Welcome to Screen Research™ Australia & New Zealand

• Better picture thanks to Screen Research' unique ClearPix2™ woven cloth screen material with ideal, neutral gain and no Hot Spotting

• Better picture with all fixed pixel projectors (DLP, LCD, DILA) as ClearPix2 has been optimized for high picture fidelity, almost completely avoiding the dreaded moiré effect

• Better audio as ClearPix2™ is completely acoustically transparent, allowing the loudspeakers to be positioned in the ideal location: behind the screen, for perfect fusion of image and sound

• Certified by both THX and ISF, the industry's standards for top quality audio and video

• Screen Research screens come complete with several luxury options, such as the X-Mask™ masking system and TheaterCurve™, our famous curved screens - Just like in the Cinema!

• Better looking, as they are beautifully finished with luscious, French velvet velour and now even in leather! And with most of the speakers behind the screen, a Screen Research installation also removes the clutter of loudspeakers from your interior design

Visit to Screen Research and a meeting with an image visionary

Mondial Son et Image, Canada, September/October 2008. By Reinhard Goerner

Mr. Yves Trélohan, founder and president of Screen Research, warmly welcomed me and served as my guide for a visit of his company, located in an industrial park just north of Nantes, in a rustic area bordered by the principal roads of this European region. Arriving at this location, you see only the administrative building. It’s only when you arrive on the parking lot that you realize the extent of the enterprise.

Our host showed us how the Screen Research products are designed on PC using proprietary software which calculates all development aspects, the parts, the materials and their respective qualities necessary for correct construction. “We can visualize the finished product in three dimensions with a complete list of all the components. While we adapt a product to the client’s needs, the software recalculates all the elements, the material and the parts necessary for the production of the screen. Most of the screens are made to order to precise specifications; the majority of the products we make could be called ‘custom’ or to put it another way ‘made to measure’.”

On leaving the administrative building we arrived in the production building, a vast, well-lit room with a high ceiling where all the screens are assembled according to the technical documents and their respective purchase orders.

We start with the aluminium extrusions that form the structure and the bodywork of the different types of screen. These are cut by a precision, computer-controlled two-head cutter. The frames of the fixed screens are then covered with high-quality velour, cut by hand by the couturiers after glue is applied to the aluminum frame extrusions. According to Mr. Trélohan, this results in a superior level of finish as the fabrics used are of higher quality than the self-adhesive fabrics used by other manufacturers, visually as well as to the touch.

This technique also allows the use of other materials and, as if to confirm this, we saw a superb screen in the course of assembly. Its frame covered in a fine red leather, trimmed perfectly on all angles and fitted with a decorative screen with an image that masks the viewing surface while the screen is not in use. One could see it destined for a client in Italy, a lover of cars…

At the end of a very instructive and interesting visit that stimulating our thirst to know more about his company, and above all to understand his vision, our host graciously agreed to answer our questions.

MSI: Mr. Trélohan, tell us about Screen Research and your motivation to start a company specialized in video, more specifically projections screens, for which, it appears the market sector is restricted.

YT: My background is in IT, I trained in electronics and started in IT hardware. I worked for 25 years in this area, first of all as a technician and then as a manager after having undertaken an MBA. I have always been a fan of hi-fidelity but I would never have imagined a career or to start a company in this are because I assumed that it was a very particular market and saturated. To start my own company I took many different criteria into account. I was a Home Cinema user and looking closer, I said to myself that there were possibilities in the projection screen market since no product that corresponded to my ideas existed. There were no acoustic fabrics, only modified standard fabrics. None that had been conceived from an acoustic point of view. It was also necessary from the start to be able to have a product offering for the American and Asian markets that were more open to new product concepts than Europe which tends to be more conservative in its buying habits. Finally I started Screen Research in 2001 with two engineers and we spent the first two years developing the product. We commercialized it in 2003.

MSI: What is your target market?

YT: Screen Research specializes in a high quality product niche destined for professional integrators. We make exclusively to order and have by consequence a sufficient catalogue.

MSI: Therefore you can make a 103.5” screen if that corresponds to the requirement of the installation…

YT: We can go much further than intermediate sizes which are, for us, standard products. In fact we can offer a truly custom service. That is the modification of products to adapt a screen to a specific environment as well as complementary mechanical designs to accommodate particular installations. For example, the client may have an application with a six meter high ceiling or with an image size outside the norm, with masking to allow the use of different projectors on the same screen or in addition specific frame requirements such as a frame with a specific motif or a particular logo; there are almost no limits.

MSI: Screen Research has established itself in the home cinema market; are you targeting other related markets in the future?

YT: Home cinema is our traditional market and represents around 90% of our production, but we are receiving more and more orders from the professional and institutional markets thanks to our capacity to product screens with specific features.

MSI: You have a screen fabric that is revolutionary due to the fact that it is acoustically transparent to the point of not affecting the sound of a loudspeaker installed behind the screen. What can you tell us about this subject?

YT: You are referring to the ClearPix2 fabric which is a fabric woven in glass-fiber and PVC and on which we hold a worldwide patent. It is made under license by a sub-contractor in order to obtain a manufacturing volume large enough to justify the cost of the specialized machinery necessary to weave with the great precision required. The fibers are then attached thermally at the contact points to guarantee the absolute stability of the fabric. Furthermore, the fiber must have a constant white balance equally across the surface.

We worked very hard on the materials as well as the production process so that the fabric is, to all intents and purposes, invisible to the loudspeakers having no deleterious effect on their sound. As it features many layers, it also offers excellent visual opacity even while being acoustically transparent.

MSI: Thank you M. Trélohan for your welcome and the time spent with us during our visit. We hope to see you again soon, maybe at the Festival Son et Image next Spring in Montreal.

Originally published in the September/October 2008 issue of Mondial Son et Image Magazine. www.son-et-image.com © Mondial Son et Image. Reproduced by permission