What kind of fabric?
There are four large families of screens.
- Matt white screens,
- Screens with gain (pearl or reflective),
- Rear-projection screens (projection from the rear),
- Acoustically transparent screens (perforated or micro-perforated).
Gain gives reflective behaviour to a screen in a specific dimension (generally perpendicular to the screen). So gain is the ratio between a projection screen's luminance (generally measured perpendicular to this screen) and the luminance of a reference surface (standard white board). In order to describe the entire radiance behaviour or a screen, either a table with the "Gain" factors for various angles of vision, or a graphical representation of this table, also called the "Gain Curve", is needed.
Matt white fabric is most currently used in meeting rooms and home cinema rooms, as it reflects the light in a more uniform way in all directions. It is also more comfortable on the eyes to view the image as unlike fabrics with a high light output, matt white fabrics do not burn colours and they limit the hot spot effect and flickering. A quality matt white fabric is therefore, in most cases, the most appropriate solution. Our matt white screens have been specially designed to respect the projector's colorimetry and to limit the hot-spot phenomenon as far as possible ; they also give a wider cone of reflectance.
High Contrast fabric is also used for home cinema and in places with more ambient light, as grey gives less reflection of sources of stray light. In addition, it reinforces contrasts and, through its neutral shade, gives faithful colour reproduction guaranteeing shades of dark colours which are impossible to make out on a standard surface.
Pearl screens (with high light output) are used mainly in our film theatres.
They either compensate for a lack of projector power, or enable savings to be made on lamp life span in digital projectors. A fabric's angle of vision is inversely proportional to its gain.
This means that the higher the gain, the more restricted the angle. Generally speaking, film theatres are designed to take account of this phenomenon.
Finally, the most reflective fabric is Victorine 3D ; with its 2.4 gain, it is used for 3-D stereoscopic projection.
Painted fabrics do not always have a higher gain.
This is the case for the Starlight, specially designed for home cinema, or the Super Blanc [Super White], for studios or control-rooms.
Our seams are guaranteed to be invisible under projection.
Rear-projection fabrics are positioned between the projector and the spectator.
We offer a large choice of rear-projection fabrics which are more or less diffusing.
For example, the Rétro Crème (Cream Rear-Projection) gives good radiance in dark surroundings and has excellent diffusing qualities. It also allows rear projection as well as front projection (dual fabric: front and rear projection).
Nevertheless, a loss of light of +/-20% is observed in front projection. It is therefore advisable to compensate for this with a suitable projector.
Infra fabric, which is light grey for rear projection, gives the best results in bright surroundings and increases the level of contrast.
Our AD WINDOW adhesive films are a must in terms of projection onto windows; the rendering is exceptional, even in daylight (see Kitapon, Kiti and Showi).
Finally, we offer a selection of rear-projection tiles made of extruded acrylic polymer, 3mm thick, in various colours and with hanging accessories: RearVision.
This is not an exhaustive list…
Acoustically transparent (perforated or micro-perforated) screens enable sound to pass through the screen.
The 3 front channels are placed behind the screen, very close to the fabric.
This is how it is done in film theatres. They are all fitted in this way.
The diameter of the perforations is 1 mm and a few more than 4 holes can be found per cm².
The surface is 3.3% perforated.
For a Home Cinema room, micro or super micro perforation is preferred (perforations of a diameter of 0.5mm as against 1mm for standard cinema). The smallest perforation is 0.5 mm diameter with 30 holes per cm²,
which is 6% of the screen's surface area.
This completely smooth projection surface gives superior clearness and colorimetry to screens on the market that are made with woven materials.
There is a minimum distance of 5m for the cinema and 2.5m for a home cinema to not see the perforations.
The standard 1mm perforation can be used from a 6m-wide image.
Below 6m, a moiré effect can be observed.
The new acoustic Woven Sound Frabic is an alternative to the Super Micro Perforated screen surface. She offers an enchanced acoustic performance with less acoustic attenuation especially for higher frequencies, while the gain is lower than a matt white PVC surface.
NEW : Digital Perforation 4K Pattern will become the standard perforation pattern for all screen types replacing the existing standard pattern. The new pattern has an open area of over 4% with over 65,000 holes per square metre. This helps to si-gnificantly increase light reflectance into cinema auditoriums compared to the previous standard perforation pattern and provides a brighter and better quality viewing experience. The smaller holes also allow for a closer viewing experience with less visible seams, while the increased quantity of perforations provides better sound attenuation.
3-D screens
Our 3D Victorine, Clarus XC 170, 220 or 270 fabrics for front projection or the Spéciale 3D [3-D Special] for rear projection have been specially developed for 3-D stereoscopic35mm or digital projection. Our matt white fabrics (Cinecitta) are recommended for active 3-D projection. The Starlight fabric is also compatible.
The new Clarus XC 170, 220 or 270 are the 4th generation screen technology.
It provides a wide viewing angle, greater uniformity, improved colour and contrast both in 2D and polarised 3D.
Fabric selection matrix (available soon)