DRIVING DEMAND

HOW ARE SCREENS AND PROJECTORS DRIVING DEMAND?

A look at the technologies, designs and trends shaping the home theater industry, from Chris Dawson, Business Development Manager Invision UK.

Image courtesy of Haven Smart

At the dawn of home theater, there were many hard and fast rules to follow. Dark room. Check. Set away from other rooms. Check. Huge screen and projector as the visual focal point. Check. Designed solely for watching movies. Check.

Audio/video products were manufactured with these mandates in mind. But times have changed and the rules, loosened up considerably. That’s good news for the home theater industry, as the current crop of screens, projectors, and supporting equipment accommodate all types of viewing environments—large, small, welllit, dark, and everything in between. Factor in the remarkable variety, accessibility, and highquality of Hollywood-produced streaming content, and it’s easy to see how home theater is experiencing a revival, with screens and projectors casting a starring role.

Thanks to ambient light rejecting screens, attractive motorized housings, short-throw projectors and automated window treatments, any room can function admirably as a home theater. Family rooms, dens, guest bedrooms, even the garages can transition into a theater with the tap of a button, removing what was once the biggest inhibitor to home theater ownership: a dedicated room. Consumers can apply their existing real estate to a home theater setup, putting their money towards quality equipment rather than the construction of a new space.

What hasn’t changed, however, is consumers’ love affair with huge screens and they’ll invest heavily in this pursuit. Adding a new twist to the screen purchase are fabrics and cosmetics. It’s no longer a matter of having the biggest viewing surface, but owning a screen that suits the environmental and aesthetic conditions of the room and with optical properties to optimize the performance of the projector. Thankfully, there are screen sizes, surfaces and designs for any home theater space, be it a dedicated viewing destination or a multipurpose family room.

BIG DOESN’T HAVE TO BE BRASH

Certainly, motorized projection screens are a great choice for multi-use living spaces, but there’s also a lot to like about fixed screens, thanks to new design-forward solutions. Slim, customizable frames applied around a fixed screen can lend visual impact and enable the screen to become a more natural part of the room. At the same time, a fixed, acoustically transparent screen can enhance the room aesthetics by concealing home theater speakers placed behind it.

Of course, a traditional fixed screen will consume a fair amount of wall space—which in multipurpose rooms can be in short supply. Here’s where motorization makes sense, and this category has undergone a facelift, as well. With motorized housings shrinking in size and exhibiting stunning, contemporary colors, styles, and finishes, they complement and blend in with the room design with installation ease. No longer is above-ceiling installation the only way to preserve the aesthetic integrity of a multi-purpose home theater, as the trend toward exposed, design-friendly motorized housings continues to push forward.

As projector technologies and content quality progresses, so have the optics of screen fabrics, with dozens of choices to optimize and even improve the brightness, contrast, and resolution of projected images. Screens engineered to display 4K and 8K content are on pace with the technological trends, as are screens that look just as good presenting video games, sporting events, virtual fitness classes, and video calls as they do blockbuster movies.

Two of the biggest inhibitors to having a home theater used to be light and space, leaving a dedicated, purpose-built room as the undisputed best option. Unique, application-specific ambient light rejecting screens, acoustically transparent screens, short-throw projection screens, and ‘floating’ screens have broadened the market immensely. Windows or simply a desire to watch video with the lights on has no impact on the image quality when displayed on an ambient light rejecting screen. Casual viewing on a projection screen in a multipurpose room suddenly makes sense when there’s no need to darken the room. Exposed windows are also a non-issue for ‘floating’ screens. Suspended from the ceiling on thin cabling the screen can be placed in front of a bank of windows—a handy location when wall space is limited. Last but not least, screens designed for ultra-short-throw and short-throw projectors finally make home theater a viable option for apartment and condominium dwellers. Together, the projector and screen can turn even the smallest of spaces into a high-performance home theater.

Broadening the home theater landscape further are home theater solutions designed for outdoor use. It’s a niche that’s gaining momentum–and screen maker Screen Innovations is making it possible with a wide assortment of projection screen options, for both fixed and motorized applications.