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DISPLAY TRENDS www.postmagazine.com 27 POST JUNE 2016 TIPPETT DIVES IN WITH DELL Berkeley, CA's Tippett Studio (www.tippett.com), the well- known animation, media pro- duction and VFX company, is keeping a keen eye on the land- scape of emerging technology as HDR monitors hit the market- place, says Page Frakes, color pipeline supervisor. "Extremely high-quality viewing stations are critical to producing high-qual- ity work, and we're constantly researching and testing new tools that can take us to the next level — so, of course, HDR is something we're watching very closely," he says. Currently, Tippett Studio is well equipped with an array of Dell displays for every application. Compositing and lighting teams use Dell UP2716D UltraSharp monitors with QHD (2560x1440) resolution for color-critical tasks. The 27-inch displays offer PremierColor for four color spaces, including Rec. 709 and P3, plus user-enabled color customization. "These monitors have good viewing angles and great out-of-the-box color," says Frakes. "We also use the OCIO (OpenColorIO) color management system to customize the monitors for our needs." Editorial also uses the Dell color-critical monitors coupled with Panasonic 50-inch TH-50BT300 broadcast plasma monitors for client presentation. QC, which reviews large volumes of footage, is outfitted with Dell UP3214Q UltraSharp 32-inch monitors with PremierColor; they feature UHD 3840x2160 resolution. VFX teams typically deploy the Dell color-critical monitors or the Dell QC displays. In recent years, Tippett Studio has been breaking into new territories such as virtual reality and large-scale venue projects. "With these new kinds of projects in-house, we're becoming more engaged with partners like Dell that can offer us the equipment we need to stay competitive as we grow," says Frakes. The company is currently in production on Dream of Anhui, to be delivered at 6K, 48fps, for a Chinese theme park. More than a flight simulation attraction, it features "amazing environments," which represent a huge step forward in creating digital landscapes. Also in production is League of Gods, a "heavily-stylized Chinese production with several fully-CG lead characters," Frakes reports. "The look is so stylized that being able to preview the color accurately is very, very important to ensure we get the right message to the screen." Tippett Studio's growing commercial division also relies on the color-critical displays. The company created the fun Monster Strike spot with Andy Samberg for Mixi's multi-player mobile game, which tallied six million YouTube hits in a week. Tippett Studio also created the campaign for Cheetos new "Sweetos" snack. Not every department requires color-critical view- ing, however. Production management and Tippett Studio executives have Dell U3415W UltraSharp 34-inch curved LED backlight monitors. "They're a great way to look at tons of data efficiently — Excel documents, Shotgun projects," says Frakes. The IT group uses dual Dell U2414H UltraSharp 24- inch monitors; they claim to have the world's thinnest borders for nearly seamless viewing in side-by-side configurations. Tippett Studio also has a 2K viewing theater for dai- lies, which is equipped with a Christie CP2000-M digital cinema projector. "There are a lot of monitor choices out there, but Dell has been amazing at supporting our needs at ev- ery turn," notes Frakes. "Their technology seems to be in our corner." says Bodner. "It's really taking off. I'm doing a lot of HDR finishes and some re- mastering in HDR." He's currently grad- ing the second season of the retro Red Oaks comedy series for Amazon, which has UHD/HDR specs. "Amazon requires an SDR pass and an HDR pass, which includes a metadata file," he reports. "Everyone has been doing HD, SDR and Rec. 709; I think it's time for the entire post industry to take the next step and go to UHD, HDR and Rec. 2020." Bodner regards the X300 as "the gold standard for professional monitors now. Most people would like to see a display larger than 30 inches though, so we have an LG E6 55-inch OLED 4K consumer monitor off to the side. It's calibrated to match as closely as possible to the X300; we've attached an HDLink box to the LG and put in our own LUT profile." Light Iron New York's online bays, which are equipped with Quantel Rio and Autodesk Flame systems, fea- ture Dolby PRM HD 42-inch viewing monitors. The company also boasts a 30-seat 4K theater, which Bodner believes may have been the first in New York. The theater is outfitted with a 14- foot screen, Christie CP4220 4K digital cinema projector and 7.1 surround. Light Iron's Outpost on-set/near-set mobile solution currently uses Sony PVM 25-inch OLED monitors. But Bodner notes that with DPs and directors moving to HDR acquisition, the demand for HDR monitors on-set is inevitable. He thinks the Atomos Shogun Flame, a 7-inch, 10-bit, 1,500-nit field monitor, is a good start for on-board HDR monitoring. The new Canon DP-V2410 monitor may become the leader in calibrated HDR 4K monitoring on-set, he adds. "Creative editorial often gets overlooked for monitoring and will have to catch up with HDR soon, too," Bodner predicts. "It's the way the industry is headed." Sony's new PVM-X550.