Is there an MSRP or street price on the cage/exoskeleton yet?

The latest round of questions...
 

Sorry everyone for the somewhat tardy reply to questions... not my usual style if you might have noted from the normally quick replies to previously to your questions. I was traveling and I just could not manage answering these questions from my iPhone honestly! ;-)

Okay... here we go...

Scott W. - The solid state units use Flash MLC. They are rated to 1 million hours MTBF. Try that with a tape! ;-) Yes, simultaneous IOPS (input/output operations per second) are not something we've promised. Basically you are recording with the device, then you are playing back... yes, it would be pretty cool to do a write/read at the same time from the media.. but I think that may be too much to expect from a single disk... Look to partner companies like Gallery with their Picture Ready software for solutions that offer this capability via a computer with an attached disk array.

Lonnie B. - Yes, the Ki Pro can record Apple ProRes 422 as well as Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) though I suspect many people - myself included - will simply record "standard" Apple ProRes 422 since the quality is so amazingly good for 145Mbps. For now, you can only record to the "drive bay" media - be it spinning mechanism or SSD - if you want to "safely" record Apple ProRes 422 (HQ). This has a lot to do with the media that we can currently mount in the Ki Pro for making the recordings. I'm sure you will see this change with time... lots of progress with ExpressCard/34 media is happening... we chose it as our "other" recording medium for a reason...

Normally, I would encourage people to use an array to capture any type of media. Then I would go a step further and recommend that they use a protected RAID solution, like RAID 5 for example... but lugging around a device with a RAID 5 array in it - which in turn presents issues when you want to swap recording media out - simply was not what we had in mind for this product. Can you record Apple ProRes 422 or Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) to a single SATA drive? You sure can with the proper drive mechanism and the SATA connection to the host. Here is a simple test that you can run... take the internal SATA boot drive on a modern Mac Pro computer and run our freeware AJA System Test application, selecting the disk as the Volume, the Video Frame Size as 1920x1080 10-bit, the File Size as 2.0GB and check the "Disable file system cache" and then hit the blue "Start" button in the left hand side of the UI... watch as the Write and Read transactions happen... you will notice pretty consistent behavior... when this finishes, look at the resulting graph that is produced. You should see numbers that far exceed the roughly 30MB/sec that are required for the maximum Apple encoding. Note: Could you see an issue if you run such a test on your harddrive? Sure... if you've got drive issues due to packing the targeted drive really full with your iTunes collection, every photo you've ever taken or some other "seek time" related trouble like a bad disk sector!) And yes, we are talking about 7200 RPM mechanisms if we are talking about spinning media and the Ki Pro recorder.

Andrew S. - MSRP on the Ki Pro Exoskeleton is $595 USD. If you would like to use the optional Rod Endplates so you can use standard 15mm rods and associated accessories, these are in a kit (both endplates) for $245 USD. "15mm rods sold separately by others".

Also to Hoy, Luke and James... thanks for your kind words... everyone at AJA is very busy right now and we are working quite hard, so we are sorry if it takes us a day or two to reply to you right now. I tried to make up for this by posting a bit this past Sunday since I knew Monday through today, Wednesday, might be particularly difficult considering my travel schedule.

Thanks again for all the comments and questions.

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

.
 

First off it's a wonderfull product at a great price point so congratulations.

Now for Windows users it seems nice and easy for me to convert into Cineform and go from there so I'm happy but I am presuming that the Storage module and the Expresscard are as easily accessed as if it was a Mac ? ie: I plug them in and can access the clips ? no need to transfer them from a Mac first or anything like that ?

Using Ki Pro media outside of Mac OS X
 

Ian S. - Yes, you can certainly elect to transcode the Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files that Ki Pro produces to CineForm files if you so desire. Disclaimer: AJA is friendly not only with Apple, but also CineForm so I don't want this to be interrupted as a sales pitch, but if you are interested in 3D, there is some interesting collaboration between Apple's Final Cut Pro, CineForm and AJA that was on display at NAB 2009 - sorry to digress but thought it might be of technical interest to this group!

Back to the topic at hand...

