AJA Io HD Natively Supports Apple's New ProRes 422 Format Enabling Portable HD editing on MacBook Pro and Mac Pro.  

Las Vegas, NV, NAB Conference, Booth #SL6113

AJA Video, a leading manufacturer of professional video interface and conversion solutions, today announced Io HD, the next generation of AJA’s popular Io series, delivering HD editing to the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro via its unique Firewire 800 (IEEE-1394b) interface. Io HD is the first device to natively support Apple’s newly introduced ProRes 422 post production format in hardware.

“Apple continues to innovate and revolutionize the digital video and professional editing market year after year—and with the new ProRes 422 Codec, they’ve done it again,” commented Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video. “We are really excited to develop the first device to support the Apple ProRes 422 codec with Io HD, and our customers are even more excited to do true 10-bit production-quality HD editing on an Apple laptop!”

"We've worked hand-in-hand with AJA to embed support for ProRes 422 directly into Io HD," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Product Marketing. "This collaboration enables Final Cut Pro editors to capture full raster HD over FireWire for real time editing of 10-bit, 4:2:2 HD video on a Mac Pro in the studio, or a MacBook Pro on location."

Io HD is the next-generation of the popular Io video ingest and output devices, introduced by AJA four years ago. Io HD brings HD editing to the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro utilizing Apple’s ProRes 422 technology, while also supporting SD editing workflows. Io HD includes many highend features such as Up-, Down-, and Cross-conversion, all at 10-bit hardware-based quality. Io HD offers unmatched connectivity via its myriad of professional analog and digital interfaces. Io HD is a portable device that works with Apple's new Final Cut Pro 6 for professional editing, and also with other QuickTime applications on Mac OS X for graphics, audio and digital content creation.

Io HD leverages Apple's new ProRes 422 format and is the first device to do so natively in hardware, freeing up system processors for other production tasks, and allowing true 10-bit editing on a MacBook Pro. Io HD supports both Apple ProRes 422 and ProRes 422 HQ, in 720 and 1080 HD, all in real time, full-resolution 10-bit 4:2:2. ProRes 422 capture (compression) and playback (decompression) are all handled directly in the Io HD.

About Io HD
Along with unparalleled video and audio connectivity, Io HD includes a similar feature set to AJA's industry-leading KONA lineup; 10-bit hardware-based up-conversion, cross-conversion, and down-conversion, all performed in real time. Io HD runs on a new AJA-built driver, similar to the KONA driver, supporting features such as Core Audio, and very low latency. Within its portable and high style chassis, Io HD offers SD/HD analog inputs and outputs, SD/HD digital I/O including HD-SDI and HDMI, as well as RS-422, Genlock, Balanced analog and AES audio, and even LTC timecode connections. Io HD will be available in July of 2007 through AJA’s global channel of dealers and integrators at an MSRP of $3495.00 US, and includes AJA’s 3-year international warranty and support.