Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/187650
"You can add 3D LUTs, available on our Website, for monitoring camera output, especially when you're looking at Log." Check out Post's Review of the IS-Mini on page 48. SPECTRACAL SpectraCal's (www.spectracal.com) main product, CalMan (Calibration Man), is designed to make sure that "customers' monitors are calibrated to the color standard they want to use, whether medical, geospatial intelligence, home theater, photographic, post production or broadcast," says director of marketing and sales Joshua Quain. "CalMan interacts with all the calibration hardware: the meter to measure the display; the way you get patterns into the display, like a pattern generator; and our software to communicate, automate and sync them," he explains. "Over the last couple of years we started adding communication to the monitor as well. We connect the meter, source and our software to the monitor and completely automate the calibration. The customer hits the 'AutoCal' button and the display reads, writes and verifies the adjustments to the standards they have selected. We have all the older standards as well as the new ones, including Rec 2020 UHD," he says. CalMan has a "rapid release cycle," which adds new features, hardware support and Dolby's PRM-4200: To reduce cost for the customer, the company will calibrate on-site. improvements to the interface three or four times a year, Quain reports. "When V.5.2 releases in the third quarter, it will add several new display manufacturers, which are very popular in the post production world. It will enable facilities to take full advantage of the displays they have." "We measure the display and write the change inside the software in a virtual space — CalMan validates it every time it takes a measurement before it moves to the next point — so at the end of the process the display is spot-on accurate," says Quain. "The beauty of it is that you see all our data in realtime, so you know exactly what is happening behind the scenes. There are no hidden processes." CalMan supports a wide range of hardware, he notes, including more than 50 measuring devices, many pattern devices and over 20 display manufacturers. In addition, SpectraCal makes the Video Forge 4K, a pattern generator for 4K HD-SDI that also outputs lower-resolution for HDMI. Just released is a software version of the pattern generator, Vir tual Forge, which can be installed on computers running AJA or Blackmagic cards and devices. "At $495, it offers all the capabilities of a dedicated $5,000 hardware pattern generator," notes Quain. DOLBY Known for the quality of its Professional Reference Monitor product line, Dolby (www.dolby.com) solves the issue of color calibration by providing calibration services for customers on-site, an extension of the services Dolby has offered to clients in audio mixing and sound environments. "Our goal is to remove the cost of owning additional [calibration] equipment and worrying about having trained people on staff," says Bill Admans, Dolby's director of production and post production services. "Dolby has so much knowlknowl edge in color science — it's a real value-added service. When clients use our calibracalibra tion services they know the professionals performing the service are knowledgeable about the equipment they're calibrating, the workflow and the science behind the color, and use the most precise calibration tools possible." Dolby has multiple levels of service to choose from. The Basic Display Calibration Service, which is recommended two or three times annually, covers all Dolby monitors on a per-call basis, and ensures that the monitor has the latest version of software. It also checks tracking, confirms calibration, sets luminance at the desired level and confirms any custom color standards. A service plan of four calibrations in 12 months offers a discount for those who buy it The R&D process By Robert Keske The Nice Shoes engineering staff is CIO/CTO constantly performing research and development in order to keep deliver- Nice Shoes ing client imagery at the absolute best www.niceshoes.com New York City quality. They start with the seemingly simple task of making sure that creative staff and clients see the same thing in every room, but technology is ever evolving, and it's up to this team of engineers to keep the company up to date and forward thinking. In April, Nice Shoes installed Sony OLED BVM-F250 displays as reference monitors for colorists and assistants. Our clients expect accuracy and high quality, and that is what these monitors assist us in delivering. OLED displays offer an accurate color gamut, high dynamic range and absolute color stability for today's critical monitoring. With these monitors, we're working with an image that is incredibly high quality, but also ultimately reflects what the average viewer sees in their home. The client facing monitors in Nice Shoes' New York studio are Panasonic professional displays. These are also in use in Nice Shoes' Remote Color suites at EngineRoomEdit, Red Car Dallas and Vapor Post. Each monitor goes through a 12-day preparation and calibration process before it is installed, ensuring that every display in New York matches the displays in Remote Color suites. The engineering staff has worked nearly 18 months to meet the standards established during the CRT era as a reference to update those standards for LCD, plasma and OLED screens, as well as to prepare for future displays. They've included other post production companies in their research in order to create a standard that will be consistent across the board, eliminating the potential for client confusion due to different monitor settings. It's important for Nice Shoes and this industry to not only keep up to date, but also prepare for what's coming. continued on page 45 www.postmagazine.com Post • September 2013 31