AJA KONA 2 technology chosen by Fox Sports

AJA Video Systems’ KONA 2 technology and powerful new Quicktime drivers have been used on the US television coverage of the Division Playoffs, the American League Championship Series games, and the World Series Championship series games on Fox TV.
Beginning with the MLB Division Series through the American League Championship Series, and now the World Series, Fox has been utilising AJA's KONA 2 720p DVCPRO HD workflow on an Apple G5 with Final Cut Pro HD for their bumpers, wrap-arounds and highlight packages.
They natively capture the 720p HD-SDI video and AES audio directly from the production trucks through a router straight into the Panasonic 720p DVCPRO HD codec in their Final Cut Pro system, and send it out through the KONA card back to the router; it can then be recorded for instant replay or go directly to the switcher and then directly to the air. The open and tease are pre-recorded, sent to an EVS Digital Disk Recorder (DDR) for instant replay, then the editor is freed up to work on actual game coverage.
This application in live sports television is very unique for a system that's basically been a postproduction system and is now being used for editing during live, sports broadcasts. All this intense creative process is done live in the Fox broadcast.
“AJA is very excited to be part of the World Series,” said John Abt, President of AJA Video Systems. “Our attention to engineering design and high broadcast quality ensure dependability under the most challenging conditions.”
After the success of this new system for the Division Playoffs and American League games, Fox implemented a second Apple G5 system with FCP and the KONA 2 technology, for postproduction editing of the pre-game shows for the World Series games. This enables them to have in-game coverage in a completely non-linear environment so they won't have to lay it back to tape.
“Because of AJA's strong reputation for reliability and high quality in mission critical environments, Fox was very comfortable being an early adopter of the new KONA 2 technology and Quicktime Drivers,” said Ted Schilowitz, Worldwide Product Manager for Desktop Video Engines at AJA. “Running the new system in the demanding environment of live sports action with a fairly limited set-up time required smooth implementation and immediate, successful testing that enabled the system to be used in the first night's broadcast.”
(GB/SP)