The Rebel Fleet Envisions Powerful Video Assist, DIT, and Dailies Workflows with AJA Gear
Brie Clayton March 24, 2023
0 Comments
As high-resolution, high dynamic range (HDR) workflows have continued to evolve in recent years, innovative video assist, DIT, and dailies solutions offered by companies like The Rebel Fleet have become essential. Founded in 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand, The Rebel Fleet provides these services across New Zealand, Australia, and the Asia Pacific region and recently expanded its offering to include post production in New Zealand. Its clients span high-profile episodic, film, and commercial productions. Clients typically approach The Rebel Fleet for custom workflow solutions, often with a specific camera in mind. Its team then works closely with each client to develop a custom pipeline and deploys a host of AJA gear to envision solutions that align with their unique production environment, budget, crew sizes, DP and director visions, studio requirements, and more.
The kit behind the design
The Rebel Fleet team depends on gear like AJA KUMO 1616 and KUMO 3232 routers, the KUMO Control Panel, and AJA Mini-Converters to build on-set video assist and DIT workflows for clients. Company CEO Mike Urban shared, AJA KUMO routers and Mini-Converters are built so great and offer solid warranties, which are paramount in the fast-paced environments we work in. We need equipment we can trust, and the AJA kit gives us peace of mind.
QTAKE software is also central to The Rebel Fleet's video assist service offering. It integrates seamlessly with AJA KUMO routers through the KUMO's network interface. The team can quickly and easily establish predefined router settings, so if a client wants all the monitors to display playback or live footage, they can preconfigure it, load it up with their Stream Deck, and changes are reflected across the routers. According to Urban, this provides a massive advantage over making changes manually. He shared, Being able to bring all this control into the network ecosystem of the rig via KUMO gives our clients more free time to try out fancy ideas. I also love that KUMO routers run off 12-volt batteries.
When working with clients, The Rebel Fleet occasionally deploys a custom flypack affectionately dubbed the Danny Box after the team member who built it. Typically placed on set, it is housed in a Pelican Case and features two AJA HD SDI splitters, two camera inputs, and four camera outputs. According to Urban, the setup supports clients looking to distribute a feed to more monitors or extend a signal because the SDI BNC run is longer than 100M. He said, 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.
Managing HDR on set and beyond
As HDR continues to play a more prominent role on set, The Rebel Fleet is deploying more HDR gear across projects, including the AJA FS-HDR and AJA HDR Image Analyzer. Paired with Colorfront, these tools help ensure its client's desired look stays consistent as footage moves from acquisition through dailies. HDR equipment costs remain a key hurdle to broader adoption of full HDR workflows, which is where tools like AJA FS-HDR have been great. We can easily convert between SDR and HDR and retain a high-quality image, Urban explained.
When The Rebel Fleet deploys monitors on set, the FS-HDR gives its team the confidence that they're displaying HDR correctly if they receive a log signal from the camera. Depending upon client needs, they can then route different paths to HDR or SDR. Compatibility with Pomfort Livegrade Pro also enables them to use the device as a dynamic LUT box. HDR Image Analyzer then allows Urban's team to monitor HDR on set with scopes that match what it's seeing in Colorfront. He added, 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.
Related COW News
March 20, 2023Hash Pixel Saves Time and Money in Production with AJA GearFounded in 2020, Hash Pixel develops and implements workflows for streaming and
March 14, 2023Coralbay.tv Delivers Hybrid Cloud Playout Solution with AJA BRIDGE NDI 3GCloud playout is quickly gaining favor among broadcasters and content providers, making
Building a workflow for HDR finishing on set
With on-set HDR finishing always a part of the plan forone of The Rebel Fleet's latest projects, the ability to easily switch between SDR and HDR in the dailies pipeline proved crucial. DPs and other stakeholders needed to know what the HDR looked like during high light or outdoor scenes with high dynamic range, and with every shot effectively a VFX shot, metadata was key. Starting from the cameras - ARRI ALEXA LF cameras with DNA and other smart lenses - The Rebel Fleet designed the workflow so all the metadata from the camera and the lens through the on-set pipeline could be easily read.
AJA FS-HDR could read all the metadata we brought into the DIT cart. We could then combine it with the notes and information the DIT created for whatever needed to be passed down to the pipeline and marry it with the information coming from QTAKE. We were then able to give the team on set the ability to add metadata directly to a live database for viewing on iPads and other devices, explained Urban.
All that information ultimately served dailies through Colorfront before making its way into editorial. This color-consistent pipeline meant that editorial could start working faster. The team worked in the same HDR color space (P3-D65) in post production that they'd monitored on set.
The Rebel Fleet CEO Mike Urban
I/O was another important consideration on the project, f
North America Stories
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
21/07/2026
In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...
21/07/2026
When NEP designed one of its largest recurring mobile production unit fleets for PGA TOUR
coverage, the leading media services provider faced a familiar challe...
21/07/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery's unbroken lead is interrupted as sports and live mus...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Across the TV and streaming ecosystem, industry players face mounting pressure to do more with less. They must simplify operations, protect premium content and ...
21/07/2026
Tuxera, a leading prover of quality-assured file systems and networking technologies, is bringing its latest advances in connectivity performance to the media w...
21/07/2026
COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...
21/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...
21/07/2026
Calrec will be located in Hall 8, on Stand C47
Beyond bigger
For years, broadcast facilities were built around one assumption: provision for the biggest pro...
21/07/2026
Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will discuss its future-facing developments for the new generation of medi...
21/07/2026
nxtedition returns to IBC2026 with its consolidated production platform, showing how scripting, editing, graphics, AI-assisted tools and automation can work wit...
21/07/2026
C2PA content signing helps broadcasters, public institutions, and publishers give audiences a verifiable record of where their video content came from and how i...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
The Rebel Fleet Envisions Powerful Video Assist, DIT, and Dailies Workflows with AJA Gear 
