Advance Your Career With Training and Certification

In today’s competitive workplace, there are numerous benefits to industry certifications. Certifications have taken on a life of their own in medical, legal, architectural, audio visual and IT industries. It has become an essential part of job skills training, personal development and advancement.

• Industry certifications provide professional credentials and a method of recognizing achievements and knowledge level.
• Certifications improve job performance through increased knowledge and pride in working to an industry recognized standard.
• SpectraCal creates strategic partnerships between companies enabling key alliances, bringing new capabilities and sales opportunities.
• Ultimately, a certification program can increase company differentiation from competitors.

We offer a comprehensive display calibration certification program to the commercial audiovisual and digital signage industries. These courses are designed to bring an individual the education they need, from a deep understanding of display technology and design, to in depth technical training in display calibration. 

Upcoming Training Events

ISF Commercial Training

• Mountainside, NJ / November 9-10 / Verrex Corporatio
• Orange County, CA / December 8-9 / Hiperwall UC Irvine

ISF Level I and Level II

• Munich, Germany / October 3-5 / AV Top
• Boca Raton, Florida / November 15-17 / ISF World HQ Woodfield CC 
• Las Vegas, NV / January 9-11 (2012) / Coming Soon

SpectraCal Pro Video Monitor Optimization

• Los Angeles, CA / October 11th, 2011 / Volutone - Van Nuys, CA
• San Diego, CA / October 14th, 2011 / Volutone - Van Nuys, CA
• Phoenix, AZ / October 17th, 2011 / Severtson Screens Mesa, AZ
• Denver, CO / October 19th, 2011  / Coming Soon

For full course descriptions, registration, and certification information call 1-877-886-5112 or inquire at training@spectracal.com. If you want to see additional dates or locations in your area let us know.

The Chase For Visual Quality

It’s well known that color, brightness and contrast are the primary drivers of digital video quality. These factors are quite often even more important than resolution. Recent color improvements in televisions and video projectors, the desire to enjoy entertainment media on smaller, lower quality devices, and the newer digital color standards have created a unique need for an enhanced video color processing technology using visual perception models to improve the quality of the video experience outside the cinema theater.

To understand visual perception modeling, consider a bed of flowers on a bright sunny day. The flowers look very colorful. As the sun goes down, the flowers appear less colorful and have lower contrast. Did the flowers lose color? No, the physics of flower light absorption and reflection still apply, and the flowers have the same purity of color. What makes them appear less colorful? The answer is the adaption of human vision. As the brightness decreases, the perception of colorfulness and contrast decreases. The human eye adapts. Perceived brightness, colorfulness and contrast are all interrelated. If an image is brighter it looks more colorful. If it is more colorful it looks higher contrast.

A second key element of visual perception modeling is the perception of memory colors such as sky blue and flesh tones. Human vision is highly sensitive to changes in these memory colors, with viewer reaction being quite negative if they don’t look accurate and real. The perception of these memory colors is not only adaptive, but the three dimensional volume of memory colors is difficult to define in any standard color space across all brightness levels. White, brown, red, olive and yellow skin tones at different brightness levels all cover a fairly large three dimensional color volume and can only be well defined mathematically in a perceptually adaptive color space. This makes it more challenging to process flesh tones and other memory colors differently than other colors in an image’s gamut.

An additional factor to consider in driving optimal visual quality is the viewing environment. It is well known that perceptual contrast is reduced if the human eye is adapted to a surround that is brighter or darker than the viewed image. Contrast enhancement has been added to motion picture film viewed in dark cinema theaters since motion film’s  inception. This is one reason for the frequent observation, “Movies just look better in theaters than at home.” Including the contrast reduction caused by ambient light adding to the emitted or reflected video image, one can see that contrast enhancement is a prime requirement to fully optimize viewing quality in various viewing environments.

Can a standard display produce a highly accurate rendition of movie images so that a home audience has a professional cinematic experience, despite the effects of their own viewing environment? Is there a way to optimize image perception to effectively take you from any viewing environment into the optimized cinema theater viewing environment? The answer is “Yes.” 

To be continued...

 Spoilers @ 1-877-886-5112

SpectraCal @ CEDIA EXPO 2011 Videos

Check out these videos of what SpectraCal was showing off at CEDIA EXPO 2011.

