Walls that are painted D65 grey in colour are a necessity when it comes to installing a projector in a home theatre.

D6500, commonly abbreviated to D65 or 6500K, is the name of a reference colour used by screen manufacturers to ensure colour reproduction is correct on projector screens during their calibration.

So to replicate this same colour quality back into the home, it’s ideal to change the colour of the wall, behind and surrounding the projector screen, to D65 grey.
Although interior designers as well as many homeowners don’t want a grey wall in their house, the reality is that changing the colour of the wall changes the overall colour reproduction of the screen.

The horizontal bar in the centre of this grey gradient field is the same shade of gray all along its length. As the background changes to a lighter shade, the bar appears to darken.

Avical Australia’s display calibration professional Aaron Rigg says the colour of the room is important to maintain both colour integrity and the dynamic range of the image.

Colours on walls act as a reference point for our colour palette, so if a screen is surrounded by a grey or black background, our visual perception tells us the colours are ‘true’.

“The correct colour of white for video reproduction is known as D6500, or D65. This is achieved through adjustment of the projector and by using a quality screen surface that doesn’t create its own colour shift,” he says.

“To some degree, a calibration will compensate for any small colour errors on a screen due to the surroundings since the measurements are taken from the screen and include environmental effects.”