Hi,

I'm thinking of attending an ISF seminar in the near future.

Has anyone found these courses benefitial?

I am familiar with the DVE setup disc but would like to know more about the technicalities behind the calibration process and was hoping this course would enable me to achieve this.

Haven't looked at the pricing yet so how much is the seminar likely to cost me?

Any help greatly appreciated,

Thanks.

I'd like to post a bit of a follow up question to those who do video calibration.

What's the initial investment range in terms of tools and training?

[Link: remotecentral.com]

check out my recent post, i'm taking the class tomorrow and friday so i'll post over the weekend.

Mike

ISF class I think used to be $1100

My recommendations for Video equipment.

Opticone Color Analyzer $1800
Avia Pro DVD set $400 I think they offer a package deal if you buy it with Optic one for $2000.

Sencore VP403+ signal Generator $5000. It is the only one that I know of that can send an RF signal to SAT/Cable/ OTA boxes.

A lot of dough, that will take a lot oftime to recoup with calibrations alone.

Bob

Bob,

What do you charge to do a calibration?

ISF has some pricing guidelines. We include an audio/video calibration as part of every system we install. Here is the guidelines but you are welcome to charge what you want. I can tell you we mostly go by the guidelines but if we charged the company's hourly rate ($60/hr) we'd make more money on the majority of them.

Direct View $225
Rear Projextion TV $275
Front Projection TV $325

Extra Inputs, 1 input included in above price (ie. 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i) $125 each
Manual (ie. not electronic) convergence, focus, geometry is extra as well but no guideline and priced individually.

I personally don't do CRT FPTV set ups or calibration. Even though I have one in my house that I tweak and took the optional class for it. I hire one of the pro calibrators if we have a customer that wants one, pretty rare nowadays. Usually, about $1100 not counting the mounting of it.

Bob

Ok, so it stands to reason that it takes a fair amount of time to recoup the cost of the equipment and training.

What's your take on the life expectency/obsolecence of the equipment?

I think the color analyzer will last for quite some time and I'm sure newer models will come out in the future it will have to be something really great to upgrade. It is like a computer which is used only for basic word processing an older slower one still gets the job done. We use an older model that is not quite as good at low light and slower, Progressive Labs CA-6x. Progressive labs is who developed the Optic one with Ovation Software. The CA-6x is the equivalent of Sencore CP5000. Although, I'd like a new Optic one it is not worth the upgrade cost for the time savings and the low light difference isn't that much. And we have an Optical comparator to verify things. A handy tool but I'm not sure I'd invest in one if starting out today.

The VP403 I think will last quite sometime. My only reservation is HDMI. There should be an adaptor for DVI to HDMI, so it should work fine. I know there are adaptors for HDMI to DVI, I just don't know if it works in reverse. I haven't ran into that situation yet. We don't have a VP403 either. We have an Accupel. But the Accupel can only calibrate the display's inputs and can't calibrate the whole chain of components like the VP403. That RF is a big deal. But, $5000 is a big upgrade cost which is high on our priority list to do. The VP403 hasn't been out that long and initially had some bugs. We were hoping Accupel or someone would come out with a less expensive model but we are going to have to bite the bullet soon.

I think as HDTV DVD comes into play there will be HD DVD calibration discs. But, hopefully that won't be too expensive.

I forgot to mention if you have customers with D-VHS you should pick up DVE for the 720p and 1080i format as well. I think about $150.

Hope this helps.

Bob

OK - just recently got out of a whole lot of schooling... The classes were extremely informative and the instructors were very knowledgable. Great class, i'm sure we'll send others from the company soon.
Now the whole dilemma is deciding on whose products to purchase. Its a tough decision when you have to take other peoples opinions into account as to what are the best units. And yes i paid $1100 to attend this seminar.
Excellent course, I highly urge you to take it if you are interested in supplying a superior picture to your clients.
Joel Silver and Kevin Millar are great instructors. They also remind you of how much fun this industry really is, something i seriously needed to be pointed out!

Mike

Doing the math, if you're investing $7K on the equipment and training, and charging an average of $300 per calibration, it would take 24 calibrations (minus any further labor charges) before you could start to turn a profit

What's the incentive?

Becoming a better installer and giving the client a superior finished product.

I took the class last week and can tell you the info learnd helped me land a nice $95,000 job. The client was very concerned about proper setup and had some backround on calibration. Do you think there is enough profit in a few jobs like that to cover the costs? Bet your ass. I didn't view the upfront expense as something recoverable but as somethingt hat would help grow my business and help differentiate myself from the crowd. It already has worked. My 2 cents

I agree! Having the knowledge and equipment to do a better quality job has gotten me many jobs over my competitors. None of my competitors have ISF, HAA, TEF and only 1 has had some CEDIA classes. I'm not in a big city metropolis area so there are only several competitors. Our knowledge has really worked to our benefit and I know many of our customers have shopped around and told us they picked us because "we knew what we were doing". Especially the AV enthusiast customer which wants to make sure his/ her room is designed correctly and is calibrated for both audio and video. I hope my competitiors aren't reading this! Only kidding.

OEX, congratulations on landing the job.

Bob