DIT Kevin Shiramizu Manages On-Set Curve Balls with AJA KUMO 3232-12G and Mini-Converters
Brie Clayton December 15, 2023
0 Comments
A liaison between production and post on set, digital imaging technicians (DITs) are the go-to resource for troubleshooting everything from imaging sensors to hard drives, signal paths, and monitors. Doing this while ensuring the director of photography's (DP) vision is accurately translated to the various production departments puts quite a bit of pressure on the role.
According to DIT Kevin Shiramizu, having the right kit in his DIT cart carts goes a long way in keeping everything running smoothly. To help manage inevitable curve balls, he's integrated an AJA KUMO 3232-12G router and an assortment of AJA Mini-Converters into his cart. The future proof setup provides enough ins and outs, and bandwidth to support 4K HDR live grading and monitoring needs on set, and a way to move between equipment and display formats as needed.
Working primarily in commercials, Shiramizu says that because his projects are shorter, he continually faces new challenges. Whether I'm working with a different camera, trying to achieve a set look for the actors, or the project has a certain style, there's a never-ending permutation of factors to make each shoot happen, he explains. It's like trying to solve a trick Rubik's Cube. As soon as I think I've got it, something changes, and I have to figure that out like shooting against an LED wall.
To help solve those unexpected challenges, Shiramizu has built a several hundred-pound DIT cart with an arsenal of equipment. His setup includes a computer that runs his live grade technology, monitors, and the video signal path from the camera, whether it's wireless or tethered through cloud products. It's run through LUT boxes, into the computer, through his KUMO router, and distributed to the cart monitors, the DP and directors' monitors, and the video assist operator, who typically streams it to remote clients. For live grading, he uses Pomfort's Livegrade and a Tangent panel.
As productions get more complex and more people on set want access to live monitoring, having enough ins and outs is critical to keeping things moving, which is why I use KUMO. It gives me so much flexibility and reliability, and the fact that AJA and Pomfort make software integration seamless is awesome for live grading. With 32 ins and outs on the KUMO, I'm excited to move to Livegrade Studio in the future, added Kevin. While I mostly receive signals through a wireless video system via SDI into the router, if the wireless receiver is HDMI, I'll use an AJA HDMI to SDI converter, which is great.
Outside of conversion needs for transmitting the wireless signal between the video system and router, Shiramizu must also manage a host of other conversion demands on set, whether it's monitoring an iPhone, a GoPro, Sony SLR cam, or other capture device. For this reason, he keeps a number of AJA Mini-Converters and distribution amplifiers on his cart. Shiramizu says, Having a nice quiver of AJA Mini-Converters in my toolkit for those moments has saved the day countless times.
He concludes, Whether KUMO or a Mini-Converter, AJA gear is so reliable and makes me feel prepared for the future, especially as the industry begins shifting toward 4K HDR monitoring, and 12G-SDI becomes more widely adopted on set. I love being ahead of the curve, which is why I'm also looking at integrating AJA ColorBox into my cart for color space and HDR format conversions; I can't wait to see what it might bring to my workflow.
December 1, 2023AJA ColorBox Achieves RED-CERTIFICATIONAJA Video Systems today announced that ColorBox has become the first color management and color
November 30, 2023AJA Announces DRM2 Frame for AJA Mini-Converters at Inter BEE 2023AJA Video Systems today unveiled DRM2, a rackmount frame that can house and power up
Enjoying the news? Sign up for the Creative COW Newsletter! Sign up for the Creative COW newsletter and get weekly updates on industry news, forum highlights, jobs, inspirational tutorials, tips, burning questions, and more! Receive bulletins from the largest, longest-running community dedicated to supporting professionals working in film, video, and audio.
Enter your email address, and your first and last name below!
-- Sign up: * indicates required
Email Address *
Name
--
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
DIT Kevin Shiramizu Manages On-Set Curve Balls with AJA KUMO 3232-12G and Mini-Converters 