SpectraCal Introduces The eeColor Image Processor


SpectraCal and basICColor Announces Highly Capable Colorimeter: DISCUS


Nanosys Quantum Dot LCD TV @ SpectraCal Booth


CEDIA 2011: SpectraCal Talks About Video Calibration


SpectraCal Explains How Its CalMAN Software is Integrated with DVDO Processors


If you close your eyes, it's almost like you were there :)

We're a 2011 CEPro BEST Award Winner!

For a third year in a row SpectraCal's CalMAN software is a CEPro BEST award winner in the category of Tools, Testing & Calibration. We're very happy to again be awarded this recognition and to add it to the Custom Retailer EXC!TE award in early August. Thank you CEPro for the awareness you have brought to SpectraCal, our design team for making the industry's best software, and to our users who make it all possible with your support!

SpectraCal @ CEDIA EXPO 2011!

CEDIA EXPO (September 7-10) is the leading tradeshow in the residential electronic systems industry and SpectraCal will be there to showcase the latest and greatest in display calibration and digital signage technology. Here’s a sneak peak at what we’ll be showing at CEDIA!

The basICColor DISCUS is a high-end colorimeter for the accurate measurement of color monitors, flat-panel displays, and projectors.  It can be used in contact or non-contact mode.  In non-contact mode, it features a laser pointer for aiming. SpectraCal enhances each DISCUS individually in its Seattle calibration lab, adding support for additional device types.  Each DISCUS ships with a Certificate of Performance verifying its accuracy on each device type. Read the full press release and check out the product page!

 

The eeColor™ Image Processor takes the home theater experience to a new level. eeColor processing now complements accurate display calibration with enhanced color rendering and room light compensation. The eeColor Processor incorporates chromatic adaptation and visual perception models with full, three-dimensional color processing for the first time in video systems. Read the full press release and check out the product page!

 

The CalMAN Expert with SpectraCal C6 & DVDO iScan Duo Package is a powerful video calibration bundle crafted to provide you with the results you are looking for at an extraordinary price.  With the new dedicated Duo Workflow, CalMAN provides unprecedented system communication and optimization of your video display hardware. Full package details here.

Digital signage is the latest in interactive marketing and communication and SpectraCal provides you with the full solution that includes the advance SpinetiX HMP devices. The SpinetiX HMP100/HMP200 is a compact digital signage player that simplifies publishing information, audio and dynamic content to your display through internal Fusion software with 720p/1080P output across the network, 4GB/8GB of internal memory plus USB for external storage, and a lifetime warranty. Learn more about digital signage here.

 

Questions? Call +1-877-886-5112

 
Many exciting SpectraCal announcements and demonstrations will be shown at CEDIA 2011.Come visit us at booth #4961 if you're attending or stay tuned to our Facebook for all the latest CEDIA details!

SpectraCal and basICColor Announce Highly Capable Colorimeter

DISCUS demolishes previous color meter price/performance benchmarks

(Seattle, WA) – September 6, 2011 – SpectraCal, Inc. and basICColor announced the DISCUS colorimeter, providing accuracy in colorimetry previously available only with much more expensive instruments.
 
 “We were amazed when we measured the DISCUS in our calibration lab,” says Derek Smith, SpectraCal’s founder and Chief Technology Officer. “We didn’t think this level of sensitivity and repeatability was possible with such a moderately priced tristimulus device,” Smith said.

“We’re very pleased that SpectraCal has chosen the DISCUS to anchor its product line,” says Karl Koch, basICColor’s Managing Director. “CalMAN is respected around the world, and SpectraCal’s support of DISCUS will certainly speed its adoption in with professional video calibrators.”  

basICColor created the DISCUS to bring affordable high-end accuracy to the pre-press proofing market, and turned to SpectraCal to introduce the instrument to professional video calibrators.  basICColor appointed SpectraCal exclusive distributor in North America, and non-exclusive Master Distributor throughout the rest of the world.  

DISCUS support is included in the current version of SpectraCal’s award-winning CalMAN video calibration software, the de facto standard in the CEDIA industry. (CalMAN Commercial and Expert licenses support the DISCUS.)    

The DISCUS will be demonstrated in SpectraCal’s booth 4961 at CEDIA Expo, the annual trade show of the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, September 8-10. 

Visitors to Booth 4961 can receive an introductory discount. SpectraCal is building a DISCUS reseller network. Prospective dealers should call +1 877-886-5112 North America, or +1-605-274-6055 international.

For more info, please go to www.spectracal.com/DISCUS, or contact prosales@spectracal.com.

Read the full press release here.