The Most Flexible Card for Analog and Digital Standard and High Definition Workflows
The AJA KONA LHi bridges the gap between legacy analog devices and the latest 3Gb SDI and HDMI enabled products providing editing, monitoring and mastering of professional quality video in an affordable, powerful, easy to use product.

Connectivity
If your post-production facility works with a wide variety of formats, frame rates and audio/video sources, the AJA KONA LHi provides the connectivity you need.

Connect everything from an HDMI enabled camera to an HD-SDI VTR to KONA LHi. Connecting to any of your legacy analog video signals is also possible through configurable component, composite, or s-video. Via an Input PassThrough mode, you can even configure the card to act as a converter within your computer.

KONA LHi offers a full host of no-compromise features: 10-bit or 8-bit uncompressed video, 2-channel AES digital audio and 8-channel SDI embedded digital audio, analog composite or s-video or SD/HD component video I/O, 2-channel balanced analog audio I/O, and broadcast-quality hardware-based up/down/crossconversion for flexible SD and HD post production.

KONA LHi's HDMI 1.3a support allows you to feed a "deep color" monitor with glorious 10-bit video, banishing video banding and preserving your gradients and rich color palate. Only KONA LHi delivers this 10-bit deep color state-of-the-art HDMI support.

Broadcast-quality conversions
Like the AJA KONA 3 product, the KONA LHi features full 10-bit, broadcast-quality, motion-adaptive SD to HD up-conversion, HD to HD crossconversion, HD to SD down-conversion, and automatic HD/SD 12-bit component analog output. Since KONA LHi's conversions are hardware-based, they are available all the time - during ingest or playback. Outputs can be configured independently allowing you to have simultaneous HD and SD output - or two different types of HD - 720 or 1080 - output at the same time via cross-conversion.

Extend your Connectivity with KLHi-Box
The optional KLHi-Box provides all the standard features of a cable for 1RU rack mounted I/O convenience and added connectivity in the form of additional BNC digital AES/EBU connectors and RCA audio monitoring jacks.

Key Features:

• 3G/HD/SD SDI input/output
• HDMI v1.3a w/Deep Color at 30 bits per pixel input/output
• 12-bit HD analog component input/output
• 12-bit SD analog component, composite, or S-Video input/output
• 10-bit Hardware-based realtime up/down/cross-conversions
• 2-ch balanced XLR AES digital audio and 2-ch balanced XLR analog audio input/output
• 8-ch SDI embedded audio input/output
• HD/SD Genlock and RS-422 machine control
• LTC Input (on Reference input)
• Breakout cables standard, affordable breakout box optional

KONA LHi

• PCIe 4-lane compatible

Video Input

• Digital:
  • SD-SDI, SMPTE, 259M, 10-bits, BNC
  • HD-SDI SMPTE, 292/296, 10-bits, BNC
  • Dual-link HD 4:4:4 and 2K HSDL 4:4:4
• Analog:
  • Composite/S-Video (Y/C):
    • NTSC, NTSCJ, PAL 12-bit A/D, 2x oversampling
    • 3 line adaptive comb filter decoding
  • SD Component:
    • SMPTE/EBU N10, Betacam 525 line,
    • Betacam 525J, RGB
    • 12-bit A/D, 2x oversampling
  • HD Component:
    • YPbPr
    • 12-bit A/D
  • 1D LUT Support (PC)
• Video Formats
  • 525i 29.97
  • 625i 25
  • 720p 23.98 (PC)
  • 720p 24 (PC)
  • 720p 25 (PC)
  • 720p 29.97 (PC)
  • 720p 30 (PC)
  • 720p 50
  • 720p 59.94
  • 720p 60
  • 1080i 25
  • 1080i 29.97
  • 1080i 30
  • 1080PsF 23.98
  • 1080PsF 24
  • 1080PsF 25 (PC)
  • 1080PsF 29.97 (PC)
  • 1080PsF 30 (PC)
  • 1080P 23.98
  • 1080P 24
  • 1080P 25
  • 1080P 29.97
  • 1080P 30
  • 1080P 50
  • 1080P 59.94
  • 1080P 60
  
