Gencom – Plura For Gencom, we are at Plura Broadcast Inc with Ray Kalo.
Ray: Well we have two sizes in this series – we have a 7” and 9”. What we’re looking at here is 9 inch. Ed:
Right – and the screen resolution? Ray: It’s 1280 by 800, so it’s a high res screen resolution. Ed: Now something this clever and with so many nits, one would expect a very high price, but? Ray: Not really. Currently running it for US$2500 list. Ed:
we’re
That’s for the 9 inch?
Ray: That’s for the 9 inch and the 7 inch as well. Ed: Oh, so you can have 2 inches for free? Ray: Yes, Plura is so generous, aren’t we!! Ed: Now, we’re just having a little peak round the back – lots of connectors, all that one would require in there and of course at the moment it’s on mains but it will run on battery. Now at the back here it looks like Ethernet connectors. What are they for?
Ray and the DBM-155 monitor.
Ed: Nicki sent me here to look at a new 7 inch monitor and immediately I can see why. This is the PHB-209-3G multi-format Plura monitor. What’s really exciting about it is that they’ve got a whopping great light shining down on it like the sun, and you can see the picture as clear as day. So what have you done? Ray: Well, we are using a new high brightness panel. We did not just increase the brightness, we maintained the colourimetry; it’s not just making it brighter, you have to make it colour accurate, so that’s what we did. Ed: So you’re telling me that a standard monitor of this size would be around 100 nits? Ray: That’s correct. In a regular standard broadcast facility, the SMPTE standard is 100 nits. Of course some panels can produce up to 200 or 300, but this one goes up to a 1300. Ed: And the purpose of that is not to have it inside a studio, but …? Ray: Outside – outdoor applications under the sun and in direct sunlight. Ed:
Especially with Steadicam operators?
Ray: Yes, for anyone who is shooting outside and looking at the video, it will be as if he is watching inside the facility.
and GPI. Ed:
What’s GPI?
Ray: GPI is General Purpose Interconnection – so you can use it for tally, you can control the monitor over using contacts closure. Ed: Right, so again all of the connectors that one expects with a Plura? Ray: Yes, everything you see with a PBM 3G series as far as the connectivity and the feature-set. Ed: And it’s all aluminium, it’s all solid and there are lots of little screw-holes in there for attaching it to various things? Ray: You can rack mount it, if you have a flight pack, but also a desk stand. Ed: Right, but you haven’t stopped there – have you made anything else? Ray: Yes we did … we have added another size monitor. We’ve added a 10 inch to the PBM 3G family, so now we have a 7, 9 and 10 as well. It’s a bigger size with higher resolution. Ed:
But this is an inside one?
Ray: Yes, it’s for indoors.
Ed: And they don’t need a hood, they don’t need to hide in the shadows? Ray: No hood, nothing at all as you can see. You can see the difference when it’s regular 100 nits and 1300. Ed: Wow … and that’s it, it’s not just a super-bright monitor but it maintains its clear crisp colourful picture even in this bright light and it’s not only that, there are lots of buttons on it Ray? Ray: Yes we’ve included all the beautiful standard Plura features – waveform, vector, audio metering, speakers, audio decoding and de-embedding, all multi-format inputs including 3G, so you have two inputs with two outputs, DVI HDMI PC component S-Video and composite. Ed:
Ray: These are for firmware updates
And is 7 inch really big enough? Page 23