Bluefish444 KRONOS K8

Bluefish444 KRONOS K8

The Bluefish444 KRONOS K8 features eight bidirectional 3G/HD/SD-SDI connectors plus reference and LTC I/O. Over quad-link SDI, the advanced developer card supports up to DCI/UHD 4K60 resolution video input and output with high dynamic range, high frame rates, and extremely low latency of sub on field or frame. Via a STEM port on the side of the card and optional Bluefish444 EX-1 and EX-2 add-ons, the KRONOS K8 can also be equipped with RS-422 control, AES/EBU and analog audio, and additional LTC I/O.

The KRONOS K8 is an internal full-height, 2/3-length 8-lane PCIe card compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, but it can also be installed in optional Thunderbolt enclosures from Sonnet and other brands for alternate multimedia workflow options, including integration with a second PCIe card, such as a PCIe-based SSD drive or RAID controller. Included with the card is a free download of the Bluefish444 IngeSTore acquisition software and Bluefish444 cross-platform SDK.

Other features of the card include embedded audio support, high-performance bypass relays, 4 x 4 x 33-bit color matrix, 12-bit video signal path, hardware downstream keyers, and full-duplex DMA data transfer.

The KRONOS K8 can be used for broadcast graphics, post-production, live events, and digital intermediate, mobile production, QC, video over IP, and streaming workflows, among many others.

Key Features

• Full-height, 2/3-length 8-lane PCIe, Gen 3 card (16-lane compatible)
• Eight independent and simultaneous bidirectional 3G/HD/SD-SDI BNC connectors
• Multichannel DCI/UHD 4K60 resolution playout or capture via quad-link 3G-SDI
• Reference I/O
• LTC I/O
• Compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux
• Four high-performance bypass relays
• 12-bit video signal path
• 4 x 4 x 33-bit color matrix
• Audio sample rate converters
• MR2 master routing resource
• Input stream integrity management
• Full-duplex DMA data transfer
• Four hardware downstream keyers
• 16 channels of embedded SDI I/O audio
• Dolby Digital pass-through SDI
• STEM port interface on the side
• Allows interlocking multiple KRONOS K8 units or KRONOS K8 and Bluefish444 Neutron cards

Optional Connectivity

• Auxiliary I/O can be added to the KRONOS K8 via the STEM port interface and optional Bluefish444 EX-1 and EX-2 products
• EX-1 adds LTC I/O, RS-422 control, and AES audio I/O
• EX-2 adds LTC I/O, RS-422 control, and analog audio I/O

Low Latency

The KRONOS K8 provides access to captured fields or frames to onboard card memory, even before the whole field or frame is complete, thereby reducing the latency to sub on field or frame. During a capture or playout, each process can occur at less than or equal to one field for interlaced modes, and less than one frame for progressive modes.

Low-Latency Video Keyer

Four low-latency hardware video keyers allow video layers to be combined in hardware with microseconds of delay. This allows animated logos, captions, tickers, and more to be keyed over live video feeds at full 12-bit precision, and with minimum input to output delay. The keyers can also function as image pre-multipliers to assist in previewing images with alpha data.

12-Bit Processing Pipeline

Allows 8-, 10-, and 12-bit SDI video signals to be produced from 8-, 10-, 12-, and 16-bit pixel formats, providing the highest image quality available from your source material. A total of 4096 discrete values of red, green, and blue are maintained per pixel.

RGB / YUV

Fully programmable 4 x 4 x 33-bit color matrix provides the highest-quality color space conversions, reduces color space conversion errors, and ensures the highest-quality color accuracy during capture, monitoring, and mastering.

Thunderbolt Expansion Compatibility

The KRONOS K8 is compatible with Sonnet, One Stop Systems Magma, Netstor, and AKiTiO Thunderbolt expansion enclosures for multichannel mobile production.

Pixel Formats

2VUY, YUVS, BV8, V210, AYUV_4224, AYUV_4444, YV12, I420, ARGB, BGRA, RGB24, Cineon, DPX, RGB48, and custom formats.

IngeSTore Multichannel Capture Tool (Included)

• Provided as a free download
• Capture up to four channels of video
• Wide range of broadcast, post-production, archival, and streaming codec options
• Records direct to shared storage, including Avid shared storage
• Growing file support with Edit-While-Record in Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer
• REST API for remote control
• RS-422 controller

Software Compatibility

Adobe Creative Cloud, Assimilate SCRATCH, Avid, CasparCG, Dataton, Foundry Nuke, Resolume, Streamstar, Unity, Unreal Engine, vMix, and more.