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Introduction Angles Of Reflection As we look forward to higher and higher resolution capacities from the latest and greatest projectors on the market, is there anything that needs to be considered when choosing a screen? Reflecting Brilliance Then in the early 90's came the first LCD and DLP projectors. These were different in not only the brightness output and uniformity; they were a great deal brighter and much more uniform, but also in the way in which their image was presented. Before that time, nearly every projector on the market created its image by either an analog scan line or through changing the film piece in the projector's gate. When these new "digital" projectors came along, we in the screen business were challenged to make a few changes to our products. What had occurred was that we were now faced with images that were made up of thousands of tiny little pixels with small gaps between them. In addition, due to the brightness of these projectors came the desire of many technology users to place them in applications where the room was not completely dark. So as this occurred the demand on fabrics that had a moderate amount of gain to them and at the same time did not create resolution issues with this new pixel structure became greater. Where we were once only concerned about creating really bright images, we were now faced with making sure that the screen did not create resolution problems. That is why our optical engineering group at Da-Lite made changes to many of our fabrics and introduced surfaces such as our High Power™ material. Okay, so fast forward to the present and the ever increasing resolutions of today's high output projectors. Are we facing a similar situation that we did when the LCD and DLP projectors were first introduced? For some, the answer is yes, while for others it is no. In order to determine if there is a potential problem with a given front projection screen material, let us look at the size of the particles used to create gains higher than 1.0. However, before we look at particle sizes we need to have an understanding of how these particle sizes are measured. In this case, they are measured in what is called microns. A micron is the abbreviation for micrometer and is a unit of measure that is equal to 1 millionth of a meter, or 1 thousandth of a millimeter. It can also be expressed as 0.001mm, 1µ or sometimes 1 µm. For reference purposes, a human hair is 100 microns in diameter, a human cell is typically several microns across and on a DVD, the track pitch is 0.74 microns and the pits are 0.4 microns wide. So, as you can see, these are very tiny measurements. Regardless, they are very important to the overall performance of a projection screen. Now that we have an understanding of the measurements, let us begin to look at different screen materials. Traditional glass beaded materials, like the one your father used, has a typical particle size measuring 65µ. Da-Lite's High Power™ material has a typical particle size of 9µ. The pearlescent materials used to create Da-Lite's Cinema Vision, High Contrast Cinema Vision, Pearlescent and High Contrast Matte White screens have an average particle size of 15µ. In addition, the average particle size used to create Video Spectra 1.5 is 35µ. Once again, these are very small measurements. So what do all of these numbers mean? To answer that question, let us go back to the issue of pixel size for a given screen size and determine how many particles will be in each pixel. We would naturally assume that the smaller the particles, the higher the concentration per pixel, hence the better the image will appear. Let us use our 45" x 80" screen size again with a 1080p projector from our favorite manufacturer. Given our pixel structure is 1080h x 1920w; we can determine that each pixel will be 0.0417" in height by 0.0417" in width (only slightly larger than 1/32" x 1/32"). Therefore, each pixel has a surface area of 0.0017 in². Since our measurements for screen size are represented here in inches, let us convert our particle size from microns to inches as well. From the conversion we find that 1 micron = 0.0000394 inches (a very smallish number). After determining that, we can say that if a particle is 15µ that it will consume 0.000591 inches of space. In this case, if we were to place these particles side by side in an orderly fashion, we can fit more than 4900 of them in one single pixel. Doing the same math for a screen surface such as the traditional glass beaded material reveals the disparity between the two types of surfaces and yields only 264 optical particles per pixel. The improvement, therefore, is increased by a factor of more than 18. That is one of the reasons why traditional glass beaded surfaces are not a good choice for today's high resolution projectors. So, what does all of this tell us? Plain and simple, the particle size of the materials used to make the screen's reflective surface can cause problems with resolution if those materials are not small enough. However, even more important to us in today's applications is the issue of scintillation. Have you ever