and Calman 
When was the last time you verified the accuracy of your video monitors?
With today’s state-of-the-art displays, color accuracy can drift over time and even small calibration errors can become larger problems downstream.
That’s why our very own Mike Boland wrote an article recently for TVNewsCheck.
In the article, Mike explains why monitor calibration has become an essential part of professional production. This is not just an issue for colorists, but for engineers, shaders, camera operators, production teams, and anyone responsible for image quality.
Production teams are creating content for viewers who increasingly have the screen quality to notice when something is off.
Keep reading to discover:
- Why modern displays require regular verification – not just factory calibration
- How inaccurate monitors can introduce color errors throughout the production chain
- Why HDR and wide color gamut workflows make calibration even more critical
- How often professional monitors should be verified and recalibrated
- A practical approach to keeping monitors consistent across control rooms, OB trucks, studios, and post-production
The following article by Mike Boland was originally published on TVNewsCheck.com on June 29, 2026. Read the original article here.
Calibration Is About Trust
In professional video, a monitor is more than a screen. It is a decision-making tool. Directors, producers, engineers, colorists, and camera teams rely on it to judge exposure, color, consistency, and overall image quality. If the monitor is inaccurate, every decision based on it becomes suspect.
Calibration remains vital even as display technology advances. Production now spans a wider range of applications, display technologies, color spaces, and viewing conditions, each creating additional opportunities for error.
There is another reason calibration matters more now: viewers’ displays have improved dramatically. Large, high-quality televisions are common in homes, and audiences can more easily spot mismatched cameras, poor exposure, inaccurate flesh tones, or colors that simply do not look right. Production teams are creating content for viewers who increasingly have the screen quality to notice when something is off.
Small Color Errors Can Travel Downstream
Color accuracy starts with standards. Workflows may target Rec. 709, P3, Rec. 2020, HDR, SDR, or other defined color spaces. Each has expectations for color, brightness, grayscale, and gamma. A calibrated monitor gives users confidence that the image is aligned with those expectations, and that people across the production chain are making judgments from the same reliable reference.
An inaccurate monitor can turn a small problem into a larger one. A camera operator, shader, colorist, or engineer may adjust the signal to compensate for a color cast that exists only on the one display. The image may then look correct on that monitor while drifting noticeably off target everywhere else.
Problems are not always subtle. A production may look generally acceptable until a recognizable color is wrong, such as a team logo, sponsor graphic, or brand color. Those errors can quickly become visible to viewers, particularly on large modern televisions.
The issue is especially critical in live production. In sports, concerts, and other real-time events, an image problem can’t be corrected after it’s gone to air. Teams often make those calls while looking across a bank of monitors in a truck or control room. When displays do not match, operators know to find and correct the problem.
The same principle applies in post, mastering, and quality control. Accurate monitoring helps keep brand colors, flesh tones, product shots, graphics, and final deliverables consistent from capture through distribution.
Modern Workflows Demand Regular Checks
Modern display technologies make regular verification important. CRT displays had relatively fixed characteristics. Today’s LCD, OLED, QD-OLED, and other display types can vary in how they reproduce color, and they can change over time. Even high-quality professional monitors can drift.
Verification checks whether a monitor remains within acceptable tolerances; recalibration corrects it when it does not. For many environments, verification every 1 to 3 years may be sufficient, depending on the display type, usage, and required accuracy. Grading and mastering environments may require more frequent checks, while live-production facilities and mobile units need a fast, practical way to verify consistency across multiple displays.
Calibration is also more accessible than many users assume. A practical setup can include a laptop, calibration software, and a probe. Some professional monitors include built-in pattern generators, making tests repeatable and digitally accurate.
The right approach depends on the application, the number of displays, and the consequences of getting color wrong. Calibration is not a one-time factory setting or optional maintenance task. It is part of the professional video workflow, ensuring that decisions throughout the production chain are based on consistent, accurate images.
Mike Boland is president of Boland Communications.
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