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Tag: video calibration

  • CEDIA, ISF collaborate on video calibration training

    CEDIA, ISF collaborate on video calibration training

    CEDIA has worked with ISF Founder Joel Silver to create a hybrid version of the ISF training which includes online modules as well as hands-on training

    CEDIA has announced a new training collaboration with the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). This development aligns with CEDIA’s strategic mission to bolster industry education and standards and provides integrators with unparalleled access to ISF’s renowned video calibration curriculum and certification.
    CEDIA has worked with ISF Founder and CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Joel Silver to create a hybrid version of the ISF training which includes online modules as well as hands-on training.
    Level I of the ISF class is available now in the new CEDIA Academy online learning platform and includes eleven self-paced modules covering the fundamentals of color science, display standards, and detailed tutorials on the ISF CalMAN workflow calibration software.
    “CEDIA sees calibration as an essential practice – we teach basic video calibration techniques and encourage all members to follow the recommended practices. It is so important that CEDIA’s Awards program requires that all project entries in the home theater and media room categories include an audio and video calibration report. Calibration has a broad reach throughout the industry — CEDIA is actively working with our fellow association leaders on new standards that include audio and video calibration. All that to say, working with ISF to teach the industry’s most prestigious video calibration certification was a no-brainer,” said Ian Bryant, CEDIA Vice President, Technology Application and Workforce Initiatives.
    Level I serves as the prerequisite, and ISF Level II and Level III will be hosted as in-person, hands-on training classes with dates to be scheduled later this year. These higher levels will focus on the ISF software-guided solutions for advanced calibration and system parameters including: EDID/HDMI verification, 3D color management, multipoint color balance, and other recent innovations.
    Joel Silver adds “I am incredibly proud of how the online modules have turned out — I’ve been told for years that the first day of the ISF training is always the most difficult. Transitioning that first day of content into self-paced online courses is going to serve the attendee well and ensure they have time to really set their foundation to get started in calibration.”
    “Having members of your team trained in calibration is a business opportunity for integrators — I took the training myself prior to joining the CEDIA team as a way to set my company apart. Many companies underestimate the power that calibration plays in both the equipment performance and the overall customer experience. When the client sees the before and after documentation and quality of the image, they will have more faith in the fact that you have their best interest in mind, and that trust can open up additional sales not only to your client but also in the form of referrals,” said Bryant.
    This spring CEDIA hosted a webinar on The Business of Calibration presented by Joel Silver and Gerry Lemay for integrators looking to understand how calibration can drive revenue for their businesses.
    The ISF Level I modules are available online now in the CEDIA Academy; training dates for Level II and Level III will be announced in the next few months. CEDIA members enjoy preferred pricing on all training. To learn more about the ISF training at CEDIA, visit cediaacademy.net.

  • Updated Spears & Munsil benchmark for UHD, HDR

    Spears & Munsil created new benchmark for UHD, HDR

    Seattle, WA—Stacey Spears and Don Munsil, acclaimed creators of the Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark series, are pleased to announce the release of the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark. The New York Times, and many leading industry publications have recommended previous versions of the Benchmark. The Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark adds even more features and patterns, and brings Spears & Munsil’s famous precision and attention to detail to the calibration and evaluation of UHD displays.

    The Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark gives professionals and amateurs alike access to a wealth of test and demonstration materials to tell them what their displays are doing, identify weak links in their hardware and software, and dial in the optimal settings not only for their equipment, but for future equipment that hasn’t even been designed yet.

    “Every pattern has been rethought with High Dynamic Range and UltraHD in mind,” said co-creator Stacey Spears. “We believe this disc completely changes the game for test and evaluation discs, by making use of all of the features and range that HDR and wide-gamut standards can offer.” Almost every pattern is encoded in multiple versions, with metadata and peak levels adjusted for a wide variety of HDR display technologies.

    Like the previous discs, the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark uses patterns created from scratch using Spears & Munsil’s own in-house software. “There really isn’t any other way to make patterns that we can stand behind,” said co-creator Don Munsil. “We build every pattern using our own tools, written from scratch in C++. If a pattern needs to be generated directly in a very specific color space and data format, we generate it in that color space and format; we’re not limited to what you can do with off-the-shelf graphics software. In a few cases we’ve had to create our own format, because no existing file format could represent the pattern we needed to create.”

    The disc includes new editions of some favorite patterns from the earlier editions, plus many new patterns exclusive to Spears & Munsil. “We’ve created the very best single pattern for evaluating which color space to output from your UHD player or set-top box,” said Spears. “The problems of artifacts caused by color conversion and video processing remain as relevant as ever for HDR and UHD, but HDR adds exciting new problems to all the old ones. We rebuilt the color-space evaluation pattern from scratch, and put in one place everything an end-user or professional evaluator needs. Every pattern we make goes through that same process, and is refined again and again to make it clearer, simpler, and more precise.”

