When visiting a consumer products store anywhere in the world, you notice an obvious change in the market that displaces traditional CRT television monitors. Most of the monitors in stores are now flat screen, a large number correspond to LCD technology and many offer total HD resolution of 1080 lines. Advances in LCD technology and the rapid acceptance and availability of HD content have contributed to the progressive replacement of traditional CRT-based TVs. In the U.S. market, 2006 was the first year in which more flat panel monitors were sold than CRT. It is not risky to claim that this trend is accelerating and that the days of the CRT are numbered.
The community of broadcasters and television producers has been slower in the acceptance of LCD technology for video, due to the multiple initial limitations of flat screen monitors. Response time caused delays or blurred content with rapid movements. Color saturation, increased brightness, limited viewing angles, poor backlighting on the panels and absence of contrast were some of the frequent complaints of professionals when comparing these monitors with traditional CRTs. The biggest concern or resistance to the acceptance of LCD panels indicated that they were not a CRT. However, the advancement in LCD technology is overcoming limitations and market forces will quickly and inevitably accept this technology in broadcast and production applications.
The broadcaster community basically uses three types of monitor. Grade 1 monitors are those high-performance evaluation monitors such as Sony's 'VM'. Grade 2 refers to reference monitors such as the 'LMVs' – the "workhorses" for broadcasting and production--. Grade 3 monitors, also called presence monitors, which serve to check whether a signal is sent or received, are generally multi-monitors accommodated in racks or small compartments as in mobile television units.
In the broadcasting market, LCD monitors have been widely accepted since the advent of this technology with grade 3 monitors, as the final image quality is not a critical issue. Grade 2 LCD monitors have been 'sticking' over the past three years thanks to quality improvements in LCD panels during this period. Grade 1 LCD monitors, meanwhile, have been totally rejected in evaluation tasks.
From this moment, after NAB 2007, the acceptance of LCD monitors for the three degrees of monitoring will be a norm in broadcasting and for all levels of video production.
HD production is rapidly expanding in today's market. Broadcasters and program providers already produce HD content; for consumers, Blue Ray disc players are now available and HD programming broadcast over the air over cable or satellite is expanding rapidly. LCD monitors, such as those in Sony's Luma Professional series, are much less expensive to use as reference monitors than CRTs. In the wake of the acceptance of TVs and LCD monitors among consumers, the producer community must follow the trend and use LCDs as reference monitors, as it needs the same type of monitors that consumers will use for their "HD and SD reference" applications.
Sony has made a huge investment in professional LCD development and will launch an all-new line of its Luma Grade 2 series, with four new models. Two 20" models, one 24" and one 42", designed to meet the varying degrees of demand of broadcasting and production applications. All of these monitors have a much higher resolution than their predecessors, and a faster response time, an improved backlighting system, greater control over brightness and color, and many other advanced features of great utility. Soon they will be more than worthy successors to the PVM series of reference monitors for the broadcaster and producer community.
Beyond the limitations of CRTs — which include power consumption issues and heat generated by uncomfortable tubes --, LCDs no longer have the drawback of using phosphorus that wears out and burns over time. Sony's new Luma series offers additional enhancements such as side-by-side imagery, an included waveform monitor and, on three of the new models, audio level measurement, which can be selected to be unfolded along with the video.
The new Luma series is a true and significant advancement of professional LCD technology and will be accepted as a replacement for the already obsolete, low-resolution CRT monitors with few advantages.
But beyond Luma, one of the biggest engineering efforts made by Sony in recent years has been the development of the new BVM-L230 evaluation monitor. This totally revolutionary LCD panel was designed in a way that exceeded broadcast specifications to perform as an exceptional evaluation monitor. It will debut during NAB 2007 and will be one of the most outstanding products among all the launches that manufacturers will make during this exhibition. It is a technological achievement of such magnitude that we are sure it will receive several awards and an immediate acceptance by the broadcaster community.
The first monitor in the BVM-L series offers a resolution beyond HD. It brings 12-bit signal processing, an all-new I/P algorithm, a novel color management system, and drivers for 10-bit RGB. In total, 34 patents have been granted for the new BVM-L230 monitor!
The new BVM-L232 includes a wider color gamut than any other monitor. In addition to the standard SMPTE-C EBU ITU-709 color gamut, the xvYCC extended range has been added. The unique monitor with 12-bit processing allows full control over brightness, backlit white balance and 4096 levels of adjustment. Settings that are independent of video processing.
The BVL-L232 sports other advanced enhancements that allow it to go further than any other broadcast monitor on the market. You can receive two signals and display them side by side, split them or mix them. It also includes an 800% pixel zoom without scale, to distinguish any flaws in the image. Indeed, an exceptional evaluation monitor, the BVM-L232, will have new applications in digital cinema and other high-performance video areas, where high-precision requirements are mandatory.
At NAB 2007, Sony shows that it first perfected the CRT, and now the LCD.
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