Tonight ghouls, goblins, and other scary but cute creatures will take to the sidewalks of America, howling “trick or treat” and hoping for some goodies.
Dressing up and going trick-or-treating aren’t the only Halloween customs. People also gather around campfires, fireplaces, or even flashlights and exchange scary stories. It’s in the “spirit” of Halloween that we offer four of our own stories: tales of four frightening installation challenges and how we took the scare out of them.
A Scary Small Space
There’s nothing scarier for some of us than being stuck in too confined a space. At Indiana’s Earlham College, as the time grew near to deliver and install projection screens, someone noticed that the Access V screens meant to be recessed above the ceiling in several rooms were too big. There wasn’t enough space above the ceiling to accommodate the height of the screen cases. Draper came to the rescue to avoid the scary situation of specifying totally different solutions or finding a way to create more space. We had just finished development of a smaller version of the Access, designed for just the type of problem Earlham was having with their screens! To read the full story, click here.
Hair-Raisingly Heavy
Installing large motorized projection screens can be daunting. Not only are they very heavy, but, since they are so large, they are usually being installed fairly high up. The longer installers are off the ground struggling with a heavy screen, the scarier it gets.
For Springtree Media Group LLC, of Franklin, Tennessee, the fright was gone thanks to Draper’s big screen products. Competitors’ screens were heavier and required four flypoints for a particular job. There were limited hang points at the structure so the Draper Paragon and Premier designs were perfect. The Premier screen case comes with mounting points for wall or ceiling-suspended mounting built into each endcap. The Paragon case also features mounting holes for ceiling suspension in each endcap, and also ships with heavy-duty eyebolts on each end for use in hoisting the large screens up into position. As Peter Vaque of Springtree said, “I’m so glad we went with these … The Draper design saved our butts.” Click here to read the full story.
Spookily Serious Specifications
Matthew Irvin knew he had his work cut out for him when he was approached by a very particular client for a special home cinema job in Park City, Utah. Irvin is the president of Audioworks in Salt Lake City, Utah. As Irvin explained, “The screen before was 163” diagonal, but didn’t fill the space. He wanted every inch of the opening filled, while still having a nice background for stage performances.” In addition, the solution needed to be acoustically transparent, and had to meet the highest image quality expectations. But tight specifications don’t frighten us. We’re used to it! We recommended an ISF-certified, 4K NanoPerf TecVision XT1300X, a white surface with an extra wide viewing cone.
Thanks to Draper, there was no scary ending here. To quote the homeowner, “The theatre is amazing!!! A very big hit. Well worth the upgrade!!” Click here to read more about this project.
An Eerily Aerial Answer
An amazing 4D projection mapping project in Hawaii was a frightening prospect for anyone with a fear of heights. In order to make the outdoor project work, the projectors had to be pointed down the side of a 300-foot tall hotel tower. Draper banished any ghosts of project failure with a custom design based on our RPX rear projection stands. We designed a structure with long steel support arms holding a small glass mirror, and with adjustment platforms that allowed the projectors to be tilted to 22 degrees. The custom structures were shipped in pieces to be assembled on the roof. To address windy conditions on the roof, Draper reinforced the mirror support arms with 14 gauge steel. To read even more about this interesting project, click here.