You may already know that Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files can be read on a PC via the Apple ProRes Decoder for Windows:
Apple - Downloads - Application Updates - Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Windows

So this means that you can open and review your Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files via QuickTime Player on Windows. Note that this is a decoder and not an encoder/decoder, so, as you might have been implying Ian, you typically would want to transcode to the codec that is native or optimal for your editing environment. This should, in most cases, be pretty transparent in terms of quality achieved because you are starting out with a full scale piece of video at 10-bit, 4:2:2 quality via the Apple ProRes 422 codec.

Mounting Mac volumes on a PC is something that is also covered by softwares like Mediafour's Mac Drive.

Hope this additional information is useful... and thanks for your kind words about the product Ian... comments like this mean a lot to product managers after working in secret on products for up to two years at a time!

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Hi Jon,

Thanks for contributing in such great detail here on the forum!

I have some questions and perhaps some feature requests.

I am considering using the Aja Ki for the multi-cam shoot at our church.
Currently we have 5 custom made Mac servers to record in SD. They were supplied by GVS. We have them housed in a machine room and remote control them with a MacBook using remote desktop.

Ideally I'd like to house the Kis in the same place because that's where the cables are.
Most of the time we will want to start and stop all of the recorders at the same time. If they can be started on the same frame then it will be very easy to line the cameras up on the timeline if the time code gets lost.

-My request is that in the web based remote controller you be will able to "arm" each Ki for recording and then click one button to start them.

-My second request is redundancy. It would be nice if you were able to write to both the hard drive AND the express card at the same time. The Sound Devices 788T does this for 8 channels of audio.

-It would also be nice if the FW800 port on the back could be used to attach a hard drive for additional redundancy as the Sound Devices 788T does. In fact the 788T can simultaneously record to all three locations- internal HDD, external HDD, and CF card.

Redundancy is very important because so many people don't trust tapeless recording. Redundancy is great in the studio as well as on location.

-Genlock? I don't see that, I hope that isn't missing!

Overall I think you guys have really allowed reasonably budgeted productions to elevate to a very high level in quality with this product!

In my opinion this product isn't merely a home run, you knocked it out of the park!

~Jay

Simultaneous recordings and redundancy
 

Jay M. - You have some really interesting questions that I see being asked more and more. I'll do my best to clarify some things regarding the product capabilities and the product definition.

We will be experimenting with multiple Ki Pro units and a "multi-arm recording" scenario soon in our testing. As it stands, you will likely be able to do what you are now doing with the MacBook and the Apple Remote Desktop. You could conceivably assign the Ki Pro units similar IP addresses and connect them all to a router along with the MacBook. In this way, they should all be visible to the MacBook over the network meaning that you could access them via the web GUI and the controls that offers, which includes arm recording. Again, I haven't done this yet, but this is part of why we didn't bring the product to market right after we announced it; we want to be sure we know what you specifically can or cannot do with the product and while sometimes you can believe that something, like the scenario I am suggesting, will work, you can't say with certainty until you test.

You do bring up the good point that if you have timecode running to all of the devices and you arm the recording based on timecode, this should be sufficient for producing synchronized recordings, but I think you are either referring to your suggested arm recording method because of possible timecode issues with the source devices or as simply "an insurance policy" for the timecode arm recording method.

Redundancy is something that we cannot accomplish yet on a single unit. Performing the i/o operations associated with multiple 220Mbps video streams is not an easy task... Bear in mind that audio is far, far less bandwidth intensive. Your 8 channels of audio being simultaneously written using your audio recorder, according to my quick calculations, is probably roughly 2x 1.15MB/sec. Compare this to the bandwidth of dual Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) recordings which could reach 2x 30.93MB/sec and you can ascertain the heart of the issue. There is a lot to consider when you look at this. In simplest terms, the audio recorder is really recording, in some sense, 16 channels of audio, while the Ki Pro would be asked to record dual streams of video (and audio). Not saying that redundant recording is totally out of the question, but not sure that it is likely to happen with Ki Pro... sorry, just trying to paint a realistic picture.

