grey

[Joseph Owens]

[Rory Hinds] “proper white balance”

White balance is somewhat involved, but a proper surround really helps more with a consistent contrast ratio.
See: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/223/18616

jPo

You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?

[Rodrigo Silvestri]

Basically, the the important thing is to have a neutral and non-distracting environment. This means: no lamps, design objects, curtains behind or besides the displays. “Neutral” would mean that the color of the background is the same as the color of a medium gray shown in screen. Considering your display/monitor is correctly calibrated, the color temperature your eye should see on the background is 6500ºK.
This would typically mean: 6500ºK lamp + GRAY background. And Gray means that the surface of the background reflects the same color that arrives to it.

There are lots of discussions about which paint is real medium gray. For painting my background, I went to a paint store with new Kodak and Fujifilm gray cards (used Kodak’s card, Fuji’s is a little warm :S), compared the colors from a color samples book (I asked them to show me the newest book), bought the paint.
At home, I painted the background and then used my i1Display 2 to measure the background:
Using the light diffusor, I first pointed it to the light (which is 6500ºK), and then pointed it to the reflection (which also measured 6500ºK, this meant it was the correct paint).

There are many different positions about environment lighting and all that, I know colorists who position a gray card near the monitor, lightened with a custom calibrated 6500ºK light, others who directly don’t use any kind of reference (completely dark environments, mainly when grading DIs).

Luck ^^
Rodrigo Silvestri

—
Some people seem to love getting angry. I don’t 🙂

[Simon Astbury]

I have been involved in the design of several big iron suites, TBH anything that is completely colour neutral is fine. It could be a regular plain white from your local hardware store. At the moment I have a matt white concave background. The wall behind is painted grey. As everyone’s eyes are different find a background that works for you. You don’t have to slavishly use N5 Munsell etc. Just make sure your lights are the correct temp ie 6500k and as long as the background is properly neutral you will be fine.

Simon

[Joseph Owens]

One little additional note might be to establish a “gradient” illumination around the monitor, as it has been noted elsewhere that a completely “flat” background can contribute to significant eyestrain. One facility I spent a lot of time in had built a lightbox which was a triumph of engineering and really hard on the eyes.

jPo

You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?

[Illya Laney]

You mean a bias light?

twitter.com/illyalaney
Motion Design, Color, Editing
SWGC Incorporated

[Illya Laney]

Using a light neutral gray behind your monitor doesn’t work that well when you have a bias light aimed at it. You’ll have to compensate by lowering the overall brightness in your suite.

twitter.com/illyalaney
Motion Design, Color, Editing
SWGC Incorporated

[Illya Laney]

Are you using D65 or 6500k?

twitter.com/illyalaney
Motion Design, Color, Editing
SWGC Incorporated

[Simon Astbury]

As JP has said a gradient is essential to stop eye strain, my background is concave and I get a very nice gradual fall off towards the middle.