GRASS VALLEY, Calif.—AJA Video today unveiled ColorBox, a portable device offering algorithmic color transforms and LUT processing to deliver precise, accurate color space conversions for live broadcast, live events, on-set production and post-production.
The new product can make a range of HDR and SDR conversions and allows digital imaging technicians (DITs) to load, modify and save looks as well as create reference images for dailies to ensure color accuracy across all production stakeholders and creative vendors, the company said.
“Powered by the HPA Award-winning Colorfront Engine, the new Colorfront Mode in AJA’s exciting new ColorBox offers state-of-the-art conversions between SDR and HDR content,” said William Feightner, CTO at Colorfront. “As opposed to traditional LUT-based processing, the Colorfront Engine’s Human Perceptual Model algorithm assures flawless, artifact-free conversions. This ensures the preservation of creative intent.”
Supporting a wide range of look management approaches on set and in live productions, ColorBox features 12G-SDI in and out, and HDMI out for up to 4K/UltraHD 60p 10-bit YCbCr 4:2:2 and 30p 12-bit RGB 4:4:4 signal support, the company said.
ColorBox 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 matches. The device also offers a built-in color corrector and proc-amp, extensive LUT, matrices and image libraries, capture and recall capabilities and ancillary (ANC) metadata management. Control is done via a web browser-based interface, it said.
A built-in USB OTG port lets users easily configure ColorBox wirelessly via a third-party USB Wi-Fi 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, it said.
ColorBox supports five modes, of which one is active at any given time. They include:
- AJA Color Pipeline (ACP)
- Colorfront
- ORION-CONVERT(Optional license - watermarked preview)
- BBC HLG LUT (Optional license - watermarked preview)
- NBCU LUT
"ORION-CONVERT was developed out of the need to create bespoke color-managed conversions for our clients at Cromorama,” said Pablo Garcia Soriano, Cromorama’s founder and head of color. “The ease of use and the simplicity of the user interface together with unprecedented highlight control help deliver the most challenging live broadcasting events and episodic file-based content. Now with the implementation of ORION-CONVERT in AJA’s new ColorBox, we can finally use optimized floating point processing that provides greater precision than can be achieved using standard LUT solutions.”
Immediately available, ColorBox costs $1,995 (MSRP). Optional licenses are available, including the BBC HLG LUT pipeline for $145 MSRP and ORION-CONVERT pipeline at $695 MSRP.
More information is available on the company’s website.
