Projection Screen Reviews

Measurements were made in a totally dark room. All measurements were taken at a distance of 10 feet from the 90-inch-wide screen surface. Instrumentation included a Minolta CS-200 color meter (NIST certified 12/2014) with a Quantum Data 780 generator and SpectraCal CalMAN 4 software.

The projector used was Epson’s PowerLite Home Cinema 3500, with 383 lamp-operating hours registered prior to the measurement session.

Screen luminance and color temperature were measured at the screen center and several target points across the screen, as shown in the chart. For each screen target, the meter was a linear distance of 10 feet away, directly head-on and perpendicular to the target point and then moved off axis in the direction indicated, first at 15° and then 30° using a Bosch electronic angle finder.

Luminance with a 100-IRE Full Raster pattern was measured at screen center from a 2° angle distended left and distended right to avoid the meter shadow from being in the light path. Those two angle measurements were averaged to be 18.7376 foot-lamberts at 6,484.4-K color temperature.

While the Minolta CS-200 is a capable field instrument for the purposes of video calibration, the chart readings are strictly for comparison purposes and indicate exceptional uniformity for the Ambient-Visionaire Black 1.2, with virtually no falloff in luminance across the midsection of the screen and only modest light falloff in the corners. Discrepancies with corner measurements may be related to the lens capability of the projector and not necessarily to screen performance. Color temperature remained essentially stable at any point across the screen.

The readings from Center position suggest that viewers sitting up to 30° off axis from the sweet spot should see no drop in brightness or shift in color. The Center Bottom reading could only be taken from head on and from a 15° downward angle. A 30° angle is not possible with that target point, nor is it representative of a practical viewing angle.—MPH