Kona 2 Questions

I am helping a friend spec out an HD system. He is focused on the Black-magic decklink HD pro. I have been looking at the kona 2 as an option. the catch is A lot of his work is going to be standard def. I have noticed a couple of things that make the kona 2 problematic.

A.) Kona 2 is SDI only so if the SD deck doesn't have SDI output he's out of luck. IS that Right?

B.) Audio is coming out digital. How do we hook up to a mixer for monitoring. Do we need Digital to analog converters for each channel of AES/EBU that is coming out? (as a side do all 8 channels actaully play out from Final Cut. I thought quicktime had a two audio channel limit).

I have been trying to tell him that setting up an HD system to do mostly SD work is silly but he is set on mking HD work for him. Any suggestions.

Thanks,
Grant Keiner