THE DYNAMIC DUO

THE DYNAMIC DUO –PROJECTORS AND SCREENS

Neil Davidson, co-founder of Display Technologies (DT), provides his insight into the status of the combination of projector and screen.

More high-quality cinematic content is available in the home than ever before

Providing high-quality screen products globally since we launched DT in 2016, right from the start we have endeavoured to produce cleverly designed real world problem solvers at our UK HQ and factory. We firmly believe that there is still nothing that is as well suited to our market as a projector and screen combination.

DT founders, Neil Davidson and Simon Ridley

Whilst fixed pixel displays such as TVs and LED Walls are getting ever larger and more prevalent, there is still nothing that competes with the flexibility and value presented by projection systems – especially when applied to dedicated cinema systems. The great news is that lock-down has led to an ever-increasing appreciation and demand for quality home entertainment and with more studios promising to deliver content ever closer to the release date, there is no reason that this demand should

Unlike emissive displays like TVs, a projection system is a two-part solution where the overall quality of the experience is driven by both the projector and the projector screen. It is now almost five years since Display Technologies launched our first projection screen products

The first element that most people consider but since day one, the goal has been to use novel and proprietary developments to deliver the very finest projection solutions. These developments in both image surfaces and the screen frames themselves have taken DT to the top of the international market in projection screens.

The first element that most people consider in a projection screen is the image surface itself. Since launch the DT ATRef screen has delighted and amazed our customers and competitors alike. ATRef was one of the very first knitted projection surfaces on the market. This delivered significant benefits over woven screens such as minimal surface texture, resistance to tearing and greater stretch for easier install all whilst delivering even better image quality and acoustic transparency. ATRef remains unique in the market though in delivering the crispest white colour of its own. This was an important engineering choice as this colour tone ensures that the reflected whites from the screen are as bright and clear as possible yet without causing significant colour shift, in almost all cases significantly less than the yellowish base colour used by our competitors. The other key development made with

requiring the use of complex pre-sets or tedious on-site setup. Screen masking is often viewed as a non-essential feature in cinemas however this overlooks the impact that masking has on delivering the ultimate projection experience. Most projectors are a 1.78 aspect – just like a TV – but more and more content shuns this aspect. Lots of Netflix content is in a wider 2.0 aspect meaning black bars at the top and bottom of a 1.78 screen and the new Justice League release was done in the 1.33 aspect so bars on the left and right of the screen. In systems with well implemented masking, these bars can be hidden and the image optimised. When done well this is now a totally automated process that the user hardly even notices until the feature is not there. The improvement in

the wall is really impressive and not something that can be matched by a TV!

Projection systems are unique in allowing the shape and aspect to be varied to match the content. This is a standout feature in any high performance cinema, but also one which no longer needs to be challenging to specify or

coupled with a perfect image surface the overall quality is still exceptional and the ideal choice for dedicated cinema rooms.

Display Technologies Ltd displaytechnologies.co.uk