SID Adds Color Lumens Spec

This week, at the 2012 CEDIA Expo, several manufacturers are touting the Society for Information Display's new standard for measuring Color Light Output. With this new spec, users will be better able to more accurately evaluate an important aspect of color performance – the brightness of color.

In May of this year, the Society for Information Display (SID), published the ground-breaking International Display Metrology Standard (IDMS).  The first of its kind document provides the industry with a reference guide to key specifications and measurement methodologies for displays. This document includes the Color Light Output, or Color Brightness, specification.

Color Light Output, measured in Lumens, provides manufacturers with a specification complimentary to White Light Output, also measured in Lumens. Consumers will now be able to evaluate both the White and Color Brightness of a projector, key contributors to color performance.  Included in the IDMS document, the new specification promises to cast light on a major point of difference in projectors, which until now, has been difficult, if not impossible, to quantify.

"Previously, the industry was battling a weakness in performance measurement, as end users could not quantify color for many projectors on the market. We've touted the color performance of 3LCD projectors for years, but with the SID's standardization of Color Light Output, we're going to see a change in the way users evaluate and compare projectors moving forward."

- Tim Anderson, senior product marketing manager for 3LCD

For many projectors, the Color Brightness is much lower than the specified White Brightness, but in a projector with high Color Brightness, the levels will be the same. Color Light Output is scientifically backed, easy to measure and simple to use.  It provides critical information to projector buyers regarding the differences in color between competing projectors.  The development of the IDMS and the Color Light Output specification benefited from the expertise of the SID, whose members include display metrologists, electrical, mechanical, software and optical engineers, physicists, vision scientists, and professionals in many other display-related disciplines. The specification was also previously researched and verified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in their paper NISTIR 6657.

Details on the International Display Measurement Standard and the methodology provided in the color performance specification are available at http://www.icdm-sid.org/downloads or on the SID website, www.SID.org.

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