  

Video Output

• Digital:
  • 3Gb SD and HD-SDI, SMPTE-259/292/296/424
  • HDMI v1.3, 30/36 bits/pixel, RGB or YUV, 2.25Gbps, SD,HD, 1080p50/60
• Analog:
  • Composite/S-Video (Y/C):
    • NTSC, NTSCJ, PAL
    • 12-bit D/A, 8x oversampling
  • SD Component:
    • SMPTE/EBU N10, Betacam 525 line, Betacam 525J, RGB
    • 12-bit D/A, 8x oversampling
  • HD Component:
    • YPbPr, RGB
    • 12-bit D/A, 2x oversampling

Audio

• Digital:
  • 24-bit SDI embedded audio, 8 channel, 48kHz
  • 24-bit AES audio, 2 channel, 48kHz
  • 16-bit capable
• Analog:
  • 24-bit A/D and D/A, 2 channel balanced
  • XLR, 48kHz
  • +24dbu Full Scale Digital
  • +/- 0.2db 20 to 20kHz frequency response

Up-Conversion

• Hardware 10-bit
• Anamorphic: full-screen
• Pillar box 4:3: results in a 4:3 image in center of screen with black sidebars
• Zoom 14:9: results in a 4:3 image zoomed slightly to fill a 14:9 image with black side bars
• Zoom Letterbox: results in image zoomed to fill full screen
• Zoom Wide: results in a combination of zoom and horizontal stretch to fill a 16:9 screen; this setting can introduce a small aspect ratio change

Down-Conversion

• Hardware 10-bit
• Anamorphic: full-screen
• Letterbox: image is reduced with black top and bottom added to image area with the aspect ratio preserved
• Crop: image is cropped to fit new screen size

Cross-Conversion

• Hardware 10-bit
• 1080i to 720P
• 720P to 1080i
• 720P to 1080PsF
• SD to SD Aspect Ratio Conversion
• Letterbox: This transforms SD anamorphic material to a letterboxed image.
• H Crop: Will produce a horizontally stretched effect on the image; transforms anamorphic
• SD Pillarbox: Will produce an image in the center of the screen with black borders on the left and right sides and an anamorphized image in the center
• V Crop; Will transform SD letterbox material to an anamorphic image.

Reference Input

• Analog Color Black (1V) or Composite Sync (2 or 4V) Non terminating, Looping, 75 ohm on K3-Box, terminated on supplied breakout cable, BNC assignable as LTC input or Reference Input

Machine Control

• RS-422, Sony 9-pin protocol

AJA KONA for Mac | AJA KONA for PC

KONA for Mac Software
AJA KONA for Mac drivers are optimized for use on OSX, with applications and advanced AJA hardware capabilities controlled easily at-a-glance in the application you're using. KONA for Mac software integrates within the native environment where used-whether Apple Final Cut Studio, Adobe Creative Suite, Autodesk Smoke for Mac, or myriad other major Mac applications.

Within Apple Final Cut Pro (Mac):

• Easy Setups for instant configuration of your workflow in unison with KONA hardware.
• Advanced hardware configuration from the AJA Control Panel can be accessed without leaving your application by simply holding down the command key and clicking into the UI. For example, play back HD media from Final Cut Pro and evaluate what an SD downconversion would look like as an anamorphic, cropped or letterboxed output - all in realtime without ever stopping playback.
• HDV codec hardware acceleration. The KONA hardware allows instantaneous realtime playback for both monitoring and recording. Even KONA's conversions work in realtime with HDV, allowing SD monitoring, dubs, or mastering.
• DVCPro HD codec hardware acceleration. KONA's precision hardware allows capture and playback of HD-SDI video to and from the DVCPRO HD codec at a quality level virtually indistinguishable from native FireWire, while freeing up valuable RT processing power.
• Dynamic RT Extreme video scaling support. Dynamic RT Extreme video scaling is offloaded in realtime to KONA as the "Playback Video Quality" dynamically adjusts. This allows more playback power - and because KONA handles it seamlessly, the Dynamic RT you see on the Mac monitor is the same as that shown on your professional broadcast monitor output from the KONA card

