Hey krzywica, it's good to hear things are going well for you. It's been about nine months or so since I've posted here, and I probably won't post again after today for a long time, but I wanted to help you today. If you still have that PSB speaker, I hope it's still treating you well btw.
Firstly, I've never set up a conference room, and it's hard for me to know where we can take compromises. Are terrible aesthetics ok? (I may get to why later.) Is rather poor audio ok? Is having it pretty dim ok? How far can we take each of these compromises? (I know, impossible to explain in a short post.)
Ok, so just about every damned AT screen out there is perf'd. From Dalite, to Stewart, or SMX, etc.
IMO, for the following combination: 1) excellent engineering, 2) excellent value, 3) excellent audio, you need to go with Seymour XD. The big compromise here could be brightness; the mftr spec is 1.2, however Jeff Meier measured it at .94 onaxis, and .93 offaxis (for him, this was 18deg to the side, 6deg down, respectivey).
http://accucalhd.com/documents/accucal_front_projection_screen_report.pdf
What's wrong with perf? It needs considerable space from the speakers to avoid lobing issues. How bad are these lobing issues? I have no freaking clue. Probably completely unacceptable for an AHer, but for the purposes of a conference room, maybe no one would possibly know. This is where you wait for BMX to chime in with personal anecdotes.
If not a microperf, you may see a hole pattern depending on the material and distance. There are also microperfs. With the XD weave, the texture is viewable rather easily at less than double digit ft away. Past that, it's there but subtle, and I dunno, maybe 13-15ish, it's imperceptible. However, this is in a cave. Right- the textures will be most visible when the screen is all lit up bright white; perhaps bad news for a conference room.
If interested, you need to contact Chris Seymour directly. Fortunately for you, he is an example of what excellent customer service is. Unfortunately for the perf'd world, SMX is impossible to reach.
Oh, the weave is EXTREMELY durable (the opposite end of the spectrum from Dalite High Power, which I used to use). There is a video of a kid jumping up and down on a Seymour screen like a trampoline. I bloodied my knuckles at first, pulling the stuff taut when going DIY with this stuff. I wore gloves from then on. It is pretty easy to clean, Seymour can tell you. Also, even if permanently stained, but not all the way through, just flip the material around; the properties for audio/video are identical. The visible weave pattern will look a bit different, but the performance is identical nevertheless.
[Cheapest Weave Idea] Now to the aesthetics, if you guys are ok with butt azz ugly, here's the kicker- the screen material is probably about $200, actually probably less than that, unframed. Maybe there's an extremely cheap way for you guys to mount this material. When you talk to Chris, he will tell you right away what the maximum angled tilt you can get with chosen screen material (the weave is not totally horizontal/vertical, but tilted to avoid any possible moire effect; this is typically only an issue with 3LCD, which happens to have the lowest fill ratio of the competing techs; the tilt makes this moot even for LCD though).
I almost forgot, the audio will need to be boosted, probably in the rough area of a couple of db. I can't quite remember. Another thing I forgot; how far away does a (edit) [strike]weave[/strike] perf need to be? Well over a foot, if memory serves.
[Relatively Cheaper Weave Idea] There was a guy some time ago, I think his name was Brad, who came up with a nice compromise for DIY- buy a Jamestown screen, prebuilt, fit it with the weave. Cheaper than Seymours prebuilt, but much less work than full DIY. Well last I checked, they're now selling the Seymour material on their frames. If I am mistaken about this, forgive me, but definitely check it out if interested.
[Least Cheapest] $1028 for the Seymour 109", (model H095).
Seymour AV | Store
[Throwing you the curveball] Would it be just as cheap, maybe, and much brighter, by forgetting the existing speakers, throwing up a couple of cheap monitors, and putting up whatever material you may want?
If you were looking at as much as the $3k ballpark for a Dalite or something, just how much size would that money get for you, but instead looking at a Screen Innovations Black Diamond? You need to check out the YT vids on this stuff man. Or again, just ask BMX.
Black Diamond Fixed | Projector Screens | Screen Innovations
Oops- now I understand, he's pushing for tab tensioned. Probably so that it's tucked safely away when not in use. Ok, Seymour's 109" is at $1,710 I believe. Just go to "store" to see prices, and below is the bit on the retractables. If you want to see more of the Seymour XD in action at AH, just for the hell of it, look up some pics/threads of GO-NAD!, rmk, mperfct, basspig, myself, and perhaps others.
Seymour AV | Center Stage screens
Seymour either owns or is at least in charge of stateside Screen Excellence, another weave, but mega freaking fine, ISF cert'd for 4k; you can't see the weave from an arm's distance away. The catches: cost, and dimmer than XD. BTW, I believe George Lucas uses the XD for his home (coupled to some $$$$$$ light cannon of a PJ).
Seymour Screen Excellence
Good luck!