    Like with the previous editions, the S&M UHD HDR Benchmark contains patterns suitable for the professional calibrator or serious amateur who wants a complete suite of test patterns usable with spectroradiometers and colorimeters. “These patterns are tested by real industry professionals, multiple times over multiple iterations, before we put them on the disc,” said Spears. “These are the same patterns used regularly by the same people who produce your displays, players, and movie content.”

    High Dynamic Range (HDR) was designed with the future in mind. Instead of creating a standard based solely on the capabilities of existing displays, the video-standards bodies designed HDR to meet the capabilities of future displays as well. Properly implemented, HDR content remains back-compatible with today’s technology while making available metadata and picture information that will produce brighter, more dynamic, more colorful images on the displays of tomorrow. For years, content has had to be mastered for the lowest-common-denominator displays, not the newest and most capable consumer displays, which have long been capable of producing a brighter image with wider gamut. The new standards mean that content can be smartly scaled to use the color depth and dynamic range of the display, which means the content you today will actually look better on tomorrow’s display technologies.

    “HDR represents a new way of thinking about video,” said Munsil, “with a completely different approach to transfer functions, or what we used to call ‘gamma,’ and that meant that a bunch of old patterns just plain didn’t work anymore. Video is now encoded for very-high-brightness devices, and then has to be remapped by the display to fit that display’s actual capabilities. Needless to say, every display does it a little differently—now, with the UHD HDR Benchmark, enthusiasts and professionals will be able to get insight into exactly what the display does when it makes those important remapping decisions.”

  • Updated Spears & Munsil benchmark for UHD, HDR

    Spears & Munsil created new benchmark for UHD, HDR

    Seattle, WA—Stacey Spears and Don Munsil, acclaimed creators of the Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark series, are pleased to announce the release of the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark. The New York Times, and many leading industry publications have recommended previous versions of the Benchmark. The Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark adds even more features and patterns, and brings Spears & Munsil’s famous precision and attention to detail to the calibration and evaluation of UHD displays.

    The Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark gives professionals and amateurs alike access to a wealth of test and demonstration materials to tell them what their displays are doing, identify weak links in their hardware and software, and dial in the optimal settings not only for their equipment, but for future equipment that hasn’t even been designed yet.

    “Every pattern has been rethought with High Dynamic Range and UltraHD in mind,” said co-creator Stacey Spears. “We believe this disc completely changes the game for test and evaluation discs, by making use of all of the features and range that HDR and wide-gamut standards can offer.” Almost every pattern is encoded in multiple versions, with metadata and peak levels adjusted for a wide variety of HDR display technologies.

    Like the previous discs, the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark uses patterns created from scratch using Spears & Munsil’s own in-house software. “There really isn’t any other way to make patterns that we can stand behind,” said co-creator Don Munsil. “We build every pattern using our own tools, written from scratch in C++. If a pattern needs to be generated directly in a very specific color space and data format, we generate it in that color space and format; we’re not limited to what you can do with off-the-shelf graphics software. In a few cases we’ve had to create our own format, because no existing file format could represent the pattern we needed to create.”

    The disc includes new editions of some favorite patterns from the earlier editions, plus many new patterns exclusive to Spears & Munsil. “We’ve created the very best single pattern for evaluating which color space to output from your UHD player or set-top box,” said Spears. “The problems of artifacts caused by color conversion and video processing remain as relevant as ever for HDR and UHD, but HDR adds exciting new problems to all the old ones. We rebuilt the color-space evaluation pattern from scratch, and put in one place everything an end-user or professional evaluator needs. Every pattern we make goes through that same process, and is refined again and again to make it clearer, simpler, and more precise.”

    Like with the previous editions, the S&M UHD HDR Benchmark contains patterns suitable for the professional calibrator or serious amateur who wants a complete suite of test patterns usable with spectroradiometers and colorimeters. “These patterns are tested by real industry professionals, multiple times over multiple iterations, before we put them on the disc,” said Spears. “These are the same patterns used regularly by the same people who produce your displays, players, and movie content.”

    High Dynamic Range (HDR) was designed with the future in mind. Instead of creating a standard based solely on the capabilities of existing displays, the video-standards bodies designed HDR to meet the capabilities of future displays as well. Properly implemented, HDR content remains back-compatible with today’s technology while making available metadata and picture information that will produce brighter, more dynamic, more colorful images on the displays of tomorrow. For years, content has had to be mastered for the lowest-common-denominator displays, not the newest and most capable consumer displays, which have long been capable of producing a brighter image with wider gamut. The new standards mean that content can be smartly scaled to use the color depth and dynamic range of the display, which means the content you today will actually look better on tomorrow’s display technologies.

    “HDR represents a new way of thinking about video,” said Munsil, “with a completely different approach to transfer functions, or what we used to call ‘gamma,’ and that meant that a bunch of old patterns just plain didn’t work anymore. Video is now encoded for very-high-brightness devices, and then has to be remapped by the display to fit that display’s actual capabilities. Needless to say, every display does it a little differently—now, with the UHD HDR Benchmark, enthusiasts and professionals will be able to get insight into exactly what the display does when it makes those important remapping decisions.”