1
9
KONA LHe Plus Installation & Operation Guide — Cable Connections
Connector
Descriptions—
Cables and KL-box
Connectors on the standard cable set are labelled as to their function for easy installation and
m
aintenance. Si
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ilarly, connectors on the optional KL-box are also labelled.
SDI Input and Outputs
BNC connectors are provided on the KONA LHe Plus card endplate for one SD-SDI or HD-SDI
input and two SDI outputs (independent of the input). The SDI input and outputs support video
and e
m
bedded 24-bit digital audio. Use SDI wherever possible for the best quality 10-bit
unco
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pressed video input, capture and output. If peripheral equip
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ent has a variety of inputs/
outputs, look to see if it has SDI I/O, and use it where possible. Most high-end professional
broadcast equip
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ent supports SDI (VTRs, ca
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eras,
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edia storage servers, etc.).
2-Channel Digital AES/EBU Audio Inputs And Outputs
One fe
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ale XLR connector is provided for the channel 1 and 2 inputs, while a
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ale XLR
connector carries channel 1 and 2 outputs. AES/EBU signals are handled internally as 24-bit
digital.The optional KL-box also provides XLR audio connections on the front panel.
Note:
AES XLR connections are digital and cannot be used with analog equip
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ent having XLR
connectors.
Analog 2 Channel Balanced Audio
Two sets of analog XLR connectors, one for each channel, support balanced audio connections.
Male XLRs are provided for outputs and fe
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ale XLRs are provided for inputs. Balanced audio
(differential) connections provide better analog audio quality over longer cable runs. Most
professional quality VTRs and audio equip
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ent have XLR style connectors for analog audio.
Analog audio signals are converted internally to 24-bit digital.
Analog 2 Channel Unbalanced Audio (KL-box only)
On the KL-box are two analog output connectors, one for each channel. These connectors are
RCA-style phono jacks.
RS422 Machine Control
A fe
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ale DB9 connector on the breakout cable provides connection for VTRs, ca
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corders, disk
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edia servers, and other devices using RS422 SMPTE (Sony) protocol. This connector is also
present on the optional KL-box. (Connector pinout is listed in Appendix A: Specifications.)
Analog Monitor Out (Component/Composite HD/SD)
Both the standard I/O cable and the optional KL-Box feature two groups of 3 BNC connectors
(each) for input and output of co
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ponent, co
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posite and Y/C functions. The signals are
labelled on both the cable and KL-Box connectors.
Co
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ponent video signals are generally higher quality than co
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posite, but not as high quality as
serial digital (SDI).
A Note About RGB
—Although RGB is used less in today’s video syste
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s, KONA LHe Plus
supports it. However, because the KONA LHe Plus (and SMPTE SDI) native for
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at is YPbPr,
AJA reco
mm
ends the use of YPbPr whenever possible for analog
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onitoring. Although
co
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ponent video
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onitors often have RGB inputs, it’s better to use YPbPr when the
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onitor supports it. The YPbPr for
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at provides “headroo
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” for “superwhite” and
“superblack”—and these video levels
will be clipped
when transcoding to RGB. Also, the
RGB/YPbPr transcoding involves a level translation that results in
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athe
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atical round-off
error. RGB can be configured in the AJA Control Panel.
A Note About YPbPr
—Co
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ponent Video, or YPbPr, has been given several na
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es over ti
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e.
YUV, Y/R-Y/B-Y, and YCbCr, are just so
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e exa
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ples. Although these various for
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ats have
so
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e differences in levels, they are all basically the sa
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e. KONA LHe Plus uses the
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odern
YPbPr ter
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inology exclusively. KONA LHe Plus supports three different types of YPbPr:
USO
RESTRITO
