere Pro (version 14.4) also includes Scene Edit Detection and performance improvements such as Quick Export.

HDR for Broadcasters enables users to produce in Rec2100 HLG HDR in its native colour space, including automatic colour conversion, HDR scope support, colour space overrides for incorrect metadata, and full colour management for Apple ProRes and Sony XAVC Intra formats. ProRes multicam performance in Premiere Pro can now support up to twice the streams.

Scene Edit Detection allows editors to quickly find cuts in previously edited video, faster and more accurately, thanks to Adobe Sensei. The feature adds cuts and markers so that users can apply effects to individual shots and re-edit previously rendered content quickly and efficiently.

Quick Export (in public Beta) offers easy access to the most popular and frequently used export settings, right from the header bar in Premiere Pro. Editors can use the default, high-quality H.264 output with matched Source Settings or choose from a short list of H.264 presets that allow the size of exported files to be reduced.

There is also faster effects scanning for VST3 and Audio Unit (AU) plug-ins in Premiere Pro and Audition, offering faster launch times for third-party audio plug-ins. Effects scanning is up to 15x faster on macOS and up to 10x faster on Windows.

Adobe After Effects is also being improved, with new features available in a public Beta, such as: 3D Transform Gizmos to help users navigate scenes faster and more intuitively, including scaling, positioning and rotating layers with helpful guides that show how far a layer or object has been moved and how many degrees it has been rotated; reimagined camera navigation tools that provide a more intuitive and flexible approach to navigating 3D spaces; channel effects are now GPU-accelerated, providing up to 1.65x faster performance; while OpenEXR previews for multipart and multichannel files are now up to 3x faster.