Here’s a quick pop quiz question for you: Where’s the best place for the speakers—at least the center channel—in an AV installation? If you answered, “behind the projection screen,” then you get an A+. Rather than solving an audio problem, however, putting a speaker behind a solid piece of fabric creates a new problem: muffled audio. Because of that, we are getting more requests than ever before for acoustically transparent screens. These surfaces allow sound to pass thorough them with very little audio loss.
Perforated screens have tiny perforations to allow the audio to pass through the screen material.
Draper manufactures screens with several types of acoustically transparent viewing surfaces. A lot of people don’t realize that we were the very first manufacturer to offer woven AT screen materials, although we also provide perforated and nanoperforated solutions.
We have prepared a white paper on our various acoustically transparent solutions, to discuss when they should or should not be used, and how much sound gets through them. You will find the beginning of that white paper below.
Whether you’re installing a home theater system, or AV in a corporate or commercial environment, the proper setup for the sound system ensures the highest quality results. The ideal position for the main speaker is behind the screen on the same level as the right and left speakers. This maintains:
- Quality sound localization for the dialogue and overall sound effects;
- movie theatre quality that is true to the original sound mixing engineering; and
- the ability to use identical speakers due to space restrictions and avoid interference with other objects on the floor or ceiling.
Draper was the first manufacturer to offer woven AT screens.
However, placing the center speaker directly behind a standard projection screen means there will be some sound loss. The solution is an acoustically transparent screen; that is, a projection screen with a weave or with tiny holes to allow the sound to pass through … much like the cloth over a speaker. These acoustically transparent screen surfaces allow audio and video to interact seamlessly, creating the ultimate experience.
Acoustically Transparent Options
Draper provides a range of acoustically transparent solutions in our ClearSound viewing surface family. Below are descriptions of each; on a later page you will find charts outlining the acoustic performance of each surface.
To finish reading this white paper, or to download a free PDF copy, please click here!
