Accurate colors help your audiovisual equipment – but particularly your displays – maximize their potential. In this post, we’ll explain why a wide color gamut is so important for high-end screens, plus the technology behind it.
Better Visuals, Better Experience
The main reason AV professionals target high color accuracy is that it consistently ensures a far better customer experience. For example, photographers need a display that perfectly captures how their photos look.
Any screen with a limited color palette effectively gives users a false picture. Color is such a vital part of graphic design, video editing, and any industry that works with images – whether they are moving or static. With accurate colors:
● Skin tones look more natural
● The whole image feels right
● Skies won’t be overly saturated
● Branding remains consistent
● Shadows keep 100% detail
Screens defaulting to whatever color is “close enough” causes all manner of issues. And not just for you – clients and customers notice when you get your colors wrong because of your screen.
Calibrating Wider Color Ranges
Professional displays usually support wide color gamuts, such as Adobe RGB and DCI-P3. The “right” gamut depends on your needs. Adobe RGB is usually best for photography, for example, while DCI-P3 is better for cinematic video.
However, your setup only reaches its full potential with the right calibration. This means buying a display from a reputable manufacturer and tweaking its settings, such as with a colorimeter. You should also experiment with HDR (high dynamic range) to keep the colors rich.
Color Compression
All displays – even high-end 4K ones – use some form of compression to deliver high resolutions at rapid refresh rates.
Chroma subsampling is a common type of compression that prioritizes contrast over an image’s colors. This is because the latter is technically less important. However, it still creates noticeable differences in an image if you’re not careful, or use lower-tier subsampling methods.
That’s why professional displays use 4:4:4 chroma subsampling. This has twice the color data of 4:2:0 and ensures high accuracy, making it the closest alternative to uncompressed video. You’ll need a 4:4:4 display to guarantee the colors pop.
Ensuring Consistent Images
Some sectors, such as broadcasting, rely on workflows that send images to many monitors, and the slightest color issue on one could affect the others. For example, somebody giving feedback to an editor might not see the finer color-grading details and request improper changes.
This is also essential when working with a video wall. Improper calibration or color settings may mean the display’s component screens all look different, breaking immersion.
Every detail matters here, whether your team is looking over an image or providing a consistent visual experience for others. Color accuracy could, for example, lead to broadcasters sharing an unclear image.
Final Thoughts
Make sure you have a professional-level AV display that utilizes 4:4:4 subsampling. Without this, and without your own manual calibrations, you can’t guarantee that the colors on the screen are the right ones.