How to handle redundancy and "safety" recordings then? My suggestion would be that after you make your initial recordings - your digital version of an "original camera negative (OCN)" - that you begin making dupes immediately. One cost effective method of duping data would be to copy or clone the contents of your Ki Pro Storage Module to another disk, and preferably the disk(s) you copy to provide mirroring or parity of data (RAID 1 or RAID 5, etc.). Now your data is in at least one other location. You can't be too paranoid about data, much in the same way we could never be too paranoid about housing and handling film negative for so, so many years. The big advantage in the digital age is that this duplication is far, far more trivial than the steps to "dupe negative."

Genlock is not it's own BNC connector on Ki Pro. Why? The device was not conceived of as a VTR replacement specifically, but rather as a camera recorder with some limited VTR-like functionality. Ki Pro can sync to input video via SDI or HDMI, "Y" in of the Y, Pb, Pr component input, or can be put into what we refer to on our products as "freerun." Syncing to incoming video is very common; most modern VTRs for example offer the choice to "sync to input video" and Ki Pro follows this methodology. Again, you would typically sync your camera, which in turn feeds Ki Pro. Used as a VTR, you could have a one-device-to-one-Ki Pro relationship, much the way you can have one VTR to one non-linear editing workstation and not involve house reference.

I'm glad you like the product... we appreciate the positive feedback you and others are providing. Comments like yours are how we arrived at the design of the Ki Pro product and your feedback/feature requests help us define future products. Dialogue is the most useful interaction manufacturers (particularly product managers!) can have with end users. We want to make tools that you find helpful.

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Jay,

Great product as everyone has said.

My only concern is that it seems as if the form factor is very limiting for those of us you shoot a lot of handheld with the full size cameras. You are basically forced to use a tripod.

I think that a smaller version that mounts to the back of the camera like the Firestore FS-4 would be a lot more useful.

Thanks

Handheld is possible
 

Matt G. - While I know that we've only shown images of the Ki Pro mounted below cameras and then mounted to a tripod, I've personally done a handheld configuration that was quite comfortable. It's noted in this thread that I would show this configuration, but I am precluded from doing that before our professional photography of said configuration is completed. Sorry - my iPhone photos didn't make the cut with the marketing department!

The Ki Pro is quite lightweight and while I understand the desire to have a smaller unit, like a FireStore, I hope you can appreciate that we needed the physical space to make the connectors and the storage fit into the unit. Also keep in mind that the FireStore units only take a feed from the camera via a single compressed digital output, recording in the same format you are recording on the camera in terms of compression and they don't "officially" support the user changing out the recording media housed inside the device. Not trying to diminish the quality of their products - in fact I spoke to them briefly at NAB to say "no ill will" because I think that we have two quite different products and I could imagine using both devices for recordings - a Ki Pro and a FireStore - at the same time to cover multiple types of tapeless recording that you might want. AJA and Focus Enhancements "stay out of each others way" when it comes to connecting to the cameras because AJA takes the baseband uncompressed output from the camera while Focus Enhancements takes the compressed data output spigot.

Sorry, got a bit distracted from your original question, but thought it would be of interest!

Hopefully, we can get those handheld configuration images out to the world sooner than later!

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Great thanks.

Thanks for the very detailed reply.

Just to make sure I'm clear as to what Genlock is and where in my system I actually need it...

In our system everything genlocked, the cameras, audio recorder, switcher, and VTRs.

My understanding is that genlock controls the speed of the recorder as well as keeping all the frames in sync so when you switch a camera the picture doesn't blink.

Speed is critical to be in sync so all the recordings line up properly on the timeline.

In our studio the cameras get genlock and SDI goes to a distribution amp. From the distribution amp SDI goes to the VTR (a Mac server with a Kona card) which is also Genlocked, and the other output of the DA goes to the switcher.

The program out of the switcher goes to another distribution amp which goes to another VTR that is Genlocked.

My question: Do the recorders need to be Genlocked?
If so, can the "Y" be used as an input for sync?

All of your older products have Genlock, did people think it was a waste of space?

On the topic of redundancy, copying to a backup disk is very impractical. It takes hours to accomplish. Yes it's easier and faster than tape, but still painfully slow.

I don't fully understand the engineering requirements to send one 30 MBps stream to two or more places. I would assume it is related to the controller, not the media.

