AEQ LM9000 4K Production Monitors

The AEQ LM9000 Series UHD Monitors with broadcast features based on a quadruple 10-bit processor.

The available Monitor sizes are 55” (3840 x 2160), 31″ (4096 x 2160) and 24″ (3840 x 2160).

High performing monitor that supports the reproduction of 4K video signals in Single and Quad-Link, both in “Square division” and “2-sample interleave” formats.

HDR technology, incorporated in these monitors, makes them able to display every part of the image, either dark or bright areas, with high brightness and clarity, enhancing image contrast and realism perception.

Monitor colour calibration by connection to a colour probe and Lightillusion control software version specifically designed for Kroma. This calibration generates a 3D look-up-table which is exclusive for each monitor, in order to correct non-linearity produced during the manufacturing process of each screen.

Our 4K monitors now incorporate HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing technology, which is featured in the LM9000 Kroma series by AEQ Monitors. Prior to 2014, a 4K video signal simply doubled the horizontal and vertical resolution of Full-HD. However, this approach offered more pixels but not necessarily better ones, as it did not enhance the image quality in terms of brightness, contrast, or colour representation. To address this limitation, efforts were made to create a display technology that not only increased the quantity of pixels but also improved their quality, resulting in higher-quality images.

One key aspect of improving image quality is the ability to represent a greater number of colours accurately. Achieving this requires an increase in the number of bits used to produce images. Transitioning from 8 to 10 bits for representing each RGB value expanded the available colour palette dramatically, multiplying the number of different colours that could be accurately displayed by a factor of 64.

In addition to colour enhancement, another critical aspect of image quality is brightness and contrast. To address this, HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology was developed. HDR is a revolutionary video signal processing technique designed to expand the dynamic range of a picture’s darkest and brightest areas. This technology is based on the fact that the human eye can perceive small increments of light when there is low illumination but requires larger differences in brightness when the lighting is more intense. This behaviour is illustrated by the Barten ramp, shown in Figure 1, which depicts the human eye’s response to varying levels of illumination. Consequently, HDR allocates fewer bits to high brightness values and a larger number of bits to low brightness values, making the displayed images on the screen closely resemble what we observe in real life.

There are two primary methods for implementing HDR: PQ (Perceptual Quantization SMPTE ST.2084) and HLG. PQ is a standard that defines the brightness levels that a monitor should display. It establishes an electro-optical transfer function (EOTF) where each digital word is assigned a specific brightness value. PQ employs static metadata (according to SMPTE ST.2086) when the contents of the video clip remain constant throughout its duration, and dynamic metadata (SMPTE ST.2094) when the content can change. Dynamic metadata indicates the maximum and minimum brightness values for each frame as well as for the entire content, ensuring a consistent and accurate representation of brightness and contrast in the displayed images.