SmX Cinema Solutions: Screens for CinemaScope Setups

SmX Cinema Solutions has quickly made a name for itself in the projection screen category. That name stems from “SandmanX,” the AV Science Forum username of Ruben Ortiz, who founded the company shortly after completing his own home theater construction in 2006.

What started as a business with followers mainly from the do-it-yourself crowd that followed Ortiz’s 100-plus-page build thread on AVS now caters to the pro dealer, with almost 300 dealers in the United States and 70 international. The company has partnered with SIM2 for European distribution, Ortiz notes, and an appearance at CEDIA Expo (booth No. 6235) is sure to drum up more integrator enthusiasm.

“We probably do more commercial than residential, maybe a 60/40 split, and we do products that are pretty universal for both,” says Ortiz. “We do stadiums, museums, Hollywood post-production, mastering labs, residential, exhibits, restaurants, bars.”

Ortiz has a post-production background, and developed a finely woven material called CineWeave HD that’s become a hallmark of SmX’s acoustically transparent screens. The company specializes in curved and fixed screens a la Stewart Filmscreen and Screen Research, Ortiz says, but at lower price points. “We’re between 30 percent less than Stewart — our screens are anywhere from $2,000 to $70,000 depending on the size and format, and Stewart might be $3,000 to sky’s the limit,” Ortiz says.

SmX boasts the highest recorded weaved screen gain (1.16) in the custom industry, Ortiz says, and the less textured material also make its products well suited for the higher-resolution 2K and 4K projectors with which they are frequently paired.

As in his own home theater, Ortiz’s company provides big support for the increasingly popular “no black bars” CinemaScope theater trend. Along with six screen products SmX will show at its CEDIA Expo booth, keep an eye out for its masking solutions. The company supplies automated and manual solutions, both of which use its “Black Hole” masking material (acoustically transparent or solid), to reach a range of budgets.

The automated ProMask options mask SmX’s ProCurv and ProLine screens four-way and two-way to accommodate all aspect ratios, integrate with automation controls and start from around $10,000. The recently introduced ProPanels manually slide into a track between the frame and screen, and run just $350 a set — you just have to get a separate set for each common aspect ratio to mask.

“The market’s really showing a lot of interest [in 2.35:1 theater],” Ortiz says. “People are going to be pretty excited to see the ProPanels.”

Can you say upsell?