Why an acoustically transparent, woven fabric screen
should
be an essential part of your home theater
An Acoustically Transparent (AT) screen from Screen Excellence, allows installation and placement of speakers behind
the screen:
Where they belong!
Commercial movie theaters place speakers behind the screen
for a lot of good reasons. First and foremost is to solidly
link the picture with the sound.
The movie industry spends
millions of dollars in post-production on the audio soundstage,
creating sound effects, recording dialogue and steering
sound so it appears to come from the actors lips and
the explosions (among other sounds) are in the right place.
The willing suspension of disbelief is paramount if you
want a true, enveloping cinematic experience.
Placing
a center speaker above or below the screen - as is done
in most home theaters with solid vinyl screens - makes
that much more difficult to achieve. Out of place speakers
cause momentary distraction and even listener fatigue, making your brain work much harder trying to localize
sound to the places it should be on the screen.
Speakers placed this way also tend to create boundary effect problems and audio smearing because of unintended room reflections.
So why are you still placing speakers in the theaters you design, above or below the screen? Well, you may have tried a vinyl “perforated” screen. It allows sound through, but it causes audio comb filtering and high frequency roll-off problems, and may suffer from visual distortions, like moiré, when used with today’s digital projectors. As a result, installers have had to resort to solid screens and reluctantly place the center speaker above or below the screen. Until now.
From now on when you watch and listen to theater demonstrations, pay attention to where the sound is actually coming from. We guarantee, when you design a theater, you’ll never want to put speakers above or below the screen again.
AT screens can eliminate timbre related boundary condition problems created by the center speaker, if placed too close to the floor.
AT screens can also let you put a larger screen in the same space.
AT screens will allow sound to reach the back rows of your theater without being blocked by the rows in front of them.
You, or some OTHER decision maker in the family, might want to hide the speakers. An AT screen can hide the center or ALL front channel speakers, without sound degradation.
And they save you money! You won’t have to build special cabinetry, fascias, or grille covers to hide speakers, with an AT screen.
Need more reasons? Contact us today for more info.
Why are Screen Excellence projection screens acoustically transparent (AT)?
Since the very first movie with sound, cinemas have used acoustically transparent screens to ensure both image and sound are seamlessly synchronized. If image and sound are perceived as originating from different locations, the film illusion breaks down.
How important is this ?
The whole technical edge of the cinematic art is focused on credibility -- it is most often called the suspension of disbelief. If you set up an Audio Visual system with a standard solid screen, the center channel speaker will need to be located above or below the image. This out-of-alignment positioning will create an Audio + Video system, almost irrespective of screen size and you will be constantly aware that the film is being made of the two elements. This is fundamentally different to a proper movie theater where sound and image combine into a complete audiovisual experience.
Why aren’t AT screens so popular in Home Cinema?
Until very recently, AT screens suffered limitation in both Audio reproduction and video image quality.
The vinyl screen fabric acted as an acoustical filter, inducing losses and distortion due to rear wall and the speaker's front panel reflections.
Video technology has evolved towards the use of digital fixed-pixel projection systems over a decade ago. These designs, while offering the desired performance and features, induced a severe image problem when used with perforated or micro-perforated screens, and woven fabric screens with wide weave: The moiré effect. The space between pixels in a digitally projected image interacts with the large holes in a perforated or woven screen. This effect can be affected by the distance between the projector and screen, the size of the screen, type of projector, etc.
It is only very recently that these sound and image flaws have been totally eradicated, with Screen Excellence woven fabric technology.
How do Screen Excellence screens compare to solid screens in terms of video playback?
Most of the highest quality solid screens provide an image gain of 1.0. Essentially light input from the projector equals reflected light output from the screen. Higher gain screens, while providing slightly brigher pictures on-axis, also create hot-spotting and signficant light drop-off off-axis...meaning people sitting on one side of a high-gain screen will see considerable light drop-off on the opposite side of the screen.
A high gain screen might be good for one person sitting in the middle of the room, but for everyone else, the visual experience is less than satisfying. Rather than getting a higher gain screen, get a higher output projector and use a unity gain screen without the visual anomalies.
Screen Excellence screens, using the Enlightor fabrics provide a gain of 0.95 to 0.98, which is a negligible loss. Enlightor also affords images of absolute color purity conforming to SMTP color balance guidelines.
In many home environment A.T. screens allow light, reflected from the rear wall, to appear through the screen. This has significant shortcomings in the image contrast and precision. All Screen Excellence screens are sold with an acoustically transparent rear black layer which absorbs light reflections. This noticeably enhances black levels, hence the overall contrast ratio and image definition is better.
How Acoustically Transparent are Screen Excellence screens?
Acoustic absorption, which never exceeds 3dB, is evenly spread over 4 octaves or even more for the Enlightor 4K. No EQ adjustment is required. As there is no reflection on the rear of the fabric itself, no distortion is created.
Are Screen Excellence screens expensive?
With so many advanced features the manufacturing costs are higher than entry-level basic screens. However, in comparison with nearly equivalent screens, their cost remains affordable. Compared to the benefit of having the sound origin located in the proper location and the dramatic improvement it brings to a Home Theater installation, it is well worth the minor extra cost when compared to a solid screen.
What are the key features and benefits of a Screen Excellence screen?
Exclusive Enlightor fabrics- Uncompromised image and sound quality
No moiré effect - Ideal for use with all fixed pixel projectors
AT woven black backing fabric (standard with all materials except EN1-SB) eliminates rear wall reflections
Adjustable top border - Position motorized screen at the exact height
Wide black borders - Accurate imaging and optimum contrast
Build quality - All screens are manufactured to the highest standards
A Screen Excellence screen combines uncompromised image and sound quality, providing a pure cinematic experience in your home.