If the FW800 port on the back could be used for storage media, then I could use something like the Sans digital raid 1 enclosure.

But if you could figure out a way to write to both the HDD and the express card then many people would benefit. I think many tapeless productions rely on redundancy.

Maybe the solution would be to buy two Kis if you can build them fast enough ;)

~Jay

Follow up for Jay M.
 

Jay M. - If you have provided sync to the camera, then, in a sense, you are passing this sync on to the Ki Pro if you are using an SDI output since the signal carries its own inherent sync; this is why you can be without a reference generator and in a "one-to-one" scenario, lay back to an SDI enabled VTR from another SDI device as long as the recording device is configured for "sync to input video."

We did not feel that adding a genlock connector was, as you put it, "a waste of space"... ;-)

During the product definition, this device was conceived of specifically as a companion to cameras where it would sync to the output video of the camera... which is what the device will do. I can appreciate wanting to have a genlock input on the product, but you should be able to use it in a variety of capacities without the presence of said connector.

I am also sorry if it seems impractical to copy to another disk to back up your media... it is simply a part of many modern methodologies/workflows to back up to disk and/or something like LTO these days. Data management can be a big (yawn) bore... I agree!

A data correction to point out... You stated:
"I don't fully understand the engineering requirements to send one 30 MBps stream to two or more places. I would assume it is related to the controller, not the media."

I was referring to 30+MB/sec, not 30Mbps as you noted.... there is quite a difference! Yes, this is in part about internal bandwidth on the Ki Pro device; it is, essentially, a computer with controllers for the media ports. I could go into a long description about memory copies, bus speeds, etc., but the essence of my original comment would remain the same... we have not ruled out "simultaneous" or "mirrored" recording, but at this phase, it is not part of the planned product release. We will sincerely look into it because we agree with you - that if we can enable such a feature - it would be beneficial to end users.

For the record, I am really enjoying these public discussions... feels like a pleasant meeting in the "digital town square." ;-)

Hope this information is helpful.

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Thanks again for the detailed reply.

I think your success with this product will lead to a new product line. Maybe a slightly larger single U rackmount version with dual redundant hard drives will be the ideal product for our studio. Maybe you can call it the Ki Studio!

But as it is, it looks the Ki will do a great job for me.

For redundancy, I could actually buy twice as many Kis as I need and still be cheaper than your competition.

~Jay

Jon,
If I edited with Final cut, the Ki Pro would be a slam dunk purchase, but alas my heart belongs to Avid MC. Is there any chance that the future would bring native Avid codecs?

Let's see how well I can reply from the iPhone...
 

Terry M. - You are certainly not the first to ask about support for Avid.

AJA created Ki Pro to answer the problem posed by the proliferation of codecs presented to users... which is, in my humble opinion, daunting and fraught with post production pitfalls.

Apple has created a strong "ecosystem" for post production with Final Cut Studio applications, QuickTime and, in particular, Apple ProRes 422 and Apple ProRes 422 (HQ).

You can certainly do a high quality transcode from Apple ProRes 422 or Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) to the codec you prefer to use with your Avid. You might look into MetaFuze for this (but you probably are aware of that already).

Hope this information is helpful,
Jon

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Markers in video file?
 

I don't know if this is possible in a QT file. For all I know it may already be a feature in the Ki.

I think it would be very helpful to be able to add markers in a video file. For instance, tonight during our church service there was an obvious mistake that will need to be edited out. It would have been very helpful if we had the ability to put a marker in the file.

Taking it up a notch, it would be very cool if you could add text to name the marker in the web interface.

I think some of the super expensive VTR programs do things like this, it would great if the Ki had that ability too.

thanks,
~Jay

Handheld Configuration
 

Have you got any update/pictures on a hand held configuration?

I currently have a Canon XL-H1 and do a lot of handheld work. Its great to see
more options coming out to take advantage of the HD-SDI output for field work
rather than buying a new camera, but it obviously needs to work within the current
way I shoot.

Regards
Kirk.

Hi, this is bad news for me as I planned to get Ki Pro and 5D.

My question: will the recently announced 5D firmware update handle this issue? (out in June and its main feature is manual controls of ISO, shutter speed and iris during recording).

thanks

Working from Seoul...
 