Within Adobe Creative Suite (Mac):

• Advanced AJA Plug-ins support offering control of KONA using familiar controls and appearance within Adobe CS applications including Premiere, Photoshop, and After Effects.
• Realtime Photoshop broadcast video output to broadcast monitors.
• Realtime Capture, Display and Mastering from within After Effects
• Saved software rendering time with hardware-based KONA Up/Cross/Down Conversion
• Native realtime support for file per frame formats such as DPX, Cineon, TIFF, TGA and BMP.

All Mac Applications benefit

The KONA Desktop feature allows broadcast design elements to be viewed with the proper aspect ratio and color depth on a broadcast monitor via the KONA card. KONA Desktop is available on the entire range of KONA cards, supporting Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Apple Motion, Apple Shake, Autodesk Combustion and more.

Powerful AJA utilities, Easy Setups, and plug-ins round out the Mac environment providing support for all popular Mac application workflows.

KONA for PC Software
KONA for PC software allows Windows to access the hardware power of your KONA within major editing and graphics applications. Other software vendors have also provided integrated support for KONA in their own PC applications through direct collaboration with AJA.

Choose the right KONA card to playback HD/SD or SD-only video and audio data from disk-even 2K-in any format you choose, including DPX, Cineon, TGA, TIFF, BMP, AVI and QuickTime. You can playback and master material, at a variety of frame rates, on a high-resolution wide-screen monitor or digital projector. Custom AJA software allows full control over your playback parameters are clearly laid out, including provisions for choosing a user-specified LUT.

Powerful plug-ins
Supplied AJA plug-ins integrate your KONA card into a variety of graphics/visual-effects software applications to make operations even easier to use. Using AJA plug-ins, sophisticated features appear as if they were native to the software application user interfaces.

Directly supported applications include:

• Adobe Premiere® Pro
• Adobe After Effects®
• Adobe PhotoShop®
• Autodesk Combustion®
• Eyeon Digital Fusion®
• Sony Vegas Pro 9®

All Workflows benefit from AJA Machina
KONA for PC software includes a stand-alone powerful capture/playback application, AJA Machina™, that includes full VTR machine control with access to any and all KONA supported file formats, video standards and hardware conversions, presented in a very cool and easy-to-use interface. Machina supports all KONA for PC formats, including DVCPro HD, QuickTime, DPX and many others.

Files captured from Machina can be imported into virtually any software package that supports these file formats, such as compositing programs, 3D animation programs, audio editing programs and much more. Exported files from your application of choice can be seamlessly played out to the video and audio equipment of your choice.

Machina has great desktop preview features allowing you to preview your files full screen on your desktop display at various zoom levels, creating an alternative for frame by frame viewing when no additional monitor is available. In addition Machina allows you to apply 1D LUT's on output, to output video+key for monitoring or mixing, and the ability to key in static graphics on selected KONA cards.

This huge feature set makes Machina an invaluable Windows tool for film and video professionals, making it a useful addition to virtually any PC workflow.

Company Folds XENA Products Into KONA Line; Now Offers KONA Cards With Both Mac OS X and Windows Software

Grass Valley, CA (March 15, 2010)--AJA Video Systems, a leading manufacturer of professional video interface and conversion solutions, announced today that it is now offering its KONA line of capture cards with software for both Mac and Windows-based systems. The company is folding its XENA line of capture cards, designed for the Windows platform, into the KONA product line, giving customers twice the software and flexibility to use KONA cards on all platforms, at no additional cost.

The KONA family is AJA’s line of 10-bit uncompressed capture and playback cards for video and audio input and output. Initially designed solely for the Mac platform, KONA now supports SD, HD, Dual Link 4:4:4 HD and 2K formats, and all of the functionality of the former XENA products within the single, cross-platform KONA line.

