Boring Is Good: A Spectrum status update

Development Project: Spectrum | Development
#1

Hey folks,

Time for a short Spectrum update, with more to come soon! This is an update from the category boring is good as when it comes to research & development or project management nothing extraordinary happening is a good thing. :slight_smile:

COVID-19 made it impossible to travel and get to China so we haven’t been able to show you how Spectrum is coming along, but we have been in non-stop calls with engineers in that part of the world. Here is a taste of the kind of images we look during the calls with engineers. If spectrum’s design started as a simple set of 3D shapes, now it’s a massive beast with 1,5 million 3D parts and pieces!

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The process so far hasn’t been completely without challenges, but so far nothing that we weren’t able to successfully resolve. For example, the 4K model had an overheating issue in the LCD panel itself. Working with LG, we were able to overcome this by adding heat sinks and increasing the distance between the panel and housing to allow for better airflow.

Despite our update being boring…

I am also super pumped to announce that we have a few upgrades for you based on popular demand, but we will not comment on them yet as we are still working out details and testing testing. You’ll have to wait just a bit longer! :smiley: …but for one upgrade, here is a sneak peek:

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Once the travel bans have been lifted we will start sharing more footage directly from the factory so that you can see how Spectrum is coming along, and get a peek behind the scenes of production in China! Also, we can’t wait to share the first working prototypes, particularly of our 4K and 240hz models, with you and some of your favorite YouTubers.

Other upcoming things will include work on line up of accessories for Spectrum, for which we’ll need your actively involvement. If you want to make sure you don’t miss any chances to contribute to the development process of those accessories, Spectrum, or our other projects, be sure to sign up for our newsletter!

So for now, things are going according to our schedule and project plan, and it’s all quite boring.But like I said, when it comes to R&D and schedules… boring is good! :smiley:

35 Likes
Project: Spectrum | A crowd-developed monitor
#3

Great news.
Eagerly waiting for my 2 monitors.

Keep up the good work

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#4

Oooh, looks like even smaller bezels? Nice! Eager to hear what else is going on with the updates!

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#5

The rendering looks incredibly sleek and 1.5M parts? Wow I’d never think it would amount at that much

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#6

It’s not 1.5 million components in the monitor, just 1.5 million bits and pieces in the 3D file that make up the components. Still, the result is that even just opening the 3D file is something we want to do well before the meeting starts, or we’re just sitting there waiting for anything to show up :slight_smile:

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#7

Any word on DSC support? Or backlight strobing updates?

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#8

Being a CAD operator and 3D artist myself I think I know that, still it’s an impressive high number for something small with no moving parts. :wink:

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#10

Damn, that bottom bezel looks sleek!

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#11

Any information about new payment methods? Like Paypal, Mollie, etc?

1 Like
#13

Good to see the heat for the 4K model being overcame with passive cooling :smiley:

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#14

I understand that the 1440p 240Hz and 4K models are the most flashy ones and thus the more interesting ones for EVE in terms of marketing BUT please don’t omit sending the 1440p 144hz to YouTubers ( HardwareUnboxed etc ) this model deserves some proper reviews as-well !

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#15

The 1440p@144Hz panel is different from the one used for 1440p@240Hz & 4k@120Hz. It does deserve its benchmarking section (I trust and like reviews from HardwareUnboxed as well).

Moreover, it is the same panel used in the 27GL850 which is a fantastic flagship monitor (except for the contrast ratio). I am quite confident with the 1440p@144Hz Spectrum’s performance.

2 Likes
#16

You highlighted an important point.
Any news about the contrast ratio in the 1440p@144Hz panel? As i’m looking foward to use the two I reserved in a professional situation, i hope this wont be a flaw.
Remember, the other 2 panels can be the most flashy, but this one can be the one responsible for more sales.

#17

“…we are using a brighter backlight module and a different polarizer, resulting in a brighter image with higher contrast.” The 1440p@144Hz Spectrum will probably have a higher contrast ratio than the 27GL850 according to the Q&A update.

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#18

Doing precise design like that in Rhinoceros 3D, uff! :wink: You have my respect! Render looks amazing.

#19

Thankfully it looks like it was imported from IGS format, meaning it was actually designed in something much more suitable :smiley:

#23

Hi! I was wondering if there was an update regarding DSC?
From what I understand, if I wanted to have 2x 1440p at 240 Hz monitors daisy chained together, I’d need
30 bits/pixel * (2560 * 1440 pixels) * 240 (Hz) * 2 displays = 49.43 Gbps
But according to Wikipedia, DisplayPort 1.4 with HBR3 including encoding overhead has a 25.92 Gbps bandwidth, so we’d need two DisplayPort cables coming from the computer to run these displays.
But Wikipedia also says that DSC 1.2 has a 3:1 compression ratio, so if implemented we’d really need to send only ~16.5 Gbps, which would be handled easily by a single cable.

I think daisy chaining is a big use case so I’d really like to see it implemented, though I’m not super sure how hard it’d be to implement - is it a firmware thing or do you need to dedicate any specific extra electronics?

Thank you!

2 Likes
#24

Greetings, @sakras.

To start with, the 1440p@240Hz Spectrum will probably come equipped with DP2.0 to drive all of its available features. A data rate of 77.37Gbit/s can fulfil your demand. “If the ports as they stand can’t properly drive the new panels, then those models will have their ports upgraded…” @Helios.

Daisy-chaining is not without constraints. The base model of the Spectrum will limit both monitors to 60Hz when daisy-chained. We are yet to hear about the implementation of daisy-chaining on higher-tier models.

Regarding DSC there have not been many updates other than “look into what is possible”. I believe the Spectrum team will try their best to “get the most out of these screens”.

All of these quotes are from the Q&A updatehttps://eve.community/t/spectrum-specification-update-and-q-a/20357?u=lore_wonder. You can find more detailed information from there.

3 Likes
#26

Hey Folks!
Good questions here. We will make a similar thread to previous QnA in few weeks time and will answer all of your questions! So keel posting them :slight_smile:

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Spectrum Specification Update and Q&A
#27

How will shipping work? A display is much more fragile than a laptop and accessories. Can we be sure that the monitors won’t get damaged when it’s being shipped around the world?

What will be the process if someone opens up their box to a broken monitor?

4 Likes