First, let me apologize for an abnormally tardy reply to your posts... I literally was on a plane from the United States to Seoul, Korea on May 25th and have been busy giving presentations here in Seoul since the time I arrived.

Jay M. - Regarding adding markers within the QuickTimes as they are being recorded: this is not something that will initially be offered. However, it is not outside of the realm of possibility that metadata information such as this could be integrated at a later date. We definitely recognize the desire for this type of thing... can't say more than this at this time!

Kirk P. - Unfortunately, I cannot control the schedule for the professional photography of the hand held configuration... and I have been sternly instructed "Don't post the pictures you took with your iPhone of yourself handholding it!" Sorry... I can only suggest patience in seeing proper images of the hand held configuration. If you were standing next to me, I would simply show you on my iPhone what it looks like! (sigh)

Zsolt G. - I believe that the latest firmware update for the Canon 5D MKII only enables the manual exposure controls and does not offer any changes to the HDMI live output during recording. (Since it is not a public release yet though, this is only speculation) Sorry... we too are eager to use a Canon 5D MKII alongside a Ki Pro, but we must wait and see what updates are offered for the camera just like you must.

Again, sorry for the somewhat tardy replies...I'm quite busy with business in Asia at the moment.

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

No worries, look forward to seeing it when it does get done officially. Good to know it can do that configuration if need be.

K.

Having followed this post I was looking forward to seeing the KiPro in action at the AJA World Tour in London yesterday. Unfortunately the meeting was, for me as an AJA novice, quite disappointing. I really hoped the meeting would bring the KiPro to life and show us the difference in picture quality between in camera compression and recording straight to pro res, how does it affect colour grading, will the end result on e.g dvd look better, maybe even throw in some hands on workshops. Instead we had to sit through facts & figures slideshows, testimonials and promo videos which can all be found on the website anyway. It all felt a bit like going to a new product launch at Starbucks and not being able to taste the actual coffee. Speaking of drinks, it was baking outside and we weren't offered any refreshments at the start of the show. Please don't take this personally as it is meant to be constructive criticism. I just think it is such a shame that an opportunity like this which will no doubt have cost a lot of money and preparation, is well ... wasted.

thanks for posting this .. I am registered for the one in NY but given the above (and I think I would share similar expectations for the video content) not sure it's worth time to get to the city, for the event, time to get back, and opportunity cost of all that time ... thank you again for posting

edit: but still quite interested in the product!

So I guess there's no chance of you posting a photo of your iphone... showing the photo!?! LOL! Probably not I guess.

Thanks so much for keeping an eye on this thread and for all your detailed responses to our questions.

Satisfied AJA users since 2000.

Replying from... Beijing
 

Olivier D. - Sorry to hear you felt you did not have an optimal experience with the Ki Pro London event. I checked with my co-workers (I am personally on the Asia portion of the tour right now and typing this from Beijing as noted in the title of my post). The group on the Europe portion of the tour informed me that there were beverages available at the event, but that due to the nature of the facility, those beverages had to be kept in another room adjacent to where the presentation was held. Sorry if you were not directed to that area when you arrived. At the Seoul event, we were able to have water in the room without any issue, but again, different venues have different rules.

