Eyes-on with Sony's brilliant 4K OLED monitor prototypes (video)

The 30- and 56-inch 4K OLED monitor prototypes that Sony introduced yesterday are sitting prominently in the company's booth here at NAB, and they're really quite something. These sets offer wider viewing angles and reduced color shift compared to previous-gen monitors, and Sony is emphasizing the technology's color accuracy. We got a taste of the 56-inch, 3,840 x 2,160 model back at CES, but it looks like we can extinguish all hopes of this monitor making it to the consumer market anytime soon. Instead, it will be available to professionals working with 4K content. Even though the prototype won't make it to our living room, we couldn't help but marvel at the image quality: to say that the footage of Carnivale popped off the screen would be an understatement -- colors were just that vibrant and details were incredibly lifelike.

Meanwhile, the 30-inch, 4,096 x 2,160 model is destined to hit the market sometime in 2014, and it's plenty striking itself. Like its larger sibling, the relatively petite model looked fantastic, with very sharp details and bright, vibrant colors. Sony wouldn't share pricing information -- heck, booth attendants wouldn't even let us get close enough to get a good shot of the monitor itself -- but we did manage to snag a clip of both panels in action. Granted, it's impossible to judge the quality from our compressed eyes-on video, but if you can't make it out to NAB, you'll just have to take us on our word that these really are quite stunning.

Gallery: Sony prototype 4K OLED monitors eyes-on