It’s safe to say that in his keynote for CEDIA Expo 2024, Barry Sonnenfeld, best known for directing the Men in Black movies, ripped new display technologies such as 8K and HDR. In fact, he literally said, “they suck.”
In the words of the director and filmmaker, the technologies take away from the artistic vision of the content’s creator. However, those very technologies were featured heavily on the trade show floor just down the hall, and Sonnenfeld’s keynote was addressed to an audience that is heavily invested in many of those products.
Most of those manufacturers didn’t hear what Sonnenfeld had to say, as they were busy setting up their booths, holding demos, or running press conferences. When CE Pro took to the show floor to see what manufacturers brought to the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, we asked some of them what they thought about Sonnenfeld’s comments in the keynote.
Mike Akridge, vice president of operations at Digital Projection, said Sonnenfeld is entitled to his opinion as an artist, but the company and other display manufacturers have a responsibility to go out and develop projectors and screens that continue to raise the bar on clarity and performance.
“We are challenged to go out and find the next theater projector replacement technology from film, and DLP was created to do that,” Akridge says. “8K is a natural progression.”
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Akridge did validate some of Sonnenfeld’s gripes during the keynote, essentially saying that content not shot in 8K should not be viewed on an 8K screen, and the same goes for 4K. Filmmakers should either produce content that matches current display technology, or consumers and their integrators should select displays with resolutions that match the content they want to watch, he notes.
“I’m not going to argue with him,” Akridge says. “He’s, he’s a creator, he’s an artist. I’m going to give him a pallet that he wants, and if he wants a different palette, then I’ll give him a different palette.”
However, Digital Projection and other display and screen manufacturers have a responsibility to meet the market’s demands, Akridge concludes.
“As a manufacturer, we’ve got to respond to what the market’s asking us to provide, and our job is to be excellent doing that,” he says. “We’re going to put projectors or LED systems out that have pixel clarity and have fineness in the color and color accuracy. That’s our job.”
Tom Devine, AVPro Global Holdings’ director of marketing, was showing off a range of 4K and 8K solutions, and laughed when informed of Sonnenfeld’s tirade.
“I love HDR too, it’s so good,” Devine quipped.
“We work with mastering people all the time. They master Dolby Vision, and I would love to see what Dolby thinks about no HDR,” he adds. “Sonnenfeld, I’ll have to go talk to him.”
Sony, which of course is heavily involved in the film and TV production industries, wants to work with producers to help them tell their stories accurately so they can be optimized when shown on a projection screen or microLED video wall.
“We don’t want to get in the way of creators telling their story,” says J.T. Austin, a product training and customer engagement manager for Sony. “It’s always our main focus.”
The company even has a dedicated facility in Hollywood called the Digital Media Production Center where filmmakers can come in and test cutting-edge camera and production technologies.
“We understand a lot of creators are very hesitant to jump into technology, so we created a safe space,” Austin says. “We even have screening facilities. So not only do we invite film students, creators, YouTubers, but many, many large-scale filmmakers.”
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