Funicular Goats relies on AJA for challenging projects

AJA solutions such as FS-HDR or Ki Pro Ultra 12G are key to the large projects in which Funicular Goats is involved.

Solutions and services provider Funicular Goats specializes in the planning and design of multi-camera workflows involving cameras, communications, flypacks, cameras, wireless camera systems, fiber transmission infrastructure (digital, broadcast or satellite) and on-set monitoring solutions for top-tier projects.

90% of the time, their productions often require live grading and SDR-HDR workflows, which translates into the use of equipment such as AJA’s FS-HDR. As James Coker, one of the company’s founders, says, “We love FS-HDR, from its redundant power to the fact that we can count on it to do what it’s supposed to without fail. It has great features for everything from embedding to frame syncing and live grading; it does it all.”

FS-HDR also addresses conversion needs in Funicular Goats projects, for example to help downscale a 12G-SDI or 6G-SDI signal from a cinema camera to 1080 for viewing. The device also enables frame rate conversion, which the production company’s team will leverage to move a 24p signal to a broadcast standard.

Funicular Goats and the AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G

In addition to live grading, recording is essential to Funicular Goats‘ workflow designs. When they deliver a project in Full HD, but captured in 4K, they typically record the files on the AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G ProRes and DNx recorder/players. This ensures they have a master of the project, as well as the 4K footage to work with. Funicular Goats also chooses to use Ki Pro Ultra 12G as a quad HD recorder for four 1080 feeds in a project, for backup 1080 recordings, ISOs from the cameras, or to create multiple copies of a program.

Morgan Kellum, another of the production company’s partners, comments, “We love our Ki Pros because they’re so flexible; they give us a lot of options and provide a cost-effective way to record in different flavors. We get edit ready files that we can have our downloader dump onto a drive to be shared with production. AJA gear like Ki Pro Ultra 12G and FS-HDR are staples in our inventory, and we use them on nearly every show because they’ve got such a great track record of being reliable. We also use of a ton of other AJA products – everything from the KUMO 3232-12G routers, to the 12GDA and Hi5 Mini-Converters, throw down distribution amplifiers, and FS2 frame syncs.”

Funicular Goats in the “big game” in the U.S.

The production company has worked with AJA equipment on major projects such as the Elton John concert at Dodger Stadium, “The Weekend: Live at SoFi Stadium” show, various comedy specials, and the halftime show at the annual big soccer game.

For this show, Funicular Goats captured images at 29.97p from Sony Venice 2 cameras. The images were sent to their mobile unit with an AJA Kumo 3232-12G router so they could be managed by up to 28 FS-HDRs, which allowed the DIT team to work with the log and HDR sources and bounce them back and forth. This workflow also allowed for frame synchronization, with the goal of locking all sources to the main program audio.

“Our dedication to the technology and craft shines through in the look and feel of every project. What gets me excited to come to work each day are the great team of people I work with and the fact that I get to play a part in influencing the look and feel of these projects. Getting to play with cool gear from AJA gear often is a bonus,” concludes Kellum.