The Farm post-producer chooses Leader LV5490 4K waveform monitors

The post-production studio acquires three Leader LV5490 4K 3G/HD/SD-SDI waveform monitors with HDR capabilities for its headquarters in London's Soho as part of an upgrade to 4K HDR.

The Farm Group has purchased three waveform monitors Leader LV5490 4K 3G/HD/SD-SDI with capabilities HDR as part of an update to 4K HDR from its ‘William’ post-production facility on Marshall Street in the heart of London’s Soho.

Paul Chapman, Engineer at The Farm, notes that "We evaluated the Leader LV5490 waveform monitor earlier this year in light of growing demand for more UHD/4K and HDR capabilities. Dutch installation company United introduced us to the instrument as they are using the LV5490 in their local productions for Amazon. We did an evaluation and found the LV5490 to be the ideal test and measurement tool for UHD/4K production."

For his part, another of The Farm's engineers, Ben Beard, comments that the post-production company has deployed three LV5490. One is located in a traditional grading suite where the real-time false color HDR display and CIE color space display complement the traditional waveform display, allowing colorists to maximize the impact of HDR images.

The second LV5490 is used in a set of quality control where real-time false color gamut error display ensures that finished programs meet increasingly demanding broadcast standards.

Installed in The Farm's central equipment room, the third LV5490 powers a HD-SDI frame to central matrix of the installation. From there, the LV5490 can be routed to any on-premises editing suite and controlled remotely via a web browser interface.

Test instruments were supplied through Leader Europe UK channel partner Jigsaw24.

Phil Crawley, Chief Engineer at Jigsaw24, highlights that "Leader's LV5490 has by far the most advanced and easy-to-use 4K and HDR measurement tools currently available. We recommend that all production and post-production companies involved in 4K and HDR take this instrument seriously."

“It's great to see the initial interest in 4K/UHD and HDR TV production finally starting to turn into real projects,” says Leader's European development director. "Once broadcasters are adopting HDR programming, their customers don't want to go back to SDR content. HDR is a game-changer, engaging viewers and engaging them with programs in a whole new way. We are pleased that The Farm Group has selected Leader's LV5490 for use in its most interesting and high-profile projects."

The Leader LV5490 offers 4K, UHD, 3G, HD and SD test and measurement features in a compact portable unit. The waveform, vector, five bars, and image display can all be viewed at the same time on the instrument's 9-inch LCD monitor. The monitor has a Full HD resolution of 1920x1080 with a wide viewing angle and high-quality color reproduction. HD DVI and 1920 x 1080 HD-SDI feeds are also included to power a larger monitor. Simultaneous display of up to four 3Gbps SDI inputs, including overlays, is possible. The size and location of individual channels can be adjusted on the screen using a USB pointer so that the user is not limited to fixed-sized quadrants.

The latest additions to the LV5490 feature set include the world's first direct digital 4K noise analyzer. Noise measurement in the luminance or chromatic channels of the RGB component can be performed in IP/12G/3G/UHD/HD/SD. The data obtained from the input SDI signal is directly converted without intermediate analog processing, allowing for highly accurate and highly stable measurement.