The presentations we are giving throughout the world right now assume that the user has no (or little) prior knowledge of the benefits of Apple ProRes 422 nor of Ki Pro in technical terms, so I apologize if the presentation was remedial for you in some sense (we cannot assume that everyone will be as thoughtful as you have been and take the time to visit our website, read about the product, and view the videos posted there!) In London, like Seoul, the Ki Pro was demonstrated in operation - performing a recording (typically of the audience so you can verify that it is indeed real and not "smoke and mirrors") - and then we take the media and connect it to a MacBook Pro where we edit and playback the recording. To cover all of the specifics as presented in the slides, give the brief demo as I have just described it AND have time for a question and answer session does not leave us with much time to do some of the good suggestions you have made: comparison of camera compression vs. Apple ProRes 422 compression, color correction benefits of using a 10-bit codec, etc. We offer this type of detailed and more hands-on opportunity to present the product via our reseller channel in the coming months. Many of our resellers are eager to hold such events, so I'm sure that Boxer or Jigsaw or NMR or any of the resellers in the UK who will be carrying Ki Pro in your area will have such events where you will have time to consider the product in the detail you describe. This is part of what makes these companies value added resellers for AJA. For events on our world tour, we really have had to limit the nature of the presentation for duration reasons, and also because we are trying to present a similar presentation in different areas where (as in my case in Seoul) the entire presentation must be given via translation... adding quite significantly to our total running time. I'm sure if you stayed for the question and answer portion in London, you likely got more details that were not part of the slides or of the brief demo. We really are making a concerted effort to give you the best opportunity to see the product by bringing it to many, many cities around the world over the next month. I really do appreciate your feedback and if a reseller has an event soon, perhaps you will consider attending that event which will likely give you more of an opportunity to investigate the product in the detail you describe.

Dave S. - I think there is a lot of valuable information presented at the events, as noted above in my reply to Olivier. I think this is especially true for people who were not able to attend NAB 2009 where we gave similar presentations. I know the commute in from New Jersey to the city is "non-trivial" since I used to live in NYC. Having said that, I think it would be worth your time to attend the event, especially for the question and answer portion which is a good opportunity if you are specifically interested in some aspect of the product to inquire and/or to hear others' questions which may spur the "I hadn't thought of that..." moment regarding your own workflow needs.

Tim B. - If you were in Beijing right now, I would show you my iPhone with the handheld photos. 'Nuff said! I know, I'm a broken record on this point... but I'm under a marketing edict.

Thanks for the kind words... doing my best to keep an eye on this thread (and the events worldwide) because I legitimately care about your questions, concerns and opinions... I hope you can appreciate that there might be a lag in my reply from Seoul... or Beijing... or Tokyo... or...

Regards,

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Jon Thorn (or Olivier, or anyone else who attended a tour event), is there any discount (e.g. rebate) being offered for orders placed at the world tour to incent immediate purchases?

And Jon, thanks so much for your presence here on this board, it really makes a huge difference and we all realize you are quite busy right now.

Hi Dave, there were surprisingly no special discounts at the London event.

Hi Jon, thanks for finding the time to reply during your hectic schedule. I am not a very technical person, in general I don't really care how something is done, it is the end result that matters most. The KiPro's biggest selling point for me was the increase in picture quality without having to buy a new camera, so I was hoping to see its benefits in action. Just like the Apple Final Cut world tour last year showed us the benefits of using e.g. Color (shots before and after color correction). I would have liked to have seen a hands on demo's so I could understand how the KiPro would affect the (image) quality of my productions. It's great to hear the resellers are keen to set up events as well, but honestly I already committed time and money to go and see the product in London (you had me and possibly lost me). But then again you will have researched the needs of your customers before starting the tour. Oh and I did stay for Q&A. Anyway, good luck with the rest of your tour. All the best! Ollie

Does AJA now know when the Ki Pro will be out "in the channel" and available for purchase?

A quick reply... from India.
 

Once again, sorry for the delay in replying... several busy and exciting days in Japan on the Ki Pro World Tour.

Dave S. - Regarding your question about discounts on Ki Pro... rarely do new-to-the-market AJA products begin with discounts. If you have an established relationship with a local reseller, you can certainly inquire with them regarding pricing. I really encourage people to purchase AJA products from their local value added resellers.

And thanks for the kind words about keeping up with the forum... admittedly, it is a bit grueling to keep up with the forum while traveling from country to country in Asia right now. And I'm usually getting by on only a few hours of sleep, usually naps taken on planes! So apologies in advance for spelling errors or grammar mistakes... :-)

Ollie D. - In my presentations now - based directly on your feedback on this forum - I show side-by-side comparisons of an image in HDV, DVCPRO HD and Apple ProRes 422 and compare these to the uncompressed source image. (We do listen to your feedback!) Again, due to the timeframe in which we need to move through what is designed as a general presentation, we just don't have time to properly light and shoot a setup where HDV and Apple ProRes 422 can be properly compared, split screen and difference matte comparisons performed, etc. at these events. Again, I think hands-on demos will be the domain of our value added resellers, though I must admit, at many of the events here in Asia, if people stay for Q&A, I walk through the menus, shoot a few more shots, etc. But even at my events that has not always been possible due to time limits at the venues. I, like you, wish it was otherwise... I like going through everyone's questions in detail in an attempt to answer their questions.

