Projection screens are hard to impress in a home-cinema demo. They just kind of sit there. But Screen Innovations’ new Transformer screen provided a wow performance at the Custom Home Europe stand at ISE 2016 in Amsterdam last week.
The motorized screen unfurls horizontally to create the perfect-sized area for the image – whether that be 2.35:1 ultra-wide, 6:9 or any aspect ratio in between.
Unlike today’s masking systems, it isn’t a black frame that moves across a fixed screen. The screen itself actually does the moving. The screen material wraps around rollers at either side, and those rollers extend or contract at the press of a button, or automatically based on aspect-ratio metadata.
During ISE, the screen was framed in blue LED lighting to highlight the motion.
But the screen wasn’t the only magic in the demo. Video was provided by a Wolf Cinema projector, and audio came from Audio Design Associates (ADA) and Leon Speakers. Fortress Seating provided the comfy recliners.
During the demo, ADA’s Richard Stoerger marveled at the stellar sound – “in a terrible room with an empty back” — provided by speakers and electronics that retail for less than $20,000.
“But the big story about Atmos isn’t being told,” he says.
Gallery: Products, People, Tattoos from Custom Home @ ISE 2016
That story is the “perfect up-mixing” of 5.1 content for object-oriented sound including height channels – a 6.2.2 configuration in the Custom Home demo.
“Most content will be 5.1,” he says. “The Dolby surround up-mixer is really important.”
ADA provided the class D amp for the demo, using a prototype Atmos Dolby DSP.
Stoerger says ADA has been holding out on Atmos-enabled receivers in order to take advantage of the new TI silicon that supports more audio formats than existing Cirrus Logic boards.
Elsewhere in the Custom Home stand, D-Tools previewed its System Integrator 2016 design and proposal software. Also, new software from Designflow made its European debut. The design and documentation services, offered by Jones Designs and Kelly Ashforth Design, feature an optional D-tools component. The group works regularly with Crestron, Lutron, Savant and Control4 projects.
