The Rebel Fleet specialises in DIT and dailies by leveraging AJA solutions

AJA tools enable Auckland-based The Rebel Fleet to provide customised video support, DIT and dailies services.

The Rebel Fleet team works closely with each of its clients to develop a customised workflow based on AJA equipment to suit their unique production environment, budget, crew size, cinematographer and director visions or studio requirements. Solutions such as the AJA Kumo 1616 and Kumo 3232 routers, Kumo control panel and AJA mini-converters are essential to your daily operations, as well as Qtake software, which integrates with Kumo to optimise on-set workflows.

One of the services most frequently offered by The Rebel Fleet is the deployment of a customised flypack dubbed the “Danny Box”. This set of solutions, which is normally deployed on sets, is stored in a Pelican case and features two AJA HD SDI splitters, two camera inputs and four camera outputs. According to Mike Urban, the company’s CEO, the setup helps customers who want to distribute a signal to more monitors or extend a signal because the SDI path is greater than 100 metres: “Knowing we’ve got reliable equipment from AJA inside the box that we can literally just drop on set and will work without fail is amazing.”

HDR, AJA and The Rebel Fleet

The growing popularity of HDR is leading The Rebel Fleet to increasingly deploy equipment such as the AJA FS-HDR and the AJA HDR Image Analyzer. These tools allow you to check that HDR is being displayed correctly if they receive a recording signal from the camera. Depending on the customer’s needs, they can direct different paths to HDR or SDR. Similarly, Pomfort Livegrade Pro support allows them to use the device as a dynamic LUT box.

HDR Image Analyzer also allows Urban’s team to monitor HDR on set with gauges that match what is seen on the Colorfront: “With FS-HDR, we get one rack-mounted device that does everything we could possibly imagine. HDR Image Analyzer also allows us to look at the scopes when monitoring, which is huge for ensuring consistency in dailies.”

Another essential process in today’s post-production is the ability to switch between SDR and HDR in the editing process. The Rebel Fleet can design a workflow so that all metadata from cameras with smart lenses can be easily read. Ultimately, all that information served to the dailies through Colorfront, further optimising the information workflow in all shooting processes.