looked at a screen with either a moderate or high gain and thought you saw a bad pixel or a tiny bright spot on the screen? There can be a couple of different types of phenomena causing this. In order to better explain why that occurs, let us examine more closely how these screens work. In order to increase the gain of a screen, we must introduce some type of material that either refracts or reflects the light that is incident to the front surface. Refraction is what a glass beaded screen does and the issues associated with it are addressed in Volume 1 of Angles of View. The materials that reflect the light are the ones we are most concerned about for this particular discussion. If we again go back to Volume 1 in Angles of View, we learn that these types of screens have a diffusive base with platelets of mica strewn across its surface in a regular fashion. These crystals are also coated with Titanium Dioxide (Ti02), which then makes them highly reflective and behave like thousands of tiny little mirrors. We also learned through this article that these materials reflect light incident to their screen surface in a fashion that is equal but opposite the angle of incidence. Keeping that in mind, if one of those particles land on the screen surface at a very severe angle, this is one potential cause of a bright spot or sparkle, depending on your viewing position. The second potential issue is if the particles are too large and do not allow at least a portion of the light to strike the diffusive surface behind the reflective particles. This too can be a source of a bright spot or scintillation. A number of years ago, this particular issue was presented to the Chemical Engineers at Da-Lite. They conducted a number of tests to replicate the issue of the fabric sparkling. As a result, they made changes in the way the fabric was made to ensure that the particles were placed on the screen in a much more even pattern. In addition, they began using much smaller particles to ensure the fabric would work with future generations of high resolution video projectors. This is what has brought us to where we are today. As you can see from the numbers on the previous page, the size of the materials used to create a good number of Da-Lite's fabrics are extremely small and even the highest resolution projectors available today will not cause a resolution or scintillation problem. So, even as projectors continue to become more powerful and have higher resolutions, choosing a screen surface continues to be an important factor in the overall success of the installation. With that in mind, let us keep the sparkle in the eye of the technology user and off the screen. — Blake Brubaker
Thanks to our sponsor D-Tools, worldwide leader in easy-to-use, highly accurate system design software. System Integration just got easier! Attend CEDIA EXPO 2007 In order for you to experience everything that CEDIA EXPO has to offer, you'd have to read dozens of magazines, visits hundreds of manufacturers, and spend several weeks away from your business to gain what you get in just ONE intense week. EXPO has something for every individual including: NEW CEDIA EXPO exhibitors: Click here to view a list of the current 2007 exhibitors NEW product introductions: EXPO provides you access to the best industry network, by offering hundreds of manufactures and their latest & greatest products FREE Manufacturer Product Training: MPT is a great way to learn about these new products first hand, at no cost, while gaining CEUs Industry education & certification: Gain comprehensive, unbiased education and certification … download the registration brochure for a complete list of courses being offered at EXPO GREAT special events & exciting giveaways: Click here to view detailed information, dates, and times for these special events & giveaways You have just a little over a month left to register. Click here to download the registration brochure! Or log onto www.cedia.org/expo to register NOW! rAVe Founder, Gary Kayye, Named NSCA Instructor of the Year "NSCA is honored to present this award to Gary," said NSCA Executive Director Chuck Wilson. "I can think of no one else who has as much energy, enthusiasm and passion for leading-edge technology as he does. These characteristics are represented in his teaching methods — he consistently receives high marks from course attendees." Kayye is the chief visionary at Kayye Consulting, a Chapel Hill, NC-based firm specializing in marketing consulting and training development services for the professional and home A/V markets. Kayye is also a columnist for Sound and Communications magazine; founder and editor of the professional A/V newsletter, rAVe; and an active educational leader in the A/V market. Prior to forming Kayye Consulting, he spent 11 years at Extron and AMX as vice president of sales and marketing. Among this year's recipients are: Randy Vaughan, named as NSCA's Educator of the Year; Marc Forman (Alarm, Electronics and Communications) from the College of Systems Sales; Blair McNair (JBL Professional) from the College of System Design; John Murray (ProSonic Solutions) from the College of Technical Knowledge; Brad Nelson (Sound Solutions Northwest Inc.) from the College of Project Management; and Ernest Schirmer (Acentech, Inc.) from the College of Allied Professionals. For more information, go to http://www.nsca.org/
