Re: silver screens

[s.spicer@xxxxxxxxx]

>From: bercov@xxxxxxxxxxx (John Bercovitz)

> We have so many projectionists
>on this list.  Someone must know what's available these days.  Are
>straight silver screens still available or must one buy silver-
>lenticular?  Who are the manufacturers?
>


Here are two manufacturers I am aware of (but it is several years since I
had contact with them, so details may have changed):

* For Concave Silver Projection Screens
(like those often used with projection TV)
One of our club members has a screen from this company. It is excellent.
About 1 stop brighter than a Da-Lite lenticular screen, but about 1 stop
duller than the Kodak Ektagraphic (which is too small anyway). Cost is high
I think.

Contact: Conrad Schudel
Schudel Screens
USA Phone: (619) 944 9332
USA Fax:   (619) 942 1812


* For any size screen, portable or otherwise, using the Spectral 2000
silver surface on a flat vinyl substrate (not lenticular) contact:

Eddie Daniels
Harkness Screens & Hall Stage Ltd
The Gate Studios
Station Road
Borehamwood
Herts WD6 1DQ
UK
International Fax: +44 81 207 3657
International Phone: +44 81 953 3611

I saw a screen supplied by Harkness for the Eastbourne ISU Convention. It
was about 14 feet wide, 10 feet high. It looked very good. The screen
surface is slightly rough (orange-peel effect) which probably reduces
directionality.

All the above sounds like an advertisment,but I've never purchased anything
from the above companies. I've been trying to solve our clubs screen
problems for some years now, and in all likleyhood will probably build our
own in the long run. Currently our club uses a sheet of anodised aluminium
8 feet wide and 4 feet high. It's OK, it's bright, it depolarises
_very_slightly_, it's too small though - but a big advantage is that the
surface is very tough and isn't affected when touched or rubbed. Prior to
that we used a smooth sheet of masonite spay painted with silver paint.

I personally use a Da-Lite 70x70 inch lenticular screen at home, and
wouldn't be happy with anything smaller. Regarding the lenticular pitch,
I'll quote myself from a post in from 1993:

>There are about 16 lenticules per cm (or around 40 per inch). The screen is
>70x70 inches, so across the screen there are 2800. This screen has a
>particularly fine lenticular structure - I have seen others that are MUCH
>coarser than this, so my screen may not be represntative.

And since I posted that, I saw three 70"x70" Da-Lite screens at the last
Australian Stereo Convention run by the Sydney club. One Da-lite screen was
the same as mine. The other two had a much _coarser_ lenticule structure
(about half as many at a guess). All three screens were used simultaneously
in a six-projector dissolve show. I was at the back (looking over the top
of the bloke in the ortho seat), and can't comment on resolution issues,
but the screen brightness looked the same for the two different types.

Regards, Steve Spicer
Melbourne.



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