In Broadcast - August 2019 - 40

40

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 9 - Issue 7 | August 2019

InFocus

Picture Monitoring
Contributing Editor Andy Stout examines
the latest developments in the art
of picture monitors...

A

s formats change and evolve
constantly, so the monitors that
the industry uses to keep track of the
quality and the integrity of the pictures
it is producing also have to evolve
in concert. And while in the past that
has made sure that the equipment
transitions from SD to HD to 4K to HDR,
even if the picture displayed has been
stepped down to the previous format.
The latest frontier is, of course, 8K.

Already supporting 4K, at some point
in 2019 Atomos will add 8K support
with the release of an 8K MCU. It's
important to note that this won't make
the screen native 8K, but monitors
have a long heritage of supporting
future formats in the current schema,
witness HDR, and being able to see 8K
on set without having to buy an entire
new unit is a decent proposition.
It's worth a brief mention of HDR in
relation to Atomos too. NAB's
big announcement from the
company was a new 360 zone
backlight for the Shogun VII
recorder/monitor that lets
it display 15 plus stops of
dynamic range on screen.
Usually TFT panels come as
an integrated package from
the screen manufacturers, so
it's good to see the company
going the extra mile to
Atomos has introduced is Neon monitor family improve the technology. It's
With the Tokyo Olympics looming also good at listening to demands from
large already, 8K capability is starting its customers too, introducing a truly
to spread through the monitoring budget 5-inch monitor, the Shinobi,
sector. And one of the first out of aimed at the vlogger market and that
the gate was also one of the most ditches the recorder entirely.
interesting implementations in the
shape of the new Neon family of
monitors from Atomos.
There are four of these in total,
ranging from 17-inch to 55-inch, and
each has been targeted at a slightly
different part of the workflow. The 17inch is aimed at being a buddy system
for on-set work; something that can be
hooked up to a laptop for reference
monitor work on set. The 24-inch and
31-inch versions are both aimed at
video village playback, while the 55inch version is designed primarily for
colour grading and clients. All support
playback of up to 4K60p footage
in ProRes RAW, ProRes, DNx, and SmallHD
1303HDR Bolt Sidekick
CinemaDNG, and if you have the AtomX
Sync Module you can even frame sync
The on-camera monitor field has
a Neon display and camera-mounted been an active one this year. SmallHD
Ninja V together (as well as further is well and truly back up and running
Neons stretched throughout an entire after the fire that wiped out a good
production).
deal of its inventory in April 2018,
The 8K capability comes with and it too has released production
Atomos' decision to make the 'brain' monitors, albeit targeted at a very
of each screen swappable (essentially different segment to the Atomos
rebadging a screen-less version of models. The new 13-inch and 17-inch
its Ninja 5 as a Master Control Unit). wireless production monitors (the

point is very much the new higher end
normal for on-camera monitoring, and
you have to speculate that one day the
company might want to branch out
with a non-proprietary edition.
Also Chinese but demonstrating
more flexibility is PortKeys, whose
new 5-inch monitor the BM5 is
on the small side for the modern
market but features a welter of
monitoring tools, an impressive
2000nits of brightness, and the
rather interesting ability to control
the users' camera via a camera
remote port. At the moment this
Kinefinity functionality is fairly basic in that
KineMON-7H on-camera monitor users can change the ISO settings,
1303HDR Bolt Sidekick and 1703P3X start and stop recording, adjust focus
Bolt Sidekick to give them their full settings and so on. But there is definite
names) feature built-in Teradek scope for more and the list of cameras
Sidekick II receivers that promise that is being supported is growing as
zero-delay HD. The wireless capability the year progresses. The price point is
bumps the price up a fair bit and you aggressive too.
have a few choices to make: 13-inch
gives you 1500nits but only 93% NTSC
colour gamut; 17-inch drops the
nits down to 1000nits but ups
the gamut to 100% of DCI-P3.
One additional cool feature of
the SmallHD/Teradek symbiosis
(both are, of course, Vitec brands)
has been the release of firmware that
enables wireless lens data overlays,
allowing a focus puller to concentrate
on the screen without having to shift
attention from the display to the
controller and back.
PortKeys BM5 5-inch monitor
Much more familiar to followers of
the company's core expertise in onIKAN has launched the SAGA, a
camera monitoring is the Focus 7, the 7-inch 1920 x 1200 touchscreen display
company's first touchscreen monitor. that is capable of 2000nits and has
Indeed, it's even cheaper than usual all the features you would expect in a
for the company but jettisons some device priced just under the US$1000
of the connectivity you would expect mark, including 4K support via HDMI.
to see in this range such as SDI input It offers real-time LUT preview in HDR
or HDMI output. As usual, though, it or loadable 3D LUTs, as well as the
is the software that really makes one usual arsenal of monitoring tools that
on-camera monitor stand out from the will govern waveform, vectorscope,
other, and the company's OS3 - v3.3 audiometer, and more.
introduced HDMI metadata - is one of
Cinemartin, of course, folded earlier
the best of the lot.
this year, taking its impressively bright
Kinefinity has long been billed as the Katherine monitor with it. That leaves
best camera company you've never SWIT's 3000nit T7 and G7 7-inch
heard of, mainly because the Chinese monitors near the top of the current
manufacturer concentrates on its local
market, but its reputation is growing
and extending into accessories such
as monitors. The KineMON-7H features
a 1920×1200 resolution screen with
the standard 1000nits of brightness.
And there the interest probably stops
for most people as it is a proprietary
format for the company's Terra and
Mavo cameras that uses the company's
own Kine video cable to provide power
and video. However, it further serves
to prove that around the US$600 price
IKAN's SAGA 7-inch touchscreen display
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.kinefinity.com http://www.atomos.com http://en.pkscorp.com/ http://www.smallhd.com https://ikancorp.com/shop/monitors/saga-7-super-high-bright-3g-sdi-hdmi-touchscreen-monitor-with-3d-luts-and-scopes/
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