The buzz on the NAB show floor was about 1080 production and HDV, but finding complementary flat panel production monitors and projectors with good image quality wasn’t an easy task.
Frontniche, a relative newcomer to the broadcast and production markets, showed a full range of LCD monitors including a true 1920x1080 46-inch version. All of their monitors are equipped with SDI/HD-SDI interfaces, can handle 24p signals, and employ a low-latency fast parallel bus connection to eliminate lip sync problems. These monitors had promise, although black levels were high and color saturation could have been better.
Sony has made a major commitment to TFT LCD display technology with its LUMA line of monitors, which complements the company’s existing CRT offerings. They come with screens as large as 32 inches up to 1280x768p resolution, and, depending on size, exist in one-piece, two-piece, and rack-mount variations. You can feed them everything from 480i/p and 576i/p to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p/24sf, and SDI, HD-SDI, and DV interfaces are available.
Sony also had live demos of its 4K LCOS digital cinema projector, although the majority of the content shown on it was only 1920x1080. Down the hall, Vista Control Systems demonstrated its Spyder multi-channel high-resolution video display system, combining six different independently-sized high-res video feeds over seamless 2048x1080 panoramic backgrounds projected by Digital Projection high-brightness DLP large-venue projectors.
Sanyo had its new PLC-HD15 front HDTV (1920x1080) LCD projector up and running. This monster puts out 7000+ lumens and had amazing image detail, although its black levels were high. Sanyo’s 1366x7868 PLV-80 is also an upgrade; it has native 16x9 LCD panels and delivers over 3000 lumens. Both projectors can be fitted with SDI/HD-SDI input cards.
Christie showed a new three-chip 1280x720 front DLP projector with xenon illumination called the DW6K. It’s rated at 6000 lumens and uses HD2 DMDs. Five different lenses are available. JVC showed a 48-inch 1920x1080 LCOS rear-projection monitor for post houses. It has accurate color and grayscale performance, uses UHP lamps, employs the Silicon Optix Realta HQV processor for low-res video, and is calibrated to the REC709 color space.
In the interface world, TV One stole a march on everyone with its C2-7200 dual-channel image processor. It can handle any input from DVI and SDI/HD-SDI to analog component, composite, RGB, and even FireWire, and allows you to layer, scale, position and even key any input channel in any output signal format, resolution (up to 2K), and video standard.
RGB Spectrum unveiled the MediaWall 2000, a real-time video processor that can accept up to 6 RGB and 6 video inputs and layer and remap images to a maximum of four tiled screens with no dropped frames, even on fast image moves and changes. And Communication Specialties had an expanded line of affordable fiber-optic interfaces for high-bandwidth video and audio, including drop and repeat interfaces and a combo transmitter/receiver package that multiplexes video, audio, RS-232C, and IP/Ethernet using wave division multiplexing.
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