Bluefish444 (bluefish444.com) showed the Kronos K8 multi-channel 4K I/O card at NAB 2019, which it will deliver Q2 of 2019. The K8 supports eight independent channels for 2K/HD/SD and multi-channel 4K, high dynamic range and high frame-rate workflows, with eight 3G-capable HD-BNC connectors, four bypass relays, four internal keyers, and the same 12-bit processing that drives all of its I/O cards. Optional auxiliary connections can be added to the K8, providing lots of flexibility for working with digital and analog audio, linear time code and RS-422 I/O.
The Kronos K8 is designed for post production, broadcast graphics, live production, live events, IMF/DCP quality assurance for SDR and HDR, multi-channel display, archive and restoration, and virtual or augmented reality workflows. At NAB, Bluefish444 was showing the K8 outputting to two 4K SDI monitors from Marquise Mist, effectively allowing for color grading of both SDR and HDR in 4K 60p simultaneously from a single card in a single workstation.
Over the coming months the Kronos range is expected to see further adoption of third-party applications already supported by the Epoch range, including software from Avid, Adobe, Marquise Technologies, Vizrt, Brainstorm and Medialooks. The K8 will come bundled free with IngeStore software for multi-channel capture and the Bluefish444 SDK for developers wanting to integrate with Kronos. The forthcoming Bluefish444 software, IngeStream, will also be bundled with K8 for multi-channel streaming to SMPTE 2022/2110, RTP and NewTek NDIR protocols.