CEA Mid-Year Consumer Electronics Industry Forecast Shows HDTV Driving Growth The mid-year edition of the report contains two notable features. The first is a record participation rate by companies that supply CEA with their industry sales projections. Over 60 companies contributed to this latest report, enhancing the accuracy of the forecast and making this the greatest pool of participants in over two decades. The second feature is expanded coverage of existing product categories such as high-definition televisions, personal computers and cellular phones as well as the addition of new categories. Among the new product categories are set-top boxes, next generation DVD players, VoIP adapters, digital photo frames, smartphones and MP3 player speaker docks. Detailed information regarding these new and expanded product categories is available in the full report. Accessories have emerged as a powerful booster to overall CE sales as consumers seek to enhance their CE experience. CEA predicts accessories sales will reach almost nine billion dollars with over 317 million accessories units shipped in 2007. The full report features a break down of accessories shipments in specific product categories, including audio/video, digital imaging, wireless, video games and personal computer products. The single largest contributor in terms of dollar sales continues to be display technologies. Forecasted to reach shipment totals of $26 billion for 2007, the display category – including the category's anchor, flat screen digital televisions – continues to grow as consumers embrace digital technologies with over 30 million digital televisions projected to ship by year's end. The portable communications market will also grow substantially in 2007. CEA is projecting that over $20 billion will be spent on portable devices, an increase of 12 percent over 2006. This is in part due to consumer demand for anytime, anywhere devices that enable entertainment content and business applications on the go. Smartphones, including the Apple iPhone, typify consumer demand for converged wireless capabilities including e-mail, internet browsing, instant messaging as well as audio and video entertainment. U.S Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecasts 2003-2008 (July 2007) is published twice per year, in January and July. The complete report is available free to CEA member companies. Non-members may purchase the study for $999 at http://www.ebrain.org For more information, go to http://www.ce.org/Press/CurrentNews/press_release_detail.asp?id=11316 XM and SIRIUS to Offer A La Carte Programming A la carte programming will be available beginning within one year following the merger, and the other programming options will be available beginning within six months following the merger. In total, the companies announced a suite of eight post-merger programming options. For more information, go to http://xmradio.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1472
InFocus Launches Its First 1080p DLP Home Theater Projector The projector uses Pixelworks DNX 10-bit video processing and is HDMI 1.3 certified. The InFocus Play Big IN82 1080p projector will be available in September for $5,499 MAP. For more information, go to http://www.infocus.com/Company/PressReleases/2007/071007_IN82.aspx
Mitsubishi Introduces Sub-$3,000 1080p HomeAV Projector The HC4900 is designed with three C2Fine inorganic LCD panels which the company says are more durable and provide a more color-consistent, even-toned image than previous generation LCD panels. A protective filter is added to the LCD block housing to help reduce dust and particles landing on the LCD panels, producing cleaner images. This is specified at 1000 lumens and a 7500:1 contrast ratio. It has both HDMI and DVI, and power zoom, focus and lens shift. It is available now. For ore information, go to http://www.mitsubishi-presentations.com/aboutus/pr_2007_0619_hc4900.html
Samsung Electronics Creates LCD with DisplayPort Video Interface For Samsung's new 30-inch LCD, the DisplayPort interface transmits graphics data at a total data rate of 10.8Gbps. This speed enables 2560×1600 resolution without any color smear, says Samsung. By using a transmission speed more than double that of today's interfaces, Samsung's new LCD only requires a single DisplayPort interface, instead of the two DVI (Digital Visual Interface) ports now used. In a joint undertaking with Genesis Microchip Inc. (Santa Clara, California), Samsung developed its 30" panel using a new four-lane, 2.7Gbps/lane interface chip. The interface technology processes 2560×1600 pixels of graphics data at up to 10 bits of color depth or 1.07 billion colors, a feat that would normally require at least three DVI or four LVDS interface chips. Mass production of the 30-inch panel is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2008. For more information, go to http://www.samsung.com New Company Formed to Target Whole-Home