Astora Digital commits to virtual production in the Asian market with AJA ColorBox

A pipeline consisting of AJA tools such as ColorBox, Io 4K Plus, Kona 5, Helo Plus and Corvid 44 12G enables Astora Digital to perform DIT operations on a significant number of projects that include a disruptive demand for virtual production.

Founded in 2020 and based in Beijing, Astora Digital designed its pipeline to support simultaneous production in SDR (standard in China) with HDR options. The company needed a system that would offer support for high-precision LUTs in both formats. After studying the market, as Astora Digital color manager Lucas Lin reports, the company decided on the compact AJA ColorBox HDR/SDR converter: “Previously, we’d need to prepare several LUT boxes to process SDR and HDR signals simultaneously. With ColorBox, we only need one unit to achieve real-time SDR and HDR monitoring on a single line. It simplifies our workflows and makes the process more straightforward and manageable.”

Although Astora Digital tailors each workflow to the project, they almost always start with a Log C camera signal passing through a 12G-SDI router to color grading. The AJA ColorBox Colorfront pipeline supports HDR to SDR conversion, allowing the director and director of photography (DP) to monitor HDR and SDR simultaneously. All of its capture equipment and routers are equipped with 12G-SDI connectivity, including the main control-level monitors, although on-site video streams are still processed at 1080p, 24 frames per second, due to hardware limitations.

Astora Digital also provides processing samples in 4K or up to 8K HDR based on the original sources provided. These samples are used for directors to review and cinematographers to evaluate the results. On the other hand, the team uses ColorBox to make real-time color adjustments based on the camera output to achieve the expected color effects. This establishes a solid foundation for post-production and helps maintain color consistency, ensuring that the captured footage matches the intended visual effects.

“The AJA Color Pipeline enables us to uphold color consistency across every stage of production, providing valuable support for cinematographers to supervise LED color control in virtual production work. ColorBox also supports LUT accuracy and can stack 1D LUTs, which is crucial in making ColorBox unique,” comments Lin.

Live streaming and recording with AJA Io 4K Plus and Kona 5

In addition to using its video assist system for film and television production and post-production, Astora Digital also uses it for live streaming and recording, in combination with the AJA Io 4K Plus and Kona 5 with OBS for live HDR video streaming on platforms such as YouTube. Leveraging AJA’s technology, and ColorBox in particular, has enabled Astora Digital to elevate the quality of the services it provides in the fast-changing world of film and television production.

Edge Dong, director of workflow at Astora Digital, conveys the importance of ColorBox to their operations: “ColorBox really stands out as the only on-set color management device available to integrate multiple powerful features with a plug-and-play user experience. It contains the trusted reliability that the AJA brand is known for while incorporating robust built-in color processing pipelines like the AJA Color Pipeline and the highly acclaimed Colorfront pipeline, along with many other powerful functionalities. We’re thrilled with the benefits it’s brought to our daily operations.”