FRONT PROJECTION SCREEN FABRICS

Which screen fabric is best for your home cinema?

Clearly, there is no magic screen material that performs perfectly for every installation. Each home cinema design has distinct and unique demands. Before selecting a screen you must first consider a number of varying factors, such as projector type and model, front through or rear screen installation, viewing angles, ambient light conditions, seating layout and screen size, to name a few.

That’s why Zoher and Company provides varying optical fabrics with different reflective and colorimetry values for every single home cinema design presented to us. And since Zoher and Company has been in the made-to-order screen business for over fifty years, catering to your individual screen requirements is simply a part of our daily business.

To get you started, we have included a brief description of our most popular home cinema screen fabrics for front projection installations.

Each can be made in seamless sizes up to 40’x 90’. They are available in electric roll-up or fixed frame models, are completely washable, flame retardant and of course are available with Zoher and Company’s acoustically transparent sound option.

Acoustically transparent screens

Bring the sound experience home

For the ultimate experience your home cinema should use a high quality audio amplifier and surround-sound processor with speakers arranged in the same format as most commercial cinemas: left and right channel speakers plus surround –sound speakers placed along the side of the room. Why? During the most production audio mix for movies, sound tracks are assigned to the appropriate speaker locations. For example: the image o­n the screen show the inside of a submarine with the captain looking through the periscope. The audio mix would have the sound of the sub’s engines coming from all around you o­n the surround speakers. The captain’s command would come from the center screen speaker, and the blip of the starboard sonar would be coming from the right speakers. As the crew fires the port side torpedoes, the swish of the launch engulfs you from the left speaker.

Zoher and Company’s acoustically transparent screen heightens the allowing the center channel speaker to be placed directly behind the screen just like a professional cinema or sound mixing stage. Since the sound is now coming from behind the image, the audio cues are perfectly aligned with the visual action o­n the screen. This is important since much of the soundtrack comes from the center speaker. This new technology is available for all Zoher and Company front projection screen products.

In- Wall rear projection screens

Rear projection screens operate o­n a similar principle as a conventional television in that source of projection is behind the screen in an enclosed, light-controlled environment. As a result, installing a rear screen system means giving little consideration to ambient lighting conditions.

Ambient lighting is o­ne of the first factors to deteriorate the image o­n your screen. By installing the projector in an enclosed room, you eliminate virtually all ambient light interfering with the path of the image being projected o­nto your screen. Rear projection systems also keep your equipment hidden and secure.

Most in-wall rear projection systems are designed into either new construction projects or rooms undergoing extensive remodeling, primarily because the design requires considerable space for the projector to fit behind the screen, allowing adequate room for throw distance. To help reduce floor space behind the screen, your installer may recommend a Zoher and Company’s optical mirror system to fold the light path of the projector and reduce the required throw distance by approximately o­ne half.

Rear projection screens are designed in two styles: diffusion technology and optical lens technology. Diffusion technology is excellent for most rear screen applications, providing a gain of up to 2.0. Optical lens technology provides gains up to 5.0 and has the unique ability of providing a viewing angle of 180 degrees. Though optical lens technology is generally more expensive than the diffusion type technology, it is two or three time brighter.

Finally, Zoher and Company’s rear projection screen are divided into two categories. The first is flexible rear screen fabric, similar to front projection screens in the physical sense and its ability to either be electronically rolled up into housing or stretched o­nto fame.

The second is a rigid rear projection screen- a hard surface which looks similar to frosted glass. Because of its ability to deflect sound from the projection room and provide a more study installation, rigid screens are extremely popular for home cinema rear projection systems.

Zoher And Company’s rigid rear projection solutions

While Zoher and Company offers a wide range of flexible and rigid rear screen products for virtually any installation, following is a sampling of our most popular diffusion rear projection screens. These rigid rear screen products are available in sizes up to 10’x 25’. They feature a tough, fine-grain washable surface and excellent color reproduction.

Multi- Purpose Rooms

Integration of home cinema into a multi-use room

Most home cinemas today are designed into existing rooms, such as family rooms and living rooms that already serve multiple purposes. In addition to the physical optical design, the screen and projector should completely disappear when not in use.

Fortunately, the products in this section are designed specifically to help you achieve a high quality home cinema in such an environment. Electric roll up screens, adjustable screen masking and projector lifts are just a few ways to complement the design of a home cinema in a multi-use room. Your designer/ installer will work closely with Zoher and Co. design department to develop the best system for your individual installation.