Barco Enters Projection Screen Market with RigiFlex Line

Barco has entered the projection screen market — targeting Stewart, Da-Lite and Draper, with its new RigiFlex line. Branding it as a “powerwall” screen, it’s billed to be both rigid and rollable. As it’s designed to be a rear-screen screen surface, they’ve categorized it as a virtual reality-application screen. Rear-projection is the mainstream projection mode in the analog virtual reality market; however, rigid screens are often smaller than the total required surface for this application and need to be spliced. That means the welding lines would impede the visual sense of immersion.

The Barco RigiFlex is a new screen material that features a flexible surface which can be completely rolled up (so it can be easily brought inside any building) and is available in any size up to 10×4 meters (33×13 feet).

Barco RigiFlex uses innovative woven high polymer fabric and is less than 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) thick. This makes the product light, as the weight per square meter is only about 0.5 kilogram. Equipped with an aluminum frame, Barco RigiFlex issues extremely high tension on the surface, ensuring toughness and stability. The screen will not vibrate, even when doors are opened or closed or when there is strong indoor ventilation. Barco claims it does not sag after long-term use.

The flexible nature of Barco RigiFlex facilitates transportation, storage and installation. And, Barco’s marketing materials say it can be installed in half the time and with less staff. In addition, the projection screen on the frame can be replaced or upgraded to meet new operation requirements.

It’s not on their website yet, but Barco is here.

Here’s a video on it: