The Dolby monitor, on the other hand, combines a high quality LCD panel with an active LED backlight: approximately 1500 RGB LED triads, each of which are both individually dimmable and
colour controllable. Together with the modulation of the LCD panel, it results in extremely high linearity across the full range from black to white. Prices are broadly
comparable, too. Sony did not
comment on price, but Dolby acknowledged that the $1,000 an inch rule of thumb that used to be applied to grade one CRTs is still a good guide. So is the advice to go for a Sony OLED unless you need something
larger, in which case the Dolby is also excellent? The answer is not quite so simple. As Paddy Taylor of Autocue — also in the reference monitor business — points out, “If consumers are not watching
their content on CRTs, then what logic is there for basing the ‘standards’ on it? Certain aspects of a video signal will perform differently between technologies so there is a strong argument to use the most common denominator when grading an image.” Steve Hathaway is managing
director of Oxygen DCT, which distributes the Penta line of reference monitors. “The Penta series are a ‘leveller’ for the industry,” he says, “enabling broadcasters, post houses and production companies to all operate the same, industry compliant colour standards, and provide the picture accuracy necessary through the proliferation of high definition formats.”
Moving fast Sony’s Dubreuil points to “enhanced motion reproduction” as one of the major benefits of the OLED display, and many will have seen demonstrations at NAB or IBC featuring ridiculously fast text crawls which are perfectly reproduced. That is a huge benefit when engineers are trying to capture transient problems with a signal, certainly, but at the same time it could be a temptation for a creative artist to make something that looks good on the reference monitor but could never be reproduced at home. So Ian Lowe of Dolby has a
point when he says “The thing that makes the PRM-4200 genuinely different is its built-in ability to emulate other display devices as standard.” From the front panel it is possible to change the response of a single monitor from grade one equivalent to emulation of consumer LCDs and plasmas. This adaptability goes the
other way, too, and that is important because broadcast HD grade one is not the only premium standard to which facilities aspire today. As well as SMPTE Rec 709 HD, many suites will want a graded monitor for digital cinema work, which means DCI P3 and emerging 12-bit signals, in 2K and even 4K resolution. The Dolby monitor supports 2K DCI, switching reference luminance and gamma as required. Not only is it ready for 12-bit colour space, it also supports 48fps DCI for high frame rate projects. These higher resolution signals are no longer a theoretical concern: when the Blackmagic camera, launched at NAB, comes to market we will