A Projection Screen Company
Elite CineTension
INTRO:
In addition to the Elite EzFrame that I was sent, I was also sent Elite’s new CineTension electric screen. As with
the EzFrame, the CineTension is part of Elite’s new higher end line, designed to meet the needs of the more demanding
consumer. This is a tab-tensioned design, which the key part of this is the lack of waves/wrinkles. However, this screen
is revolutionary from one stand point…price. The Elite CineTension screen retails for about what most other companies
non-tensioned screens sell for. This is a big advantage for those looking for quality performance, but also are still budget
conscious.
I received my test unit in a timely fashion. The first thing I noted was the weight…62lbs. Now this is not an overly
large screen that I used for testing, but it still weighed a substantial amount. This generally corresponds to a heavier duty
unit. The box was about normal size for an electric, 8”x8”x~96”. The test unit I had was a 45”x80” as an aside. I opened
the outside of the box and low and behold another box! If you have read my reviews you know I love double boxing,
especially with this sort of specialized gear. I should mention that in addition to the double boxing, the actual boxes were
thicker than normal (corrugated cardboard, of course); very heavy duty. I continued on opening the boxes. Inside, there
was the screen. Surprisingly though it was double boxed, the inside protection was a bit scarce (see pictures). Basically
there were 2 end cardboard protectors and then 4 thick foam wraps on the screen. I cannot comment on if this has proven
to be sufficient as I don’t know. But for a screen this size, compared to how some other companies’ internal packing
looks, this was potentially a bit light in my opinion. Essentially delivery companies are having a lot of trust put into them to
transport these carefully. From my experience, that could be dangerous. Again, it may have proven to work fine for Elite, I
just wanted to point that out.
Moving on I took everything out of the box. As I mentioned, the screen had some serious heft to it. It was
definitely a larger roller design (likely 3”) which tends to be the better type for supporting the fabric weight. Inside the box
were a couple small accessory boxes, and a manual. In one box were the control parts. Perhaps the most impressive
thing about this model is that though
it is already priced well below the competition, they include both IR and
RF remotes at no additional charge! This is often a $250+ option for many
companies (just for 1 of them). Because of this, there is no hardwiring that
needs to be done. You simply take the main control box, and plug it into
the small 3 pin connector on the case. Then that box simply plugs into a
standard wall outlet. Piece of cake. The only tricky part of hooking this
up was hiding that control box somewhere. The case is big enough to
hide it behind, but then you would have to extend it off of the wall a bit.
The other accessory box held the brackets. These were extremely thick aluminum. They allow for both ceiling
and wall mount (I chose ceiling for the testing). They are also floating, which means you can slide them back and forth
along the top/back channels to line up on your joists/studs...very nice. I hung my brackets onto the ceiling with 2 bolts
straight up into the ceiling. I then simply lifted the case and hooked it onto the back channels. This then held it in place.
Last, I simply tilted up the case and slid the specialized bolts into the top channel and bracket, tightened them down, and
I was done. I should mention I did this all on my own so that is a sign of a good design (although again, it was a smaller
size, so please don’t try it with the bigger sizes on your own).
I removed the small piece of packing foam that kept the batten from moving, grabbed the control, and dropped
the screen. My first impressions were that the motor was about average noise level. The tab-tensioning system was
very nicely done…the screen was as flat as could be (which you would expect). All the controls have up, down, and stop
positions. This is nice such that if you want to change ratios, or adjust the amount of drop exposed (they have 2 options
for that upon ordering), it is simple.
COMMENTS ON PERFORMANCE:
The fabric that came with my unit was their High Contrast Gray. This was one of the darkest gray fabrics I have
E x p e r t R e v i e w
PO BOX 15499 Rochester, NY 14615 (585)454-1460 (585)742-2431 (fax)
