Camera Corps streamlines live HDR sports production with AJA gear

While high dynamic range (HDR) has enabled broadcasters and over-the-top (OTT) providers to deliver live events with remarkably lifelike colours, many production chains still use standard dynamic range (SDR) equipment, even for events captured in HDR.

This mix of technologies can create colour management complexities throughout the production process, a challenge Camera Corps, a UK-based speciality camera solutions provider, is constantly looking to address for major broadcasters with its camera expertise and innovative workflows.

Central to many of these solutions are tools like AJA ColorBox for colour management and conversion, and 12G-AMA and 12GM Mini-Convertors for high-quality audio embedding and signal format conversions.

Considering all the SDR and HDR equipment involved in modern sports workflows, it is crucial for Camera Corps to convert signals between both ranges while maintaining signal integrity. Similarly, the ability to handle multiple look-up tables (LUTs) for these conversions with low latency and high-quality processing is essential.

For last year’s Paris Olympic Games, the Camera Corps team deployed Colorbox to enable HDR conversion of high-speed cameras, which offer dual outputs for live and replay and are designed to capture slow-motion shots of dynamic sporting events, such as pole vault and high jump.

The lightweight design of the cameras and AJA gear made it easy to integrate into their setups without being intrusive. 

Andy Sanders, Technical Director, Camera Corps, explained, “Our goal was to capture the highest possible quality images and ensure smooth transmission from the cameras to the vision mixer in the correct HDR format. 

“We started with camera signal acquisition and used AJA 12G-AMA and 12GM Mini-Converters to convert the signals. We then tapped ColorBox for SDR and HDR LUT processing requirements and our converters to handle various other technical requirements.

“The high-quality signal conversion that our AJA gear provided fit seamlessly into our workflow, enabling us to support specialty camera deployments across multiple event venues.”

Camera Corps’ use of ColorBox continues to expand, especially with increasing client demand for HDR formats.

ColorBox enables the Camera Corps team to pre-load multiple LUTs, so when on-site, the team can simply select the desired LUT in the ColorBox pipeline and apply it to each job, which streamlines setup.