Sonic AT8 ISF Efinity Acoustically Transparent Projection Screen Owner’s Manual
- June 11, 2024
- Sonic
Table of Contents
EQUIPMENT REVIEW
EPV Screens
Sonic AT8 isf eFinity Acoustically Transparent Projection Screen Doug
Blackburn
AT8 ISF Efinity Acoustically Transparent Projection Screen
EPV Screens is the custom installation division of Elite Screens.
Headquartered in Southern California, they provide a wide range of screen
materials and finished screens to the custom install market.
Electric/motorized screens, edge-less screens, and fixedframe screens are
included in their product portfolio. The screen materials offered include
punched acoustically transparent, polarized, high-gain, ambient light
rejecting, ultra-short-throw, solid materials with a range of gain, and the
subject of this review, a multi-layer woven acoustically transparent material.
To stop light that gets through the acoustically transparent screen, EPV
Screens has made the traditionally-separate light absorbing black layer
integral with the white image-side of the screen. That makes assembly of the
screen easier than other AT screens that still have the black layer mounted
separately from the screen layer. This black material prevents light that
passes through the white projection layer from reflecting from behind the AT
screen bouncing off of the wall or other objects behind the projection screens
and contaminating images with excess light that shouldn’t be there. The frame
for this review is EPV Screens’ EDGE FREE ® frame supplied with all the Sonic
AT8 isf eFinity screens. EPV Screens says the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screens
are compatible with ultra-short-throw projectors, short-throw, and standard
throw projectors. Sonic AT8 ISF eFinity screens are available in the following
sizes: diagonal sizes in 16:9 format are 110-, 120-, 135-, and 150inches. The
120-inch size was used for this review.
For 2.35:1 format, the diagonal sizes available are: 138 and 158 inches. The
frame included with these Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screens can be used as either
an edgeless screen with no bezel, or a thin 9mm wide black bezel trim can be
installed around the edges giving a sharp-edged cutoff of the image rather
than using the screen bor- derless. Customers can be easily shown the
difference and decide which way to go. The wall mounting brackets included
with these screens allow sliding the screen left or right to get perfect
centering with the projector. This next feature is something I wouldn’t have
expected, but this line of screens comes with an integral LED backlighting
kit. This is a home theater décor touch, so people entering the prepared
theater room will be greeted by a soft color wash around the perimeter of the
frame if it is close to a wall. The color can change or be turned off when
movies start, or it can be left on during movies. The LED light will degrade
images a bit if left on during movies. But sometimes the effect in the room is
more important to the owner than the ultimate in image quality with the LED
lighting turned-off. If the screen is used as freestanding, the LED lighting
can still be used, though the effect will be unpredictable due to different
surroundings in each theater room.
The isf in the product name refers to Imaging Science Foundation. This
organization is one of a couple of ways to get video calibration training, but
they also evaluate products for a fee to provide an extra level of customer
confidence that the product in question will provide consistent and
predictable technical-optical performance following calibration of the
theater. I attended isf calibration training perhaps 15 years ago, a time when
calibration wasn’t easy and inexpensive colorimeters were unreliable.
UHD/HDR did not exist then, so calibration was sharply focused on HD content.
With a projection screen, isf certification means that people other than the
screen manufacturer have confirmed the projection screen doesn’t do unexpected
or strange things to color or luminance at different light levels and that
color reproduction over the entire gamut of the source material is presented
accurately by the screen material. The eFinity part of the product name refers
to the edgeless frame supplied with these projection screens. There are two
ways to use an acoustically transparent projection screen.
The first is the previously mentioned wall-mount. Wallmounting will, of
course, mean that the L-C-R loudspeakers at a minimum will have to be “in-
wall” models with the screen hung in front of them. You can leave those
speakers’ grills off since the projection screen will hide them from view. The
other way to use an AT screen is to place it free-standing (or inside a faux
wall with a hole the size of the screen) with space behind the screen to place
conventional speakers on stands. I used the second method, putting “standard”
box-type loudspeakers behind the free-standing AT projection screen.
