Audio Video News

One of the home theater industry's premier makers of projection screens is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Spiceland, IN–based Draper, Inc. is celebrating its centennial with the theme "Build on our Experience." The family-owned business has a long history in the projection screen industry. In 1902, founder Luther O. Draper began to manufacture window shades for schools, and 55 years later, his grandson Luther Pidgeon secured a patent on an inexpensive classroom projection screen.

That invention marked Draper's entry into the screen business—a business that has flourished with the ongoing home theater boom. Leveraging its expertise in building heavy duty A/V hardware for the education market, Draper now makes a wide variety of home theater products, including projection screens, rear projection display systems, video projector mounts and lifts, and plasma display mounts.

Home theater is only part of the picture for Draper. The company also makes FlexShade Systems, a line of window shades for use in commercial buildings, and is a major supplier of gymnasium equipment for the education market. The company's products include basketball backstops, gym dividers, wall pads, volleyball equipment, batting cages, and wrestling mat hoists. In addition to its Spiceland headquarters, Draper Inc. has manufacturing operations in Beverly, OH, and sales offices in Fullerton, CA, the UK, Sweden, and Hong Kong. Draper products are available through dealers in the US and in more than 75 foreign countries.