In conversation with Joel Silver, founder of the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), Layla Laidouci finds out how standards-based immersive video design is set to sweep across consumer and custom display following the debut of RP23.
Joel Silver goes by many titles, from co-inventor to CEO to CEDIA Lifetime Achievement recipient. Behind these celebrated successes is a man who, in his own words, has only ever been concerned with “making people happy”.
After CEDIA approached the ISF to define parameters for home entertainment installations, Silver chaired the Home Theatre Standards Committee to oversee the adoption of the ISF course curriculum into a set of recommended practices. The ISF leaned on many of its clients to volunteer for CEDIA work, galvanising calibration best practices beyond the post-production world.
CEDIA’s RP23 for Immersive Video Design defines video quality from Levels One to Four, reaching professionals at ISE 2025 on a course led by Silver and CEDIA associate Walt Zerbe. The framework is the third iteration of the revised Home Theatre Standard, representing the cornerstone of a movement that began to solve a common problem: the lack of consumer TV menus.
“The ISF started out at the tail end of the commercial entertainment industry,” says Silver. “After we learned that residential comprised the majority of global custom install, we sought to show this community they didn’t operate in a vacuum.
“As a result we worked closely with manufacturers to localise sharpness and definition control on TV menus. These controls were buried in the service mode of TV sets, meaning we needed to hack into them – we suggested that manufacturers put these facilities into a regular consumer menu and make picture adjustment readily available to consumers.”
Joel Silver
The ISF uses imaging science to capture the artist’s intent on screen, inspired by generations of broadcast standards as well as the Dolby Vision training manual. Silver created two levels of video excellence in the original Home Theatre standard, outlining precision for dedicated rooms that inevitably became the domain of elite buyers.
“The dream behind the committee is to get beyond the three per cent of custom installs for high-net-worth individuals,” explains Silver. “We continuously work with manufacturers to ensure products go to market with all the controls needed to pay homage to the filmmaker.
“The original ISF training was based on high end projection technology, because these were the only consumer offerings that had professional calibration capability, demanding darkened rooms to look good.”
The ISF has ensured that calibration is no longer centralised in Hollywood but adopted widely as a practice in post-production. “We’ve now trained 7,000 people on calibration,” notes Silver. “This is one of our proudest accomplishments, and part of the reason I got the CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Silver explains television remained chaotic until the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) developed a standard from Morse code – a ‘shining light’ for the committee today. “The ITU standardised pictures around the world, so it’s very important for us to read its rules, understand them and define a workable picture,” adds Silver. “When we talk about making a good picture, we’re talking about a chronology of standardisation that complies with ITU rules.”
The achievements of the committee are manifold, from the development of affordable calibratable TVs to image quality control at the press of a button. “We expected this from one or two manufacturers,” adds Silver. “But now competition and many dedicated factory engineering teams have raised the bar to Level One performance for every installation at realistic price points.”
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Building on this picture, projectors hitting the market today overpower the limited light output of their predecessors and cater to multi-purpose rooms, much like immersive Video Walls.
“The committee, the brightest and the best I ever worked with, had an appetite for this landscape,” recalls Silver. “It's humbling to be in a room with them. We dissected the fine degrees of performance from Level Two to Level Three for a long period of time, advancing the Home Theatre Standard charters I wrote many years ago.”
While Level Four is the guide to a “magnificent” post-production piece used by tech giants, Silver stresses that its value provides a model for other levels. “Level Four is far from a consumer product; it’s going into yachts and mansions, with a 20ft wide screen and heavy-duty audio system,” he says. “If I can make a consumer product a close match to the reference monitor, it makes me happy.
“The first place to start is recognising the room is not just the equipment, but the environment too. In recent discussions about Level Four we've been examining wall reflectivity, avoiding the placement of glass tables and picture frames near the TV, for example, to optimise quality. These are common sense observations that nevertheless need writing down.
“CEDIA’s recommended practices are about earning the trust that clients put in us, giving them the best pictures and sound in the world. We have seen this in RP22, the standard for immersive audio design in home cinemas.
“Having said that, the majority of clients dealing with standardised equipment deserve the same trusted service. That’s where our work is going to focus.”
Silver champions the view that Level One is achievable for any integrator, following the transition of video from the high-end space to chip-based manufacturing. “We’ve developed a method whereby integrators can make Level One compliance simply by picking a mode during video install,” he says. “RP23 aims to show that integrators no longer require a costly generator or video disc to get a decent picture, they can follow a clear series of steps.
“Since disc players have become obsolete, we’ve come up with ‘the baby generator’. This sits on the integrator’s keyring, checking display definition via HDMI connection and promising to bring more people into the AV Pro family.
“You don't have to buy expensive gear and spend three hours on this process. If someone trusts you with the home in five minutes, you can put screens in the right mode, turn off Energy Star and set brightness and contrast to become Level One compliant.”
Silver will demonstrate this compliance process during the two-hour RP23 session at ISE. The course aims to highlight the role of TV controls and inexpensive accessories in Level One performance, paving the way for video excellence as a universal standard of care.
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