Draper flown projection screens suspend from structure rather than mounting to a wall or recessing into a ceiling. They are the format for large venues and temporary installs — ballrooms, arenas, convention halls, houses of worship with open structure, and staging work where the screen goes up for an event and comes down afterwards.

When a screen has to fly

Three situations call for it. The room has no wall in the right place, which is common in ballrooms and divisible halls. The screen has to sit forward of the wall to clear a stage, lectern or scenic element. Or the installation is temporary and nothing can be fixed to the building at all.

Flying also puts the image where the sightlines want it rather than where the architecture allows, which in a large room with flat floor seating is often the difference between the back rows seeing the screen and seeing the back of somebody's head.

Rigging is the constraint

A flown screen is a rigging problem before it is an AV one. The structure has to carry the combined load of frame, surface and rigging hardware, and that has to be confirmed against the building rather than assumed. Attachment points, span between points, and whether the venue permits attachment to structure at all are questions that get answered before a screen size is chosen — not after.

On temporary installs, local rigging rules and union jurisdiction frequently govern who is allowed to make the attachment. Budget for it.

Surface and size

Large-format flown screens are typically front projection with a Matt White surface, since viewing angles in a big room are wide and gain comes at the cost of the seats off-axis. Rear projection is specified where the projector cannot be placed in front without blocking sightlines or where ambient light on the audience side is uncontrollable. Acoustically transparent surfaces apply where the main loudspeaker array sits behind the screen, which is standard practice in large-venue design.

Creation Networks handles flown screen specification, rigging coordination, sightline and throw calculation, installation and commissioning nationwide. Call 888-230-3661 or email sales@creationnetworks.net.