Following in the wake of its Penta Series LCD monitors Oxygen DCT has introduced the Penta Gold Series of 10-bit LCD reference picture monitors.
“Whilst not the most renowned brand,” starts the press release with unusual frankness, “Oxygen DCT’s Penta series monitors are acknowledged by experts and users as the high quality broadcast picture monitors, often referred to as reference monitors as they are used as replacements for legacy grade 1 CRT monitors. The stunning new Penta Gold Series give astonishing images with lifelike detail and true colours, never before seen on broadcast picture monitors.”
“Numerous broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, C4, RedBee and IMG, have held ‘technical evaluations’ and ‘shoot outs’, choosing Penta Series picture monitors for critical applications within their facilities,” added Oxygen DCT Director, Steve Hathaway. “Monitor quality is currently a key issue within the broadcast industry and therefore it is no surprise that all the major broadcasters are turning to Penta to fulfil their quality requirements.”
The Penta Series monitors are built to order and the company says use only the highest ‘grade A’ LCD panels, combined with precision engineering and manufacture to the most exacting tolerances to ensure that every aspect of the monitors is exactly optimised to give the highest performance. The introduction of 10-bit LCD technology has pushed the quality boundary even further, enabling the Penta Gold Series, in many parameters, exceed the performance of grade 1 CRT reference monitors.
Sixteen bit over-sampled input processing is employed for 3Gbps (level A and B) HDTV and SD-SDI signals giving greater colour accuracy and picture detail. The 12-bit signal processing helps to ensure the absolute correct gamma to meet or exceed the ITU recommended 709 colourimetry specifications. The 10-bit LCD panel delivers unsurpassed detail, clarity and colour accuracy derived from the 16-bit input and 12-bit signal processing stages. Every monitor is hand-finished with exacting standards of colour calibration so that all monitors are precisely matched to each other, alleviating the irritating mismatches that are common with lower quality mass produced displays. What’s more, every single display can be re-calibrated and colour matched for life to ensure total accuracy through it’s long life cycle, allowing post production, production studios and OB users to get better value from their capital investment.
All 14 monitors in the Penta Gold Series are designed to work well inside the electrical tolerances and therefore have a long life cycle and to require minimum calibration, which saves broadcaster users considerable time and money.