Effective immediately, every new KONA package shipped will include both Mac and Windows software and documentation. Current customers will experience no change in functionality or service, and Windows-based customers can find support on the AJA website under ‘KONA for PC’. Updated drivers for either Mac or PC platforms are always available online (http://www.aja.com/support/). AJA recommends users check the AJA website to ensure they have the latest drivers and software.

“Our goal is to simplify our customers’ experience and give them greater value,” said Nick Rashby, AJA Video Systems President. “The post-production world is not homogeneous, and offering a single product line with identical functionality that customers can use on either -- or both platforms, for the same cost, recognizes their need for ease of use and flexibility.”

KONA for PC software is available for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP, with the same system specifications that have been previously published for XENA. All KONA cards now operate on both Mac and PC platforms. Those customers using Apple Mac Pro towers are able to install the KONA for Mac software to work under OS X and the KONA for PC Windows software under Apple Boot Camp to work cross-platform on the same machine.

Dear XENA Customer,

As of March 15, 2010 the XENA product line will be merged with our award winning KONA line, to supply both PC and Mac users with a single set of cross-platform solutions. XENA and KONA have long used the same industry-leading hardware with tailored software unique to each platform. To add value for you, we will be packaging each KONA card with both Mac and PC software, so they can be used on either platform—or both. The hardware and software are the same--only the name and package have been changed to give you twice the software and ease-of-use on all platforms.

Timeframe: AJA will stop selling XENA branded products March 15, 2010. At that time KONA products will be shipped and marketed by AJA as cross-platform PC & Mac solutions.

As mentioned, the AJA hardware is identical across both platforms. Naming of products is now as follows:

XENA 2Ke is KONA 3
XENA 2K is KONA 3x
XENA LHi is KONA LHi
XENA LHe is KONA LHe
XENA LH is KONA LH
XENA LSe is KONA LSe
XENA LS is KONA LS
XENA HS is now End-of-life (EOL)

As a XENA User, you will now be able to find support on our website under "KONA for PC" headings, reflecting the product line name change. Support and offerings remain the same, so you will still receive future software releases and documentation under the new name--with the best quality and level of support in the industry as you've had in the past.

Questions and Answers for XENA Customers

1. I have a XENA, what model KONA card software will I need to be downloading now?

Each KONA card has a set of web pages at www.aja.com; when you go to a KONA page you'll find new navigational tabs for KONA for PC and KONA for Mac. Simply go to the area that relates to your card. If you're a XENA owner, your card is now a KONA card as shown in the table below:

XENA 2Ke is KONA 3
XENA 2K is KONA 3x
XENA LHi is KONA LHi
XENA LHe is KONA LHe
XENA LH is KONA LH
XENA LSe is KONA LSe
XENA LS is KONA LS
XENA HS is now End-of-life (EOL)

2. Does AJA Machina software go away and will I be using a Windows version of the Mac AJA Control Panel?

No, Machina continues to be AJA's stand-alone software application for ingesting, previewing and playing back media on KONA for PC, just like it was when the cards were named XENA—if you're used to using XENA, you'll see no change in operation or features—only name changes.

3. Does this mean that support will be less for PC users?

No, the purpose of this change was to ensure that all customers get a multi-platform solution, without any extra-cost, and to make it as easy as possible to use our card on either—or both—platforms. Every KONA box will now come with both Mac and PC software and documentation. Existing XENA customers will continue to see the same high level customer support for the PC and Windows software AJA makes. AJA is committed to both platforms and their value to the post production and broadcast markets.

4. Can I use the same card on both platforms then?

Yes, absolutely. Everything you need is on the AJA website; for simplicity there are separate downloads for Mac use and PC use—you only install the software for the platform(s) you use. You should periodically check our website to ensure you have the very latest drivers and software.

5. If I have an Apple Mac Pro tower, does this mean that I can install the Mac software under OSX and the PC software under Bootcamp on the same machine?

Yes, any of the supported Windows OS installations will run natively on a Mac Pro using Boot Camp and work with KONA for PC software, just as on other PC towers. Prior to use, please read about Boot Camp and its installation and requirements on the Apple website: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

6. What versions of Windows can I use?

KONA for PC software is available for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP, with the same system specifications that have been published for XENA.