EPV Screens says that the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity projection screen reduces high
frequencies by 3 dB from 8,000 Hz to 20,000 Hz. You may be thinking “But every
note acoustic instruments pro- duce is below 6,000 Hz.” And that is correct,
mostly. There are sounds in high quality recordings that are higher than 6,000
Hz. But they are primarily harmonics, overtones, and ambient sounds. Things
like the extremely high-pitched sounds some humming birds make might be
noticeably affected by the high-frequency attenuation the screen causes. This
small amount of high-frequency attenuation is a fact of life for every
acoustically transparent projection screen. I do find that solid screens with
punched holes that allow sound through have a bit more of a sonic signature
than woven AT projection screens. Good woven AT screens will sound a bit
better in general since the entire screen surface lets sound pass through, not
just the tiny holes in solid screen material.
This hopefully, puts the range of sounds above 8,000 Hz in proper perspective.
For the pickiest listeners, all that is needed in terms of correction is for
an audio processor to boost frequencies 8,000 Hz and higher by about 3 dB to
equalize their sound after it is affected by the acoustically transparent
projection screen.
This is typical for all types of acoustically transparent projection screens.
They can’t ever be 100 percent acoustically transparent.
But the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screen was sonically “colorless” with
loudspeakers placed behind the screen.
You can’t put any kind of screen in front of a loudspeaker without some effect
on sound. What acoustically transparent projection screens try to do is to
make the attenuated frequency region as small as possible and to make the
change as uniform and predictable at all frequencies as possible.
If the screen manufacturer can do that, “fixing” the sound with a simple
adjustment like +3 dB from 8,000 to 20,000 Hz in an equalizer is simple and
effective in making the projection screen even closer to being completely
acoustically transparent. You can even preview what an acoustically
transparent projection screen will sound like without EQ just by reducing the
treble control in your existing system to reduce high frequencies by 3 dB. I
think you will find the difference is pretty subtle, and not even audible in a
lot of content because there’s just not a lot of sound in the 8,000 to 20,000
Hz range.
Perforated acoustically transparent screens can use the same sort of “known”
coatings used on solid screens.
The amount of light lost with perforated screens can be easily demonstrated by
putting a second solid projection screen behind a perforated screen. Enough
light comes through to the second screen that you can tell what is happening
in the images. With woven fabric screens made for 4K and 8K video images like
the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity, the method of “weaving” the fibers is critical to
the perceived image quality. Acoustically transparent screens always leak
EPV Screens Sonic AT8 isf eFinity Acoustically Transparent Projection
Screen
MSRP of size reviewed – $3.585 Warranty – 5 years parts and labor (US &
Canada) Made in: USA
Manufactured By:
EPV Screens 12282 Knott St.
Garden Grove, California 92841 310 873 8286
Sales@epvscreens.com
Web site: epvscreens.co
some light, whether perforated or woven. If that light was allowed to reach
a reflective surface, it would bounce off and hit the back of the screen
becoming visible and not coordinated with the frame being displayed. Any light
passing through that black backing that AT screens have, bounces off of a wall
or other objects behind the projection screen. That reflected light has to
pass through that black layer a second time before it reaches the back of the
projection screen. That means the black material behind the screen material
can be “open” enough for sound to pass-through with little effect, while light
is very significantly eliminated.
Assembly is straight forward with sections of frame joined with strong
brackets holding setscrews that are tightened to hold the frame pieces
together. I found it easy to assemble the screen with all four corners being
exactly 90 degrees. Measuring both diagonals tells you quickly if the screen
is “square” or slipped a little towards a parallelogram. If both diagonal
measurements are the same, the frame is “square” and all the brackets can be
tightened to lock the frame into that perfect shape. After assembly, I began
viewing a wide range of content, much of it in UHD/HDR from discs or streamed.
During this process I observed lots of familiar images from movies and TV
shows looking for any signs that the AT screen produces any visible bleeding
or moiré. Bleeding is when light travels along fibers used to make the AT
projection screen. One of the characteristics you want from woven AT screen
materials is that the fibers do not allow the light to “spread” through the
fibers causing light to “bleed” from bright image areas to adjacent dark
areas. That means the AT fibers have to block light fairly effectively from
traveling sideways to stop the bloom issue.
