Grass Valley, CA (June 4, 2020) – AJA Video Systems and SKAARHOJ have joined forces to integrate control of AJA’s FS family of frame synchronizers and converters with SKAARHOJ’s Rack Control Duo, streamlining how professionals make RGB color correction and other parameter adjustments across one or many FS devices and channels in live production environments. Developed in partnership with broadcast services provider NEP, the new Rack Control Duo supports AJA’s FS-HDR, FS4, FS2 and FS1 devices and is capable of ganging control of multiple FS products and processing channels together, making set-up and on-the-fly adjustments faster and easier for operators and engineers with a single tactile hardware control panel.

Ideal for live production, OB trucks, concerts, sporting events, corporate AV or any production environment involving multiple source signals, Rack Control Duo is an intuitive hardware control panel with tactile knobs and buttons to easily perform simultaneous adjustments across multiple AJA frame synchronizers. Rack Control Duo supports up to 20 channels from different FS devices that can be grouped together for ganged adjustments. Making simultaneous RGB corrections across FS units enables operators to conform color for multiple sources to achieve the desired final look. Operators can also use the panel to recall and implement presets from previous setups across one or more FS devices. When used in conjunction with FS-HDR real-time HDR/WCG converters, RGB color corrections can be performed via Rack Control Duo prior to HDR to SDR or SDR to HDR transforms, harnessing AJA’s FS-HDR v3.2 firmware update.

“Controlling multiple FS-HDRs with Rack Control Duo gives you the live feel and quick response so that when you’re on the air and need to make an on-the-fly color adjustment to one of your camera sources, you can quickly and easily do it with the press of a button,” said NEP Vice President and Chief Engineer Dan Turk, who was instrumental in developing the Rack Control Duo to support live HDR color correction and conversion for 10 FS-HDR units during broadcasts of the halftime show at the 2020 North American football championship game. “Otherwise, you’re using a mouse with a slider or clicking arrows on a keyboard, which isn’t ideal when you need to fine-tune signals during live broadcasts.”

“Combining the production-proven reliability and performance of our FS frame syncs and converters with streamlined control hardware from SKAARHOJ accelerates setup time and empowers operators with greater efficiency in real-time production environments with no margin for error,” said Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video Systems. “This integration supports the most accurate adjustments across sources to ensure sources are color matched  across multiple FS devices and channels.”

“Partnering with NEP on development and AJA to refine full integration of Rack Control Duo with FS frame syncs and converters has resulted in a revolutionary solution that helps production professionals align color and conversion across variable sources in even the most demanding live production scenarios,” said Kasper Skårhøj, Founder, SKAARHOJ. “Collaborating with AJA has made it quick and easy to get this solution to market.”

More information on Rack Control Duo is available on SKAARHOJ’s website: www.skaarhoj.com/products/rack-control-duo/ and details on AJA’s FS family of frame synchronizers and converters can be found here: www.aja.com/family/frame-sync

About AJA Video Systems, Inc.
Since 1993, AJA Video has been a leading manufacturer of video interface technologies, converters, digital video recording solutions and professional cameras, bringing high-quality, cost-effective products to the professional broadcast, video and post production markets. AJA products are designed and manufactured at our facilities in Grass Valley, California, and sold through an extensive sales channel of resellers and systems integrators around the world. For further information, please see our website at www.aja.com. 

About SKAARHOJ
SKAARHOJ is a universal broadcast control manufacturer with a range of hardware control panels that integrate with AJA production solutions. For more information, visit: www.skaarhoj.com