Thanks for your feedback and words of encouragement for the rest of the tour. Again, I personally hope you will visit a reseller for a more hands-on experience with Ki Pro in the future.

Andrew S. - We are still on target to begin shipping Ki Pro in June, so I would expect that units will be available in a variety of dealers shortly thereafter with many resellers seeing units in July with respect to their place in line in terms of their purchase orders.

Thanks again for your questions, doing my best to keep up with them from the road!

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Which camera?
 

Hi Jon

Can you give me an idea of which camera(s) - considering the best price/performance ratio - will give the best results with the Ki Pro?

Many thanks

Any photos of how the Ki-Pro is to be used in when a camera is being used on the shoulder, like the HPX-500?

Sorry again for a somewhat tardy reply... from Singapore
 

Andreas S. - I think there are a wide variety of cameras that can produce excellent results when coupled with the Ki Pro; everything from small prosumer cameras to broadcast ENG cameras. Personally, I really like the cost-to-feature balance of a few cameras:
Canon XH G1s
JVC GY-HM700
Panasonic AG-HPX170
Sony PMW-EX1

Each of these cameras has their own merits of course and I think personal taste plays a large part in choosing a camera, so I cannot predict which you might prefer. Coincidentally, all of the aforementioned cameras come in at roughly the same basic price point. All of them also feature professional manual controls (exposure, focus, etc.) as well as an HD-SDI output for ease of connectivity to Ki Pro. In my opinion, the real power of Ki Pro is to elevate high-quality optics and sensors in the smaller modern cameras by providing them with an equally high-quality recording... Apple ProRes 422.

Matt G. - I wish I was in charge of AJA's professional photography of products... but unfortunately folks, it's one responsibility I'm not given! ;-) Photos of Ki Pro in handheld configurations are supposed to be forthcoming. As for the handheld ENG, shoulder mounted cameras, I think most people will want to mount the Ki Pro on the camera's top handle for handheld work and then add a t-handle to the top of the Ki Pro exoskeleton so you can easily lift or carry the camera that way.

Thanks again for your questions and interest,

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Thank you Jon

Hello Jon,
I noticed the cameras you mentioned above all have HD-SDI outputs (I'm sure this was in wanting to keep an all digital workflow). However, the Canon XHG1 has a baby brother - the much more affordable (and somewhat ubiquitous) Canon XHA1 that has HD Analog Component outs.

Have you tested the Ki Pro's images with HD Analog Component? and if so, is there a difference to the images produced by HD-SDI?

Thanks in advance,
Lonnie

Jon, the AJA Ki-Pro is filling a market void--that is certain. I am interested in it as a Sony EX3 owner who would like to make full use of the camera's 4:2:2, 10-bit HD-SDI port. I also much prefer recording to SSD rather than have to deal with a pile of CF cards containing 8-bit video of whatever flavor. However, I have two concerns that are preventing me from ordering the Ki-Pro.

First point: While your price reasoning may come close on Rotating Mechanical Hard Disk (HDD) units, your argument does not hold water for the prices you are quoting on Solid State Drives (SSD). I understand SSD pricing is a moving target these days. However, the 4th Gen SSD that are now available are twice as fast or faster than any HDD currently available. They are also half the price of your currently quoted prices for 128GB and 256GB units. Either price your SSD's into market reality or provide us with an option to purchase a case without an SSD.

Second point: where is the SATA-2 port? Yes FW800 is OK for some Laptop folks. However SATA-2 is the preferred interface for the rest of us who would like to actually make use of the blazing SSD read speeds that make tapeless workflows much more time efficient.

Thanks for listening. Cheers!

1. It depends on what SSD you're using. If AJA is using good stuff like the Samsung or Intel then the pricing is going to be higher but so will the stablity. We also cannot compare these to a bare drive because each case has a FW bridge chip which for FW800 isn't cheap. I don't think AJA is trying to soak anyone here but they're also not trying to go broke selling the media at cost.

