AJA’s ColorBox aims to improve industry color accuracy

AJA’s latest box looks to ensures color accuracy across productions with advanced algorithmic and LUT processing using HDR/WCG transform tools.

Main new draw on the AJA stand at IBC is ColorBox, a portable, high-performance device with inline algorithmic color transforms and LUT processing capabilities that aim to deliver precise and accurate color space conversions for live broadcast, live events, on-set production and post. It’s essentially a neat, compact box that enables a range of HDR and SDR conversions and allows DITs to easily load, modify, and save looks, and create reference images for dailies to ensure color accuracy across all production stakeholders and creative vendors.  

It’s been designed to support a wide range of look management approaches on-set and in live production environments, and thus has a fairly hefty range of features. It features 12G-SDI in/out and HDMI 2.0 out for up to 4K/UltraHD 60p 10-bit YCbCr 4:2:2 and 30p 12-bit RGB 4:4:4 signal support. 

It includes AJA Color Pipeline (ACP) Mode with a 33-point 3D LUT processor with tetrahedral LUT interpolation, four built-in user-configurable 1D LUTs, and two 3x3 user-configurable matrices. Users also benefit from a built-in RGB color corrector and ProcAmp, extensive LUT, matrices and image libraries, powerful capture and recall capabilities, ancillary (ANC) metadata management, and more. Thankfully all of this is easily controlled via an integrated web browser-based interface.

In total, ColorBox offers five Modes with one active at any given time. These are AJA Color Pipeline (ACP), Colorfront, ORION-CONVERT and BBC HLG LUT (both on an optional license with a watermarked preview), and NBCU LUT

Extensive frame capturing features include pre-processed image capture or post-processed output capture for reference stills with overlaid metadata, such as video payload ID’s, pipeline configuration, and customizable user text.  These frame captures can be saved locally and exported to the configuration PC running the web browser-based ColorBox user interface.  

 A built-in USB OTG port lets users easily configure ColorBox wirelessly via a third party USB WiFi adapter. 12G-SDI and HDMI 2.0 outputs provide up to 4K/UHD video for local monitoring, and an additional 12G-SDI loop through output is available for connecting the unaltered source to other devices.

“Reliable, high end color processing and display have become essential to creating scripted and live content that resonates with audiences, and AJA developed ColorBox in response to this demand,” said AJA President, Nick Rashby, in a statement. “Drawing on an extensive engineering background in HDR and conversion technology, as well as third-party partnerships with experts in color science, we’ve delivered an unparalleled and flexible image processing toolset in this device. ColorBox streamlines color management and display for environments ranging from TV, episodic, film, live event and commercial production to creative, editorial, and finishing studios, and we’re thrilled to bring it to market.”

 It’s available right now took for $1995 with optional licenses for the BBC HLG LUT pipeline priced at $145 US and ORION-CONVERT at $695.

Other AJA news from Amsterdam

There’s more from the company too. We covered the news that LucidLink, AJA, and Telestream have united to simplify media workflows briefly last week, and there’s also Mini-Config v2.26.4 to consider. This is a free software update for AJA’s line of Mini-Converters covering a broad range of 4K, HD, and SD conversion needs spanning broadcast, production, post, and proAV. New features include:

• The addition of input signal preprocessing controls to HA5-12G and HA5-4K Mini-Converters, allowing professionals to accept sources with high jitter. 
• a simple Frame Rate Converter (FRC) to HA5-Plus and HA5-Fiber Mini-Converters that uses a frame drop/frame repeat methodology to convert integer input video frame rates to non-integer (e.g. p60 to p59.94) or non-integer to integer (e.g. p59.94 to p60)
• 12-bit support to AJA Hi5-12G and Hi5-4K-Plus Mini-Converters
• And a 1.5G-SDI Internal Signal Generator enables 12G-AM and 12G-AMA Mini-Converters to allow the embedder path to function without the need to connect a source to the SDI input.