Seymour-Screen Excellence introduces first acoustically transparent ALR screen

Seymour-Screen Excellence says it is combining its “expertise” in acoustical transparency (AT) and ambient light-rejecting (ALR) material for the first time with the Ambient-Visionaire Black 0.8MP home theater screen. With various fixed-frame styles available, the Black 0.8MP material is a micro-perf version of the company’s existing Black 0.9 gain ultra-wide ALR option. All products are manufactured in Ames, Iowa, including the process of punching 120 holes per square inch into the surface.

Managing Director Chris Seymour (picture above) says, “Seymour-Screen Excellence’s Black surfaces offer the most effective ambient light filtration available in an optical screen. With a deep background that absorbs 90% of ambient light from any direction, and an aggressive combination of carbon particles and stacked, dithered nano-mirrors, our screens deliver a 12x improvement in contrast ratios in environments that are otherwise unsuited to front projection use, even outdoors.”

The Black 0.8MP’s light absorption properties plus 90-degree viewing cone contribute to a “larger-than-possible-on-a-TV-screen experience” and is sometimes preferred by customers for entertainment rooms with billiards tables or bars, and also by video gamers or those with dedicated theaters with long rows of seating. The new screen can be ordered at a max 210-inch diagonal size using the Series-3 VistaCurve fixed-frame; 200-inches on Series -1 and -3 fixed-frames; 140-inches on Series-2 and 150-inches on its TRIM motorized masking system.

Chris Seymour, who developed all the company’s screen material options, adds, “The Ambient-Visionaire surfaces are comprised of billions of nano-mirrors, dithered at the desired viewing angle and layered so that side light from any direction will be absorbed by carbon particles and the substrate. The reflective elements are shrunk down to less than 1/10th the smallest size visible by the human eye, therefore the screen cannot create a discrete sparkle. So small and dense, a 16K resolution pixel would have over 300 mirrors to itself; a 4K pixel would have nearly 5,000. With this more efficient method of selectively reflecting the projected image versus ambient light, the screen offers the reference quality color uniformity that Seymour-Screen Excellence is known for without exhibiting any color shift, sparkles or ringing – all issues that have plagued performance of ALR film screens.”