Meeting Report April 20, 2010
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The SMPTE Hollywood Section¹s April was held on Tuesday April 20th 2010, at
the Motion Picture Academy¹s Linwood Dunn Theater. The subject of the
meeting was "New Technology in Reference Displays" Approximately 75 people
attended. The pre-show reception was sponsored by Doremi Labs.

The evening was opened by a short subject MGM cartoon from 1953 by Tex
Avery, "TV of Tomorrow".

The moderator for the evening was Ron Williams of Doremi Labs. He introduced
the three presenters, Dave Schnuelle of Dolby, Joe Kane of Joe Kane
Productions, and Gary Mandle of Sony Electronics.

Dave Schnuelle began by giving an overview of the history of reference
displays and the various problems we have been living with over the years.
He then went on to explain how the research Dolby has conducted led them to
design a new reference display which addresses most of these problems. He
explained in some depth the underlying technology used, and how it addresses
the various challenges in building an accurate reference display. The use of
carefully chosen LEDs for backlight, along with active control of brightness
was described. He also explained how the picture content shown on the LCD
display panel is controlled in conjunction with modulation of the LED
backlight to achieve high contrast and low flare.

Joe Kane then demonstrated various things to look at when choosing a
reference display. He used examples from his well known "Digital Video
Essentials" Blu-ray disk, displayed on a Samsung SP-A900 projector and
Da-Lite Affinity screen set up in the front of the auditorium. He showed us
the results of inadvertent scaling, incorrect color processing, and also
explained the problems that can be caused by poor screen design. He also
discussed various issues that can occur during the mastering process if
incorrect reference displays are used, and showed a couple of examples.

Finally Gary Mandle gave us an explanation of the various kinds of 3D
displays currently available from various manufacturers including Sony. He
explained the difference between active and passive glasses, and discussed
the various pros and cons of each system. He then went on to describe Sony's
approach to consumer and professional displays for 3D. He then followed with
a explanation an display of the current state of OLED displays. He brought
an example of a PVM 740, a small display recently announced by Sony for
field production use.

During the course of the evening a number of door prizes were given out to
those answering various trivia questions correctly. After the presentations
the evening was finished up by a lively Q&A session, with a couple more door
prizes being awarded.

At the end of the evening a 3D still picture was taken of the presenters,
shown here in anaglyph and 2D.

Submitted,
Paul Chapman - Chair, Hollywood Section.