Mojo Media Solutions Recalibrates for 4K

Although 4K has been around for some time, it has yet to go mainstream in Australia. Apart from a handful of movie streaming sites, Foxtel is the only broadcaster in Australia to offer a dedicated 4K channel.

Australia’s slow take-up of 4K has not prevented Mojo Media Solutions from offering this breakthrough technology to its clients.

Says Stuart Monksfield, Managing Director of Mojo Media Solutions: “The content delivery requirements in Australia are still very much HD and SDR. However, for my clients’ productions to have an international audience, a 4K version in HDR is a growing requirement.”

Established in 2011, Sydney-based Mojo Media Solutions offers technical assessments and consultancy for the broadcast and feature film industry. It has carved a niche, providing on-site technical services to calibrate professional displays and projectors, critical for colour grading, and consults on HDR upgrades and Dolby Vision requirements.

Mojo Media Solutions’ client portfolio includes national broadcasters, local studios, visiting Hollywood film crew, and freelancers working from home.

Recently, Mojo Media Solutions assessed a client’s production requirements for its broadcast online edit suites. Although it looked like a straightforward enough request, Stuart’s team had a few technical kinks to sort out to fulfil the client’s exacting specifications.

Explains Stuart: “Due to the high volume of content being created each week, our client was looking for a PVM series OLED monitor for their newly added Quality Control suite. However, as PVM series OLED monitors went out of production in 2019, an existing OLED monitor from one of their online suites was re-assigned to the new QC suite. Our client could have easily settled for a lower-priced LCD HD/SDR monitor for use in the online suite it came from. Or, they could use this as an opportunity to step up to 4K.”

After assessing the client’s work scope and technical requirements, the team at Mojo shortlisted the Sony PVM-X2400 4K picture monitor and the Eizo 4K SDR monitor. Eventually the client opted for the Sony 4K HDR TRIMASTER high-grade picture monitor.

Adds Stuart: “After working for years with the PVM series OLED monitors, it was difficult for the editors to switch to another monitor. The black level of any LCD technology is never going to match that of OLED. We could have offered the Sony BVM-HX310, but that would have blown their budget.”

“We had to prove in a side-by-side evaluation that the PVM-X2400 was as good, or better than the competition from a picture, price, and facility integration point of view. The PVM-X2400 was that little bit better.”

“Pixel-for-pixel, the PVM-X2400 series gave the operators confidence with its image quality, especially with graphical elements, captions, and titles where aliasing and edge artifacts could arise or missed when monitoring below 3840 x 2160 resolution.”

Another issue ironed out by Mojo was the inherent lifted black levels and reduced contrast ratio in LCD monitors. To address this, Stuart’s technical team adjusted the PVM-X2400’s peak luminance to 150Nits instead of the standard 100Nits. This adjustment helped restore the contrast ratio closer to what the operators have been experiencing with OLED monitors.

Thanks to Mojo Media Solution’s ten-year track record, Stuart recognizes that production workflows have become increasingly complex, especially as broadcasters and content creators migrate to file-based solutions and 4K.

What sets Mojo Media Solutions apart is its commitment to delivering exacting standards and after-sales service that its clients demand day-in, day-out.

“What our clients ask from us, is what we look for from our partners. Sony has an excellent understanding of broadcasters’ needs and provides excellent post-sales support via their local office in Australia. When you add up all the little advantages, it makes the final decision obvious to clients,” says Stuart.