2. eSATA is a horrible connector that has little place being on Pro gear. It's limited to less than 300MBps real world so it's not that blazing and it doesn't offer power either.

Harrison, Samsung and Intel are not the only game in the SSD market and their products are now 3rd Generation with issues of their own. The 4th generation devices by OCZ-Vertex, RunCore, Corsair are already faster and more economical.

On your second point, try telling Red that the SATA cable/connector for their camera to interface with SSD's has no place on Pro gear. The 4th generation SSD speeds are more than capable of saturating a FW800 port. Finally, the SATA-3 specification has also been finalized to make room for these newer/faster storage devices.

At the end of the day, video shooters/editors want to squeeze all we can out of our more modern HD camera's that produce very respectable 10-bit video coming off the HD-SDI port. That means larger file sizes even with ProRes(HQ) and hence the need for faster data transfer speeds. Cheers!

Count me in as someone that would like to see Firewire 3200 become the next connection standard. My reasons.

1. 400 Megabyte per second transfer
2. Same cables and circuitry as FW800
3. Powered ports
4. Peer to peer architecture

My only beef with SATA is that we now need to wait for the second revision to get above 300 MBps data and it's a hosted architecture like USB in that I have to have a computer in the chain.

I think we're stuck in the middle right now with aging external connectivity (USB 2.0 and FW800 and eSATA) that are rapidly being outstripped by SSD.

Agreed, and surprisingly SSD's use the SATA-2 port standard :-) Cheers!

Camera choices, media and interface questions
 

Lonnie B. - Yes, you can certainly use camcorders with component analog HD outputs. These will work fine and produce excellent results. The main reason I listed the particular cameras I did is because they shared similar features at similar price points. Also note that you can run HD-SDI signals greater distances than a component signal, however this isn't much of an issue if all you are doing is connecting your camera's output to the Ki Pro. The SDI connection is really just an "ease of use" proposition when connecting to Ki Pro since it could carry the audio and video signals via one cable.

Barry A. - I would still say that our disk pricing is pretty realistic - even for the SSD units - when compared with other camera based solid state recording media like P2 or SxS. As for do-it-yourself solutions... we don't want to offer "empty storage modules" that users can fill, because, again to reiterate this point, we don't want people to try to use possibly inadequate disks to populate the cases and then have problems. Simple as that.

As for your second question, the storage module features a FireWire 800 port as well as the SATA connector. The FireWire 800 connector allows the media to be connected to a wide variety of computers easily and this one cable can provide the data connection as well as the power. While we aren't offering any SATA connection for the drive to the computer at the outset, we won't rule out the possibility that a cable or adapter will be offered at a later date to take advantage of the speed inherent to this type of connection.

Harrison M. - You bring up some good points... not all SSDs are priced the same, and often for good reason; they don't all share the same performance characteristics (and performance characteristics aren't always about the manufacturer's stated benchmark numbers...) To use your language, we aren't trying to "soak anyone" for the cost of the storage. If we were, EVERYTHING about Ki Pro would be much, much more expensive!

Thanks for your questions! Sorry if my reply to some of them is a bit tardy.

Jon Thorn
Product Manager
AJA Video Systems, Inc.
California

Hi Jon

if I understand correctly there is practically no difference in using the Canon XH A1 with analog hd out or the XH G1 with hd-sdi, besides shorter length of the cables and audio and video on two different cables. No difference in the image quality. So if I wanted to use the Ki pro mounted on the tripod under the camera, there would be no point in spending twice as much to get a G1.

The form of the KiPro resembles the old field recorder from Sony (it came in all format flavors BETAcam/Dvcam/HDcam), thus making it suitable for all situations where a videoman is needed. On the other hand is not very practical for steadicam or small crews and I believe that the tripod cage is not an ideal solutions because of weight, size and balancing issues. This could be addressed if the expresscard unit was detachable in order to function as an on camera recorder (much like JVC's KA-MR100G SxS memory card recorder).
Otherwise, with an SSD drive, the expresscard option is pointless in my opinion.