Flanders Scientific monitors dominate color suites and DIT carts throughout the industry. Back at NAB, we got our first look at the new XM series monitors from Flanders Scientific, the XM310K and the XM550U. While no pricing was announced, we knew it was going to be high. These are, after all, full 4K UltraHD monitors from the company whose name is synonymous with color accuracy and ease of use.

The XM310K comes in at $45,000; the XM550U at the more reasonable $14,995.

While those numbers are out of the reach for the vast majority of us, these aren't targeted at the home user or even the DIT; they're facility-focused devices. For a facility, these prices are high, but not extreme. In fact, the prices are right about where we expected them to be.

The truly key upgrade you get from the Flanders over the Panasonic is native SDI inputs and outputs.

The biggest struggle will be for the XM550U. While it certain to be a beautiful monitor, it's going to be competing against the 65" Panasonic EZ1000, which should retail around $6,000 (or less than half the price), and is being pushed heavily by Panasonic as the new reference standard in color grading, designed to be a suitable replacement for their Pro Plasma line. While the EZ1000 won't have the LUT options and built-in scopes and waveforms of the XM550U, if the picture is comparable—which is looks to be—the XM550U will have a hard case to make. The truly key upgrade you get from the Flanders over the Panasonic is native SDI inputs and outputs, including quad link SDI and internal downscaling to 3G HD-SDI, which will make it an attractive choice for some facilities with legacy signal paths.

QuadioCredit: Flanders Scientific

Oddly, the more expensive XM310K seems like the more realistic price. While it comes in at $45K, that's comparable to similar options from Dolby, Sony, and Canon, and comes with a claimed brightness of 2000 nits, offering 1,000,000 to 1 contrast. While most monitor manufacturers exaggerate their numbers, Flanders has been good in the past about matching their marketing with reality. A true HDR 4K reference monitor for $45,000 feels about right.

Flanders also released pricing for the BoxIO 12G at $4,495 and the BoxIO 12G CalQ at $1,995. These are sophisticated LUT boxes that allow for the full 4K signal to pass through either single-link or quad-link, and offer both 1D and 3D LUTs. The coolest feature is the full integration with ScopeStream, offering an inexpensive method for transmitting high-quality scopes from your video signal to a computer.

The Flanders monitors are available now from ShopFSI.com: the XM310K for $45,000 and the XM550U for $14,995.

Tech Specs

XM550U

  • 3840x2160 UHD 10bit OLED panel 
  • 12-bit signal support 
  • SDR Mastering Monitor 
  • HDR Preview Monitor 
  • 12Gbps SDI input and loop-through 
  • Supports 12G, 6G, and Quad 3G SDI connections 
  • Real-time downscaled 3G/HD-SDI output 
  • 3D LUT based calibration 
  • 4K compatible Waveform, Vector Scope, & RGB Parade

XM310K

  • 4096 x 2160 native resolution 
  • HDR and SDR Reference Mastering Monitor 
  • Support for multiple HDR formats 
  • 2000 cd/m2 peak luminance 
  • 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio 
  • Live LUT update capability 
  • 3D LUT based calibration support
  • 10bit LCD panel 
  • 100% P3 coverage 
  • 12Gbps SDI input and loop-through 
  • Supports 12G, 6G, and Quad 3G SDI connections 
  • Real-time downscaled 3G/HD-SDI output 
  • 4K compatible Waveform, Vector Scope, & RGB Parade
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