1) All commercial theatres use an Acoustically Transparent screen with three front loudspeakers placed behind it. All cinematic studios monitor loudspeakers are installed the same way. The sound is recorded as it is intended to be played back.

2) When you see the image of an actor speaking on the screen, you expect the sound to come from the actors’ mouth, not from somewhere below or above the screen.

The whole theatrical experience relies on the “suspension of disbelief”. Sight and hearing are, for most of us, reliable perceptions. Displaying a visual image coincident with the corresponding sound has a tremendous power to create the illusion of reality.

If the sound and the image are not merged together both in time (lip-sync) and in space (speaker location) this illusion is broken.

Since the early days of talking movies the cinema industry has used Acoustically Transparent screens to give the best illusion and involvement.

3) When the image of a sounding object is travelling from, say, left to right of the screen, the sound is supposed to follow the same path.

Here is what is supposed to happen, and how the sound engineer designed it.

And there is what actually happens with a solid screen:When the sound source crosses the screen, it dips as it nears the centre instead of faithfully following the path of the source.

This effect is quite funny (even ludicrous !), but it inevitably makes you lose the illusion of reality:

You immediately realize that you are not in the action, but watching a movie played back by a system that has its (serious) inherent flaws.

4) Acoustically transparent screens allow you to place the centre channel at ear level and to get the best fidelity avoiding nasty short path-length reflections.

5) Just think it’s one or three less loudspeaker(s) for your wife/girlfriend/interior designer to ’admire’ ! 

Don’t just take our word for it ! Try the comparison yourself.

·Select good quality program with a singer or a close speech. Avoid dubbed soundtracks.

·Ensure delays are correctly set to give proper lip-sync and get the best result.

·Use a system with an Acoustically Transparent screen and two centre speakers, one below the screen and the other centrally positioned behind the screen.

·Then playback dialogue scenes and switch from one centre speaker to the other.

Our dealers and installers should be able to organize this test for comparison, and if not then you're more than welcome to run the tests here with us in our showrooms and make a decision on which system gives the most involvement and dramatic impact!

Seeing is believing.