Monitoring the Market for Program Evaluation

These days perhaps the toughest professional equipment category to see a profit is video monitors; used for broadcast applications like inside video control rooms and mobile production trucks. The problem is that relatively inexpensive 42-inch flat-screen LCD panels from a variety of manufacturers, and made for consumer uses, have penetrated the once scared domain of much heavy and more expensive CRT-style program monitoring. Its caused customers to hesitate before buying.

Some companies have seen their revenue for the category drop off by a whopping 60 percent, as customers have flocked to the less costly models that are now deemed good enough for most professional uses. As a response, manufacturers have introduced lower-cost LCD panels with embedded multiviewer software, which many broadcasters say are more than adequate for most television station applications.

However, as the vendors that make the more expensive, and more fully featured models will quickly tell you, consumer-grade monitors are not for the critical eye. And, theyll tell you, theres a bit of education that needs to happen to help broadcasters understand the difference. These companies, including Ikegami, JVC, Marshal Electronics, Panasonic, Sony and TVLogic , all offer (or are about to) 4K-capable monitoring and a host of features and functionality (like 10-bit processing) that often does not compare to a consumer display. Basically good enough quality is in the eye of the beholder.

The Ikegami HEM-2570W is a 24.5-inch, grade-1 OLED HD monitor with built-in audio functions, such as speakers and headphone terminal, as well as 3G-SDI, Multi-SDI, DVI-D, VBS inputs.

I think consumer-grade monitors are inappropriate for critical applications where you are looking at more than just the picture itself, said Teri A. Zastrow, Director of Sales & Marketing, Ikegami Electronics (U.S.A.), Inc., especially considering availability of highly affordable broadcast LCD monitors.

At this years NAB Show, Ikegami will show a variety of monitors from its existing line of LCD monitors (HLM-1751WR and HLM-1705WR), a new low cost LCD (the ULE-185) as well as new Grade 1 OLED models (HEM-2570W and HEM-1770WR) and a prototype 4K monitor.

Zastrow said that customers should expect to pay more for OLED technology, but its worth it, for the Grade 1 applications (final program monitoring) that offer better for contrast ratio, including reproduction of blacks and speed of response (refresh rate).Some refer to Grade 1 monitors as master monitors, from which all other images are compared to during a telecast.

Off the shelf monitors are not color calibrated and lack the control that a broadcast monitor has, said Devan Cress, Director of Sales for the Broadcast AV Division at Marshall Electronics Inc. If you are looking for a simple confidence monitor, something off the shelf will work, if you are looking for accurate reproduction of content a broadcast monitor is a must.

Marshall Electronics 2K/4K compatible quad view monitors offer two Dual-input 3G SDI modules and four 3G SDI inputs.

Marshall will exhibit its 31-inch 4K monitor, QVW 2k/4k cable quad view monitors (models QVW-1708, QVW-2410 and QVW-2710), full resolution camera top monitors, and the Lynx-702 line of feature-rich monitors.

Cress said for them the market for broadcast monitors has increased, but the mix of format sizes has changed. We are seeing larger displays replace smaller racks with quad view monitors, he said, so one monitor can accomplish what used to take four monitors to display.

He said OLED technology offers suburb blacks and the cost continues to be reduced, but The downside is the continued need to calibrate the monitor to produce an accurate picture.

At the Panasonic booth at NAB, visitors will see a number of existing HD monitors (like the 21.5-inch BT-LH2170 and 18.5-inch BT-LH1850 HD/SD LCD monitors) but also the companys new 31-inch BT-4LH310 4K monitor (for $28,000). Michael Bergeron, Senior Vertical Sales Manager, at Panasonic said the new 4K monitor addresses the many holes in the emerging 4K production market.

Panasonics new 31-inch BT-4LH310 4K LCD monitor offers a 10-bit IPS (in-plane switching) panel and four common connections.

This [monitor] has better color performance from anything weve done in LCD so it could be used for post, Bergeron said. But as a true 4K monitor 4096 horizontal pixels which is rare, with four 3G HD-SDI inputs, its designed as a field monitor.

The new 31-inch display offers a 10-bit IPS (in-plane switching) panel and four common connections (HD-SDI, 3G-SDI and HDMI) that work well with almost any 4K imaging system. The units 178-degree vertical/horizontal viewing angles and 28V DC operation are ideal for native 4K location shoots, Bergeron said.

Meanwhile at Sonys NAB booth, a company that has led the OLED charge for the past five years, it will show a new line of HD LCD and an evaluation-grade 30-inch 4K OLED monitor that can display full 4096 x 2160 at the same level of performance as Sonys current 25-inch models.

All of the monitors on display are designed around an entirely new chassis. The chassis and processing engine are tied to both LCD and OLED panels. The new LCD models are the LMD-A170, LMD-A220, and LMD -A240. The new OLED Trimaster EL models are the PVM-A170 and PVM-A250.

Gary Mandle, senior product manager, professional displays, Sony Electronics, said these new models feature a number of enhancements, weigh less and are much lighter and better suited for portable, on-set or field use. They use less power and all the LCD models have DC inputs. The OLED panels have also been redesigned using a lighter support construction. This helps the PVM-A170 achieve a weight of only 9 lbs.

The new engine offers all the features of previous models, but processes video much more quickly. Now any video format is disp

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