Flanders Scientific has announced a new professional reference monitor that uses a QD-OLED display from Samsung Display and enables HDR grading at up to 2,000 nits peak brightness. 

The company aims to fill a gap in the market that was created when Sony announced it would be discontinuing the BVM-X300 RGB OLED. 

Hollywood mastering studios typically use extremely expensive professional reference monitors such as the 30-inch Sony BVM-X300 to grade aspects of their movies such as colour and luminance. However, the Sony BVM-X300 could only reach a maximum of around 1,000 nits peak brightness, which explains why many HDR movies and TV series are limited to this, with many being much lower. 

Those who need higher brightness can use a monitor such as the 42-inch, liquid-cooled Dolby Pulsar LCD display, which is able to hit 4,000 nits peak brightness but has less accurate luminance control and only 2K resolution. 

Hence, the Flanders Scientific XMP550, which features a 2023 QD-OLED panel, could well win some fans within the Hollywood mastering community. According to the company, it has been “built around a groundbreaking new QD-OLED panel featuring 2,000 nits peak luminance, 2,000,000:1 contrast, and our widest color gamut to date.” 

Once Hollywood movie makers get their hands on the XMP550, it will mean they will finally be using the same kind of display technology that’s found in (some) people’s living rooms to grade HDR content. 

It has been reported that many Hollywood studios have already been using consumer-grade OLED televisions as secondary displays so they can confirm how their HDR content will appear to the people actually viewing it at home. According to Flanders Scientific, the availability of the XMP550 means they’ll no longer have to do this. 

"The XMP550 brings an end to the days of compromising between smaller reference grade HDR displays and larger non-reference client displays,” the company explained. “The XMP550 delivers the best of both worlds with truly reference grade performance and professional connectivity in a form factor large enough for both colorists and clients to view at the same time.”

Flanders Scientific said it will start deliveries of the XMP550 in September.