To accurately stage and recreate real-world production environments, MCI incorporated a range of native SDI and IP solutions into the XMedia.Lab system. A selection of AJA’s IP-based I/O devices and converters aid in connecting SDI gear and products without native IP interfaces into hybrid workflows.

“We’ve worked with AJA solutions for many years because of their production-proven reliability, and in designing the test lab, we chose to integrate AJA KONA IP and IP Mini-Converters to future-proof our workflow and see how they’d perform under experimental environments,” said Fabian Röttcher, Solution Architect at MCI.

MCI’s XMedia.Lab system includes AJA’s flexible KONA IP video and audio I/O card, which features support for up to 4K/UltraHD with SMPTE ST 2110, and AJA’s IPR-10G2-SDI converters for bridging SMPTE ST 2110 with 3G-SDI. During experiments in the test lab, MCI uses KONA IP and IPR-10G2-SDI to bridge legacy SDI products into hybrid IP workflows and solve workflow challenges to optimize efficient media delivery over IP. KONA IP’s further support for SMPTE 2022-6 and uncompressed 3G-SDI video, audio and VANC data makes the I/O device an ideal solution for testing workflows, while IPR-10G2-SDI powers high-end IP to SDI conversion to help the team manage different formats.

“As we aim to explore new possibilities in IP broadcast networks, our many years of experience working with AJA gear enables us to quickly find our way around each solution and optimize integration of each device,” said Röttcher. “Our work is experimental, and when we need to develop workarounds to solve technical challenges, AJA’s IP tools are the precise bridge we need to map workflows.”