I never saw anything that looked detectably different from the Stewart
Filmscreen StudioTek 100 reference screen in terms of “bloom” or “spread” of
high luminance pixels into nearby dark pixels. Color shift was insignificant
and would be calibrat- ed-out during final system calibration anyway. Moiré is
another potential problem caused by interference patterns created by woven
fabrics and high-res digital images. more can happen in punched screens and in
geometrically woven screens when any “pattern” on the screen material
interacts with the extremely small pixel size of 4K and 8K projectors. Evenly
spaced punched holes or evenly spaced weave patterns can produce more if the
light isn’t reflected uniformly back to the viewers. I didn’t detect any moiré
in video content or test patterns from the Spears & Munsil
UHD/HDR test/calibrate disc. So even though can can see the weave when you are
very close to the screen, that texture doesn’t interact with the high-res
pixels to produce a moiré pattern. Having seen moiré from a punched screen
before convinced me I want nothing to do with any screen that can produce
moiré patterns.
The Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screen was blessedly free of anything I could detect
in terms of moiré. For audio evaluations, I added 3 dB with a graphic
equalizer in the processor for 8,000 to 20,000 Hz. Most of us who have
protected our hearing from damage successfully, will still lose the ability to
hear the highest audio frequencies as we age. I could hear a difference in the
sound with and without the 3 dB boost in high frequencies, but it sure wasn’t
an obvious difference. And it certainly was small enough that many, probably
most, owners of this screen material would not notice a high frequency deficit
of 3 dB. Especially so when watching movies.
The additional focus your brain requires for video and sound, compared to
music with- out video, tends to reduce your sensitivity to sound differences
also. It was actually easier to hear the effects of the 3 dB of EQ when
listening to high quality music recordings without video than it was to hear
differences in movie soundtracks. The difference in the 3 dB high frequency
boost is pretty benign. And if your room is a little too reflective due to
hard floors or glass, you might actually welcome the 3 dB of attenuation. A
UHD/HDR projector with laser/phosphor illumination system and native UHD
imagers (no pixel shift) was used for evaluating the projection screen.
When it came to measuring the gain of this screen, I measured a difference of
3.5 fooot-Lamberts (fL) less light, while measuring peak white, from the Sonic
AT8 isf eFinity screen than from the StudioTek 100 reference screen with 1.0
gain. Gain specs for AT projection screens are often overstated in this
market.
The primary cause is manufacturers quoting higherthan-actual gain specs for AT
screens. If a manufacturer comes to market with a new AT screen and says it
has a gain factor of 0.8 and buyers look at the spec for other AT screens and
sees that all of them are rated from 0.9 to 1.2 gain, when all of them fall
below 1.0 gain due to light lost through perforations or through the weave. So
if you give your AT screen an accurate gain spec, your screen appears to be
“worse” than other AT screens even though it may be better. I’ve measured gain
of AT screens from 0.7 to 0.9, while the screens had factory specifications
between 0.9 and 1.2.
EPV Screens quotes 1.0 gain for the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screens. That means
the peak white measurement for the StudioTek 100 screen and the EPV Screen
should be the same if they both have 1.0 gain. With the peak white measurement
being about 3.5 fL lower for the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screen, the actual gain
is closer to 0.91, but that is quite “close” to the 1.0 factory spec for gain.
Another AT screen I measured several years ago advertised 1.2 gain and
measured 0.8 gain, a rather large disparity. Color was very close to the
StudioTek 100 reference screen indicating good performance of the EPV screen
material.
Pricing for the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screens ranges from $3,226 to $5,292
with the reviewed 16:9 120-inch diagonal costing $3,585. New EPV Screens (US &
Canada) carry a 5-year warranty starting at installation. The LED kit and
optional black border edge are included with each size screen size.
I had a difficult time picking a favorite between the edgeless appearance and
using the black edge trim. The edgeless screen has a dramatic appearance,
perhaps because it’s not the “normal” look for a projection screen. But the
black edge trim gave a little extra definition to the edges. I can understand
owners choosing either option for their permanent setup and it’s nice to have
the black edge trim should you find that framed-look more appealing.
The black edge trim is very thin, so the screen has a fresh, modern, and
light-weight look when it is installed compared to 3- or 4-inch wide black-
velvetcovered frames. Viewing Spider Man: Far from Home, I found the Sonic AT8
isf eFinity screen initially very similar in overall “look” to the reference
screen. The images were not identical, but they were so similar I don’t think
the average viewer would notice. After receiving training from image
scientists about recognizing image defects in both still and moving images
over a 10-year period, I find I consistently see things other viewers never
notice until I pause the image and point out the problem.
