Panasonic showcases its Kairos live video production platform, a GPU-based system designed for IP-based workflows with extensive flexibility. The platform’s architecture moves away from traditional hardware and DVE limitations, enabling what Panasonic describes as limitless MEs, layers, and effects. The system is built on a ST 2110 backbone and supports IPMX, with plans for additional format support. The Kairos platform is available in two models, the KC200 and the more powerful KC2000, both featuring a blade-driven design for I/O customization.
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HDMI® Technology is the foundation for the worldwide ecosystem of HDMI-connected devices; integrated with displays, set-top boxes, laptops, audio video receivers and other product types. Because of this global usage, manufacturers, resellers, integrators and consumers must be assured that their HDMI® products work seamlessly together and deliver the best possible performance by sourcing products from licensed HDMI Adopters or authorized resellers. For HDMI Cables, consumers can look for the official HDMI® Cable Certification Labels on packaging. Innovation continues with the latest HDMI 2.2 Specification that supports higher 96Gbps bandwidth and next-gen HDMI Fixed Rate Link technology to provide optimal audio and video for a wide range of device applications. Higher resolutions and refresh rates are supported, including up to 12K@120 and 16K@60. Additionally, more high-quality options are supported, including uncompressed full chroma formats such as 8K@60/4:4:4 and 4K@240/4:4:4 at 10-bit and 12-bit color.
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The core advantage of the GPU-based processing is the ability to manage complex scenes and graphics without running out of layers or effects. The system’s processing capacity is monitored, and in an overload scenario, it is designed to degrade gracefully by first dropping frames from the multi-view outputs to protect the main program feed. Users can also prioritize outputs to manage resource allocation effectively during demanding productions. The platform includes integrated media playback capabilities, with two full clip players, eight RAM players, and audio playback systems.
Input and output capabilities are a key feature, with the system supporting up to 4K on individual I/O and an 8K canvas. The blade-based chassis allows for SDI, HDMI, and NIC card connections. The HDMI support is notable for its ability to handle custom resolutions on both input and output, enabling plug-and-play integration of sources like PCs and direct output to custom-resolution displays such as LED walls. This flexibility allows for creating complex multi-scene layouts, like combining 9:16 vertical video with standard aspect ratios within a single canvas.
The system’s networking capabilities are centered around SMPTE ST 2110, allowing all connected devices, including cameras, to be routed through a network switch into the Kairos platform. Beyond standard ST 2110, the platform also supports protocols like NDI. An interesting feature is the use of ‘FX inputs,’ which allow a user to take an existing input, re-process it with effects, delays, or color adjustments, and bring it back into the system as a new source without adding latency.
For control, Panasonic offers a range of hardware surfaces, including a large controller, a mid-tier model, and a single-stripe controller developed in partnership with Skaarhoj. The demonstration highlighted a setup where two Kairos systems were connected bidirectionally over the ST 2110 network. One system ran the main booth production, while the second was used for hands-on demonstrations, showing how custom resolutions and picture-in-picture scaling can be managed across the platform.
