Approximately three years ago Screen Innovations (SI) launched its Slate ambient light rejecting screen. Following the original Slate release, SI quickly introduced a .8-gain version Slate material that it says is darker and provides enhanced contrast and black levels. Now the company has announced a perforated, acoustically transparent version of Slate it calls Slate AT.
The company has also announced an acoustically transparent version of its Pure screen material it calls Pure AT.
“We created Slate AT and Pure AT to give our customers the best of both worlds—the best picture and the best sound,” says Ryan Gustafson, CEO, Screen Innovations. “Pure and Slate have solved the problem of image quality with the sharpest image reproduction in the market by managing the texture pattern down to nine times finer than standard white or gray materials to maintain image uniformity.
“Merging Slate and Pure with our acoustic perforation technology has truly created the best of both worlds: picture and sound. Imagine hiding your favorite LCR speakers behind a massive Zero Edge screen with our popular backlighting, even with the lights on thanks to Slate's ALR [ambient light rejecting] properties,” Gustafson says.
A Closer Look: Slate AT and Pure AT
Describing the development of Slate AT as a goal of the company's, Tom Nugent, chief of technology, Screen Innovations, notes the combination of audio and video shouldn't involve a compromise in system design.
“Hiding your speakers behind the screen is another way that this is accomplished to allow the sound to improve your viewing experience, but not detract from your visual experience,” he says. “It has not been easy. Perforating is difficult in its own right, but working with 106-inch tall material is nearly impossible. We are perforating 28,000 .55mm holes for every square foot. Clearly [its] a daunting task.”
Elaborating on the development of the perforated screen materials, Nugent says SI sent the materials to a speaker company for testing. According to Nugent, the materials showed little influence on the sound quality of audio performance.
“The effect of the perforated screen has very little attenuation starting at about 1-2kHz. Typical impact on frequency response is well within the -3dB range with a peak attenuation of -6dB at 20kHz,” Nugent adds. “This difference is easily corrected by most modern receivers with room correction. Additionally, many architectural speakers feature a treble compensation switch to adjust this type of installation.”
SI says the Slate AT and Pure AT materials are available to order with options from its Zero Edge, Zero-G, Fixed and Motorized product lines.
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