Portable, mobile screens offer a choice of tripod screens, pull-up mobile screens, desk top / table top screens or mobile frame screens for on the road presentation, temporary installations and exhibitions. 

Table top screens are best for presenting to up to six people around a desk.  For larger audiences pull-up screens are ideal. You simply pull up the screen from its case and it's ready for you to project your presentation. 

Tripod screens are normally square image so ideal for use with overhead projectors (OHPs) and slide projectors, especially for moving room to room in schools, colleges, universities and for training in large corporate organisations. 

Mobile frame screens are suited for mobile presentations for larger audiences, whether business presentations, exhibitions, conferences or on-stage.  Choice of front projection, rear projection or front/rear projection fabrics to give you the best possible images for your application. Inflatable screens  for indoor or outdoor use are ideal for open-air events, sales conventions, movies and music concerts.

Screen accessories are available including stabilisers to help secure mobile screens, keystone eliminators to help you obtain a square projected image, distance rods for reaching up to manual wall screens and transport bags and cases to help protect screens during transportation.  Dress kits are plain dark coloured curtains and drapery bars that fit around the screen to keep audience attention focused on the screen images. Ideal for rear projection screens as the curtains can hide equipment beneath and also help shield viewers from the projector light.


Screen size

The size of your room and the position of the audience are the prime factors in deciding on the best screen size to use. A good rule of thumb is: the minimum distance to the screen should be 1.5 times the screen width, and the maximum distance should be six times the screen width, so for instance, if the projector screen width is 2 metres,  then 1.5 times the width is 3 metres, so you need to position the projector a minimum of 3 metres away from the screen and the maximum distance of six times the screen width, means the furthest you should position the projector away from the screen is 12 metres.   This gives you a comfortable projection zone of between 3 and 12 metres for you to project from.

You need to also consider the seating position of your audience, as to whether they are all grouped together in the central position in a long room, or seated across the full width of a wide room.  Various screen fabrics are available that give viewing angles, for instance 170 degrees viewing angle is a wide viewing angle, whilst a 50 degree viewing angle is mainly for audiences all grouped together down the centre of a room. 


Screen shapes

Projector screens generally come in 3 shapes: 1:1 4:3 16:9.  A rectangular screen 4:3 will be ideal for most applications. 

Square 1:1 aspect ratio

These were originally designed for use with overhead projectors where the image projected is also square so that the image fills the entire screen. 

Rectangle 4:3 aspect ratio

Televisions and computer monitors are not square but slightly rectangular in shape and have a 4:3 aspect ratio. This just means that the width of the screen being 4 parts long to 3 parts high. Most projectors display this rectangular image and a rectangular screen will allow the image to fill the entire area. If you project onto the square screen for comparison, then you will see an unused area at the top and bottom.

Widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio

This is the shape of a wide screen television. Some projectors, which are specifically designed for video use, can project an image of this shape. Again if the image shape and screen match, then you can completely fill the screen with the image.

Rectangle 1:1 aspect ratio

Just to complicate things, some screen manufacturers with USA connections, call their screens 1:1 format even though they aren't square in shape, for instance, 300x225cm 1:1 format.  This is because generally in the USA, they refer to a 1:1 format as a screen which is plain white with no borders.  All their 4:3 and 16:9 screens have black borders.  You can have two screens both measuring 300x225 but one is 1:1 and the other 4:3. This means that the 1:1 screen is plain white and the 4:3 version has black borders. Draper and Da-Lite screens are just two well-known USA screen manufacturers.

Front and rear projection fabric screens Draper screens, Da-Lite screens,  Projecta screens and Harkness screens, offer a wide choice of fabrics including matt white, high contrast (grey), fibreglass, glass beaded, silver screens, pearlescent, etc.   We produce a comparison chart of projector screens, which is also searchable by manufacturer.   


Types of screen fabrics

Screen fabric varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Inexpensive screens are normally on matt white fabric.  With so many fabric choices on the market, it is easy to dismiss the importance that fabric plays in the end result of your projected image, therefore just settling for a standard size in matt white. This might be an easy solution when buying a low cost screen for general use, but for more professional presentations to large audiences, using an expensive projector, it is worth considering the various screen size and fabric options to get the best from your presentations.

It is important to ensure that the screen you choose is suitable for either front or rear projection.  A common misconception is that you can use front projection screen fabric for rear projection or vice versa.  If you were to project an image directly onto the front of a rear projection fabric you would still see an image but when you displayed a spreadsheet, the figures would be distorted. Obviously, this is because a rear projection screen surface is designed to have an image projected onto the rear of the screen, for instance, in a helicopter flight simulation, you would have the projector shining onto the rear of the screen, and the person taking part would then sit directly in front of the screen to follow the projected image.  

Other instances of using rear projection would be shining a projector onto the rear of a thin-film screen on a shop window, so passers-by in front of the window can see the image clearly.  Indoor shopping malls use rear projection to projector images onto a suspended mid-air acrylic polymer screen, from manufacturers such as Reversa and Harkness Hall. In the main, front projection screens are the most popular, especially for business, government, training and educational use.

Obviously, fabrics will vary according to manufacturers, but below is a general guide.

3-D projection surfaces are available for projecting 3-D cinema movies and offering generous viewing angles.  Brand names include Spectral 240 3D.

Fibreglass fabrics, which have several brand names, are more resilient than matt white, which can be used to give tear proof qualities or treated to offer fire protection. Brand names for fibreglass fabrics include Datamat for use when surface area has a window or bright light behind it; Promat,

Glass beaded fabric has tiny glass beads impregnated into the screen surface to provide additional reflectance which helps to provide vibrant, life like colour at moderate viewing angles.

High contrast, is a good choice when using DLP or LCD projectors to project video images. Its grey base material provides good black levels without sacrificing  the white level output.

Matt white most common of all screen fabrics, as the name implies the fabric is matt white.  Matt white is available on PVC screen fabrics, fibreglass fabrics and other screen surfaces.  Brand names include Matt white Preview for small theatres where seating is close to screen.

Reflection fabrics and Pearlescent fabrics are reflective fabrics that enable a wide viewing angle. Brand names include Datalux, Datalux S, Perlux 140, Perlux 180

Rear projection fabric When projecting from the rear of screen (rear projection), the fabric is such, that it enables the light to be shone from the rear onto the fabric surface.  Brand names of  rear projection fabric include Da-Tex, Translite which has built-in diffusion to overcome hot-spotting; Polacoat and also RP230, which are translucent vinyls for use in installations where a soft rear projection screen is required.

Rear projector / front projection fabric is a surface suitable for both front and rear projection. Brand names include Translite Super 2 which is used for cycloramas, display systems and back drops.