Skylite Media - Engineering - Monitor Calibration

Monitor calibration is a crucial component of all broadcast, production, post-production and content creation workflows. Proper monitor calibration of your edit bays, mix bays, QC stations, and machine rooms ensures reliability and confidence in your images, everywhere you look at them.

We calibrate CRTs, LCDs, LEDs, OLEDs, plasmas, DLPs and projectors. Our calibrations comply with all appropriate U.S. and international standards and recommendations (e.g. SMPTE, ITU, DCI/DCDM).

We also specialize in implementing and improving color management on a facility-wide basis. Proper color management involves all your workstations and software tools: from Avid and Final Cut to Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign and more. We can help you get there.

Ultimately, successful monitor calibration is all about confidence. When you are confident in your content and in your deliverables, your viewers and clients will be also.

Q: What is display monitor calibration, anyway?

A: Simply stated, it's the process of adjusting the picture and performance of a display monitor to match some known specifications or desired characteristics.

Q: How much does your calibration cost? What is the process?

A: See the Rates and Terms section for these details.

Q: It seems expensive. Why is your calibration better than what I can do with my own eyes, or with my own inexpensive light measuring device?

A: It's better for several reasons.
First: Human vision is highly adaptive, inconsistent and notoriously easy to fool. Our eyes make poor tools for technical calibration. Can we use our eyes alone to make a display "look better"? Sometimes, depending on how bad the display looked in the first place. Can we use our eyes alone to make a display accurately and consistently perform to uniform calibration specifications? Not a chance.

Second: Proper display calibration requires equipment specially engineered for critical light / color measurement and critical signal generation. This equipment needs to perform accurately and consistently, and needs to be regularly re-calibrated with NIST-traceable certifications. The equipment we use meets or exceeds these specifications, and it is not inexpensive. You can find out more about our equipment in the hyperlinks below:

Third: We've been doing this for a long time. We have extensive experience with all types of displays. We have devised calibration and color management strategies for facilities of all sizes, from the smallest content creation boutiques to the largest broadcast and cinema studios. We know your devices; we understand your workflow; and we can improve the performance of your display systems and increase your content confidence.

Q: How often do my display monitors need to be calibrated?

A: There are several ways to determine a calibration schedule:

Client and project demands. Some projects (and some clients) require higher image confidence and certainty. This can mean a calibration at the project onset and regular calibrations during the project to ensure maximum confidence. Many projects and clients are less demanding, allowing for a more relaxed schedule.
Display characteristics and performance. All displays tend to drift out of calibration spec over time at different rates. Some displays can hold calibration for several months; others drift out within a few weeks. In general: CRTs tend to drift out of spec more rapidly than LCDs; newer displays are often more stable than aging displays; expensive displays are often more stable than cheaper displays; and projectors require regular re-calibration as their lamps age.
Analysis of ongoing calibration data can also help us determine a proper calibration schedule for your displays. For example, if a certain display is stable after 1 month; then we can check it again in 2 months. If it's stable after 2 months, we can check it again in 3 months, and so forth.

Q: Can you calibrate the computer monitors on my Avid / Final Cut / Photoshop / After Effects / Autodesk systems, too?

A: Yes, but this is a different process from what we've been describing so far. We've been discussing calibration procedures which apply to "non-computer" video display monitors: devices you use for preview or final view of motion video images.
Calibration of "desktop" computer display monitors involves operating-system-level color management across multiple software applications. It can also involve different equipment and color management software. We can consult with you and help devise color management solutions that fit your specific systems, workflow and budgets

Q: I'm interested in the technical details of display calibration. Can you explain it without drowning me in confusing jargon, math or science?

A: Sure, we can explain it with as much or as little color science as you are comfortable with. We have also authored a Video Signals and Colorspaces Primer that explains quite a bit of this for the beginning-to-intermediate user. Just ask us and we will send you a free copy.

Q: Can you summarize all the benefits of display calibration?

Uniform display standards.
Matched viewing for all rooms, systems and workstations.
Workflow predictability and repeatability.
Client / viewer / end-user assurance.
Confidence in your content, everywhere and every time you view it.

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