Beamax Screen Materials

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:24 PM**

Founded in 2002, Beamax is a European creator of home cinema projection screens. I contacted them by email inquiring about samples of their screen materials for review. Otto Tromm (founder and managing director) replied quickly and sent three samples - 1.5 gain Matte White, 1.2 gain Matte White and 1.0 gain High Contrast materials. Beamax is well regarded within the European market. They do also have a US footprint as there are three custom interior shops that sell them in Florida, California and Ohio. Beamax offers electrical, manual, portable and permanent screen options.

Beamax was one of the first to respond to my request for review materials. And they were the first to arrive. Testing of these screen materials will involve use of an i1pro spectrophotmeter, a Sekonic L-758C spotmeter and a Colormunki Create colorimeter.

The spectrophotometer readings will concentrate on reflectance readings from it's own internal lamp. The unit was in for it's yearly factory calibration last October. These readings will be done with two software packages - BabelColor and CalMAN. BabelColor is used because it was the first software package that I bought for my i1pro and I'm comfortable with it. CalMAN is something that I just started using and I have to admit, I'm becoming fond of the customizable workspace. I will admit that I still have only scratched the surface of this software. I'm certain it's capable of much more than what I'm doing with it.

The L-758C will be used for gain readings. I have accomplished these already but it may be a few more days before I get all of the numbers into the spreadsheet and produce some charts.

The Colormunki is used for reflected readings directly from the screen. The Colormunki seems to do a bit better on the low end than my i1pro. That is why I purchased and use this colorimeter. It is stored in a Ziploc bag with desiccant when not in use.

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:26 PM**

The screen sample reading is on the left and in the outer portion of the box - middle bottom. The inner part of the box and the right is numbers that I punched in for comparison.

The BabelColor reading shows a screen surface which is out of neutral. It's close to the acceptable range but not within. It is leaning towards the red side of things and more than likely can be relatively easy to fix with a proper calibration. The CalMAN reading below confirms these readings.

This next chart is what a proper neutral reading would look like from within the CalMAN Chart. The spectrum graph is actually not flat, as previously thought. I noticed the humps in neutral spectrums first at Bruce Lindbloom's site. This reading is of a X-Rite Color Checker Photo card's N5 gray.

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:28 PM**

The chart below shows the gray scale target with the yellow/orange diamond being the target. The black/gray/white dots represent the grayscale readings and where they plot. The one farthest to the right is the 0IRE reading. The other one that's a bit out there is the 10IRE reading.

This next chart shows the readings directly from the projector. In a perfect world, with a neutral screen, the above and below should match up.

This is a comparison of the gamut readings from the screen (left side) and the projector (right side). Again, in a perfect world they would line up nicely. You can see though that the 1.5 gain Matte White material shifts everything a bit to the right towards red. This is actually fairly common among commercial screens, at least it has been up until now. Even Da-Lite's High Power has a reddish yellow push to it.

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:29 PM**

Again, sample on the left side and the outer portion of the color box. This sample is closer to neutral than the 1.5 gain material.

CalMAN readings. Kind of a weird spectrum considering the rest of the data.

X-Rite ColorChecker card for comparison.

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:31 PM**

The 1.2 gain material does shift a bit to the left closer to the D65 point. But it still has a slight red push to it. Again, nothing that should concern anyone as most commercial screens of the same color tend to have this slight push. More than likely it's something they do to accentuate skin tones I'd guess.

The 1.2 material shows the same pull towards red that the 1.5 material does with regards to gamut readings.

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:32 PM**

From the spectro readings, this material is the most neutral of the three. 'a' and 'b' values are close to 0 and the 'x' and 'y' values are close to the D65 neutral target.

The spectrum looks a little different than I expected but still seems fine in CalMAN.

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:33 PM**

I have to admit that these readings confuse me. I expected, from looking at the spectro measurements, to have a much better grayscale readings than this. My guess would have been dead on D65 to slightly below (bluish). And yet they plotted the same as the previous two. This makes me a bit skeptical of these readings. I plan on re-doing these soon since I'm not convinced they're a good portrayal of what this material should be doing.

I'll re-do the gamut reading as well.

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:33 PM**

I may get them done tonight but no promises!

**mechman** · **05-09-09, 03:35 PM**

Thread closed until finished later tonight.

**mechman** · **05-11-09, 12:21 PM**

I am stuck for the moment as one half of my raid array has gone belly up and has taken my gain data with it.

It appears that this is a firmware issue with the drive and that it can possibly be fixed. Hopefully I'll have it back soon....

Opened.

**mechman** · **05-31-09, 04:13 PM**

The long anticipated gain readings...

These were all done with a 100IRE image. Readings taken with a Sekonic L758C Digital Spotmeter.

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