After I do that, everybody sees it pretty well. There was nothing about the
Sonic AT8 screen’s properties that made images seem to have less apparent
depth, less contrast, or any other distracting property. The movie’s action
and surround- ings looked natural and the Sonic AT8 material was so neutral,
it was difficult to remain focused on looking for image problems. After four
or five minutes of looking for problems related to the screen and not seeing
anything, I would find myself lost in enjoying the entertainment rather than
looking for issues in images.
This movie was a good test for more because of the weave textures in the
various Spider Man costumes are a bit different and could be the sort of
geometric image element that might reveal moiré in images, but that never
happened with the Sonic AT8 material. Scenes with lots of motion were rendered
without any alteration of the sharpness or softness of the motion. Very thin
visual elements like spider webs remained clear and well defined even against
challenging backgrounds.
Smoke and other features with fades in them (nighttime street light in the
fog, for example) were rendered with the visible roiling of the smoke well
defined at all times. Black levels were as good with the EPV screen as with
the reference screen. And the brightest objects with dark backgrounds did not
produce any obvious bloom around the bright object. Placing the L-C-R
loudspeakers behind the screen at a height roughly in the middle of the screen
produces a satisfying soundfield. There is something about having the
loudspeakers behind the screen that produces a slightly different audio
experience.
It’s difficult to explain, but there’s more of a smooth sweep of sound from
left to right and right to left when the center channel loudspeaker is not
below the projection screen as it is when I use solid projection screen
material. I don’t notice the center channel sound dipping down when sound
sweeps horizontally across the screen when using solid screens, but there is
something more integrated about that sweeping sound when the center channel is
raised to the same height as the L & R loudspeakers. I also checked the
performance of the Sonic AT8 screen material with 1080p and 720p content, both
upconverted by the projector to UHD resolution. I didn’t expect that to reveal
any issues with the projection screen and nothing did appear over 30 hours of
viewing just 1080p and 720p content, both from discs and streamed. I even used
some 1080p 3D Blu-ray discs with the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screen just to make
sure that worked as well as everything else and that was also reproduced
without any visual artifacts.
How to Train Your Dragon was one of the 3D titles I watched. The impressive
animation quality came though quite well with sharp edges and great colors.
Ghosting or un-merged objects (they look like 2 overlapping flat images) was
no more or less frequent than when using the reference screen. Detail in
clothing and
The Sonic AT8 isf eFinity projection screen was a pleasure to assemble and
use. I was unable to find any of the drawbacks that often come with
acoustically transparent projection scales on the dragons was impressive,
even with the resolution being limited to 1080p (upconverted by the projector
for display).
The intentional sense of motion captured in some of the flying scenes was well
presented and as good as it is on the reference screen. Frame-packed 3D with
active LCD shutter glasses was used during the 3D evaluation.
A final evaluation with complex still images, about 100 of them with high
levels of details, can help reveal screen problems you don’t see in moving
images, but with the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity screen, every image displayed with
every detail intact. Even highly detailed geometric patterns from buildings
and interior décor were displayed properly without any sparkly pixels or
bleeding that would harm apparent contrast within the image.
Conclusion
The Sonic AT8 isf eFinity projection screen was a pleasure to assemble and
use. I was unable to find any of the drawbacks that often come with
acoustically transparent projection screens. The EDGE FREE frame gives you the
option of using the screen frameless or with a stylish 9mm wide black
edge/bezel trim. The black light absorbing layer being attached to the screen
material saves an assembly step over AT screens that have the black backing
fabric installed as a second independent “screen” in the same frame. I was a
little puzzled by the inclusion of the LED lighting with each screen at first,
but looking at marketing photos of the screen with the lighting surrounding
the screen does indeed make quite an impression when you walk into a finished
theater room. There’s an extra bit of drama from that color splash. And since
the lighting is something you can turn on and off with automation systems, you
can have your installer set the system up so that the lights are on when the
movie is paused or stopped, and turn off again when a movie starts playing. I
was quite happy with the performance of the screen and those interested in
using an AT projection screen should consider the Sonic AT8 isf eFinity
screens. Highly recommended. WSR
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References
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