Media Distribution The routers include a speaker-level RF/IR controlled router, a digital music over Cat5 router, and a high-definition TV audio/video router. The company also disclosed its full line of architectural speakers and infrared products, totaling more than 45 new models. The first introduction is ATON's two-, four-, and six-room speaker selectors with speaker-level switching technology with an RF remote control. The company's second routing product is an alternative to analog amplified keypads. ATON's line includes a digital amplified keypad system, which features 30-watt power amplifiers and a touchpad-style user interface with in-room local source input ability and IR pass-thru. ATON's third product is a full Cat5 solution for HD video routing at an affordable cost. For more information, go to http://www.atonhome.com/ Optional Audio Interface Added to AVAtrix for Whole-Home Audio There are six audio inputs from an internal AVAtrix bus cable, infrared output jack for IR pathway from remote wallplates, and it is rack mountable. For more information, go to https://www.audioauthority.com/indexh.php
TiVo Shaves $500 off HD Model The new TiVo HD is also a Digital Cable Ready set-top-box that works seamlessly with any cable provider in the U.S. Moreover, the new product also enables the latest exclusive TiVo service features such as Movie & TV Downloads from Amazon.com, Home Movie Sharing and universal Swivel search, delivering the best of broadband video directly to the television set. The TiVo HD is designed to fit seamlessly with home entertainment centers, even replacing cable boxes. It is compatible with digital cable, analog cable and digital antenna (ATSC). TiVo HD offers 20 hours of HD or up to 180 hours of standard definition content. The new TiVo HD DVR allows users to record two HD channels at the same time, while watching a third previously recorded show. With a built-in Ethernet jack, two CableCARD slots and USB ports, TiVo HD also provides advanced connectivity and easy networking, says the company. For more information, go to http://www.tivo.com/whatistivo/tivohd/index.html?WT.ac=HPTkovr_PhotoToWhat CE Gets a Charge at LAX For more information, go to http://www.lawa.org/news/newsDisplay.cfm?newsID=945 Sony Introduces Multi-Format, iPod-Integrated ES Receivers The STR-DA5300ES, STR-DA4300ES and STR-DA3300ES 7.1 channel models offer iPod integration through the receiver's Digital Media Port feature and optional iPod audio dock (TDM-iP1), sold separately. Users can then access digital music from most iPod players as well as the device's playlists, artist, album and track information through the receiver's Xross Media Bar (XMB) inspired icon-based, on-screen menu system. And, the Digital Media Port feature allows users to add other optional accessories such as a PC WiFi client for streaming digital music (TDM-NC1), a Bluetooth receiver that allows users to connect to various compatible Bluetooth-enabled devices to the receivers (TDM-BT1), as well an additional audio docking station (TDM-NW1) that is compatible with select Network Walkman products. The Digital Media Port accessories are sold separately. All three new receivers offer the Cortez Advanced controller featuring Faroudja DCDi Cinema technology that upscales all video sources to 1080p via HDMI. For more details, go to http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665186458
CEDIA Offers Web-based Education The courses are derived from the instructor-led CEDIA University courses with additional materials to optimize online learning. At the end of each course, an online assessment test is given to measure the course benefits. Introductory prices are discounted. For more information, go to http://www.cedia.org/education/elearning.com Well, that's it for this edition of rAVe! Thank you for spending time with me as we muse the industry's happenings. To continue getting my newsletter, or to sign up a friend, click the link below. To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter – instead, write to me at gkayye@kayye.com or for editorial: Denise Harrison at dharrison@kayye.com A little about me: Gary Kayye, CTS, founder of Kayye Consulting. Gary Kayye, an audiovisual veteran and columnist, began the widely-read KNews, a premier industry newsletter, in the late 1990s, and created the model for and was co-founder of AV Avenue – which later became InfoComm IQ. Kayye Consulting is a company that is committed to furthering the interests and success of dealers, manufacturers, and other companies within the professional audiovisual industry. Gary Kayye's rAVe was launched in February 2003. The rAVe Home Edition co-sponsored by CEDIA launched in February, 2004. To read more about my background, our staff, and what we do, go to http://www.kayye.com Copyright 2007 – Kayye Consulting – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact Kayye Consulting, 400 Meadowmont Village Circle, Suite 425 – Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – 919/969-7501. Email: dharrison@kayye.com Gary Kayye's rAVe contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors.
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