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The view from the top

Editorial Type: Review     Date: 11-2014    Views: 4951   









EIZO's FlexScan series of monitors are ideally suited to the increasing demands of CAD users.

With applications on the building site becoming more sophisticated, in a manner not so very dissimilar to the trading floor in a financial institution, and with project managers running complex spreadsheets and dashboards side by side with 3D building models (similar to those offered by Asta Powerproject elsewhere in this issue) it is unsurprising that colour monitors at the higher end of the range in terms of price and performance are being increasingly adopted.

Japanese manufacturer EIZO has been supplying screens to the graphics and financial industries for some years (they produced their first CRT in 1985 to be exact), developing capabilities and features particularly suited to those environments. Recognising similar requirements within the CAD market, the company is now offering the advanced features in their latest FlexScan and ColorEdge models to architects, engineers and project managers.

The FlexScan series is the core of all EIZO's product groups, and is primarily targeted at business users. Amongst an extensive lineup of FlexScan based LCD monitors sits the ColorEdge, providing superior colour management and matching tools, capable of displaying accurate colour and tones for both graphics and visualisation applications - once the preserve of graphics designers, but now demanded by more exacting product designers and architects.

The whole range provides users with optimal performances, ergonomic and eco-friendly features, plus a couple of other goodies for setting up dual or multi-monitor systems.

FLEXSCAN
On the assumption that most financial traders, as well as architects and engineers, will spend much of their day peering at one or more screens, EIZO has emphasised the improvement of their user’s viewing experience with a number of useful ergonomic features. Flicker-free screens, for instance, are the result of a hybrid solution that regulates screen brightness on LED backlights, making flicker unperceivable, without compromising colour stability.

Eye fatigue is reduced by the Auto EcoView brightness sensor that detects changes in ambient lighting and automatically adjusts screen brightness to compensate. Eye fatigue is reduced further by reducing blue light, which has wavelengths closer to ultraviolet light, allowing settings like Paper Mode closer to spectral distribution, and making documents easier to read.

In addition to using brightness levels to reduce eye fatigue, users can pre-set viewing modes to suit particular applications. Two EIZO-developed software programs, ScreenManager Pro and EIZO Monitor Configuration, simplify screen adjustment. ScreenManager Pro lets users adjust colour and EcoView settings with the mouse and keyboard instead of the on-screen display menu. It also offers multi-monitor matching, which allows adjustments to be applied to all FlexScan monitors connected to a single PC. Five pre-set modes are included - sRGB, Movie, Paper, and two modes with user-adjustable settings. Paper mode reduces the amount of blue light to help prevent eye fatigue.

ECOVIEW ENVIRONMENTAL
Kind on eyes, kind on the environment. EIZO has incorporated its own EcoView technologies to comply with the latest stringent operating environments, reducing power consumption by up to 30% on some of the range and running them at just 13 and 12 watts for the EV2455 and EV2450 models respectively.

EcoView Optimizer 2 saves power by reducing backlight brightness and increasing screen gains for dark content images. Auto EcoView compensates for ambient brightness, trimming brightness and, again, reducing eye fatigue.

Going one step further, EcoView Sense 2 detects when the user leaves the desk and automatically switches to power save mode, powering on again when the user returns and detecting the user's movements and body heat for increased accuracy!

The FlexScan S Series is perhaps the model most suitable for CAD environments. They come in a range of sizes at 5:4 or 4:3 aspect ratios, rather intriguingly called the 'square format'. They come with an ergonomic stand that allows it to be set up in landscape or portrait mode, with tilt and swivel adjustments. They also come with 0.5 watt audio speakers, unobtrusively built into the back of the cabinet.

As CAD monitors they require accurate and smoother colour handling, which comes with 10bit gamma correction - taking 8bit input signals with 256 tones for each primary colour from the graphics board, and using a 10bit look-up table (1,021 tones) to produce smoother and more accurate gradations of colour.

Or, alternatively, if your graphics board is really, really old, you can buy a FlexScan model that outputs a sync-on-green signal.



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