The What: AJA Video Systems is launching BRIDGE NDI 3G, a sleek, high-performance 1RU appliance that enables reliable, high density, and high-quality conversion to/from SDI and NewTek's NDI video over IP protocol. The flexible, intuitive gateway device supports multichannel 4K and HD workflows and is designed to help broadcast, production and pro AV professionals move seamlessly between various platforms, protocols, and connectivity types.
The What Else: BRIDGE NDI 3G packs a punch with dual 10GigE onboard NICs for NDI I/O, as well as high-density SDI connections for up to 16 channels of 3G-SDI I/O, offering up to four channels of 4K or 16-channels of HD, or a mixture of HD and 4K NDI encodes/decodes in a compact form-factor. The device boasts an intuitive interface and system administration screen that make it simple to get BRIDGE NDI 3G up, running, and configured quickly and securely. Using a standard web browser, technicians, engineers, operators, and producers can access the interface remotely to view and manage content, including local monitoring preferences.
Operators are also able to freely browse, favorite, label, and filter a large volume of NDI sources on the network, as well as label any SDI inputs or outputs, and see all I/O activity at any given time. BRIDGE NDI 3G can easily be used to convert SDI camera and playout sources into NDI streams, enabling simple integration into NDI supported workflows, including virtualized productions leveraging NDI-based switchers. Using a common network, these sources can be located anywhere within a facility, allowing seamless integration of various production islands into a unified workflow. Conversely, NDI streams can be converted back into SDI ecosystems via BRIDGE NDI 3G's configurable I/O, allowing NDI signals to move back into SDI routing systems and traditional baseband workflows.
The Bottom Line: Device configuration and management are simple via a local interface, or remotely from a web browser interface or REST API. The rack-mountable appliance supports UYVY and UYVA 4:2:2, 8-bit and P216, for NDI, and for SDI, YCbCr 4:2:2, 10-bit. It simplifies the integration of graphics and/or 4K sources into workflows with one-click grouping controls for video-and-key, and for 4K via 3G I/O. BRIDGE NDI 3G includes dual power supplies for redundancy and AJA's three-year warranty.
