AJA Video Systems and Skaarhoj have combined to integrate control of AJA’s FS family of frame synchronisers and converters with Skaarhoj’s Rack Control Duo.

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AJA: The FS-HDR under Skaarhoj Rack Control Duo control

This will streamline RGB colour correction and other parameter adjustments across one or many FS devices and channels in live production environments.

The new Rack Control Duo supports AJA’s FS-HDR, FS4, FS2 and FS1 devices, and is capable of ganging control of multiple FS products and processing channels together, making set-up and on-the-fly adjustments faster and easier for operators and engineers with a single tactile hardware control panel.

The set-up was developed in partnership with broadcast services provider NEP, and is said to be ideal for live production, OB trucks, concerts, sporting events, corporate AV or any production environment involving multiple source signals.

The Rack Control Duo hardware control panel has tactile knobs and buttons to allow users to easily perform simultaneous adjustments across multiple AJA frame synchronisers. It supports up to 20 channels from different FS devices that can be grouped together for ganged adjustments. Making simultaneous RGB corrections across FS units enables operators to conform colour for multiple sources to achieve the desired final look.

Operators can also use the panel to recall and implement presets from previous set-ups across one or more FS devices. When used in conjunction with FS-HDR real-time HDR/WCG converters, RGB colour corrections can be performed via Rack Control Duo prior to HDR-to-SDR or SDR-to-HDR transforms, harnessing AJA’s FS-HDR v3.2 firmware update.

“Controlling multiple FS-HDRs with Rack Control Duo gives you the live feel and quick response so that when you’re on the air and need to make an on-the-fly colour adjustment to one of your camera sources, you can quickly and easily do it with the press of a button,” said NEP VP and chief engineer, Dan Turk.

Turk was instrumental in developing the Rack Control Duo to support live HDR colour correction and conversion for 10 FS-HDR units during broadcasts of the halftime show at the 2020 North American football championship game. “Otherwise, you’re using a mouse with a slider or clicking arrows on a keyboard, which isn’t ideal when you need to fine-tune signals during live broadcasts.”

“Combining the production-proven reliability and performance of our FS frame syncs and converters with streamlined control hardware from Skaarhoj accelerates set-up time and empowers operators with greater efficiency in real-time production environments with no margin for error,” added Nick Rashby, president, AJA Video Systems. “This integration supports the most accurate adjustments across sources to ensure sources are colour matched across multiple FS devices and channels.”

“Partnering with NEP on development and AJA to refine full integration of Rack Control Duo with FS frame syncs and converters has resulted in a revolutionary solution that helps production professionals align colour and conversion across variable sources in even the most demanding live production scenarios,” said Kasper Skårhøj, founder, Skaarhoj. “Collaborating with AJA has made it quick and easy to get this solution to market.”