One Build Stretches to Shape. One Holds a Plane.
The grade is one half of a specification. This is the other half: what the surface is made of, what it weighs, how hard you can pull on it, what it survives on a stage, and how it packs into a truck. Both published builds are here side by side, because the mechanical difference between them decides which one your project wants. Transparent Scrim follows.
A micro-weave multi composite textile, resin coated on the back in black as standard and white to order. The coating is what makes it completely opaque to anything lit behind it, and what makes the face scuff and scrape resistant. It gives a few per cent under a light pull, so it can be tensioned into concave, convex and cyclorama shapes, moved during a show, and pull its own creases out. Front projection, and the black is in the material rather than painted onto it.
Bath coated through the weave, then coated again on one side with proprietary resins, and rated for front or rear projection. Half the thickness of the opaque build and roughly six times stiffer, so it is wrinkle resistant by design and barely shifts once it is framed. Sound passes through with no perforations, so loudspeakers sit behind the picture in the same plane. This is the build for a flat plane held precisely for years.
What Each Number Means Once It Is Hanging.
Figures are for the surface alone. Reinforced edges, eyelets, velcro, pockets, bonded hems, frame hardware and packaging are each specified and weighed on top, and the calculator below runs the numbers for whatever size you set.
What the Picture Costs the Sound.
Wide-band pink noise, a microphone at 5 m, 1/3 octave analysis, measured with the surface in front of the loudspeaker and again without it. The tested textile took about 1.3 to 1.5 dB off the broadband level and about 1.15 dB across the 250 Hz to 4 kHz dialogue region. The shape of the loss matters as much as the figure: a gradual reduction toward the top of the band, with no broad, deep 1/3 octave notch anywhere in the test.
Each octave figure is its three 1/3 octave components combined in the energy domain, ten times the log of the summed band energies, rather than averaged in decibels. That is the correct way to fold bands together, and it suppresses measurement scatter while keeping the behavior intact. The 16 kHz band is indicative rather than firm: it carries the 3.24 dB reading at 20 kHz, at the edge of the measurement.
About 1.3 to 1.5 dB of level compensation, and because the loss is a gradual tilt rather than a resonance, a shelf and a trim during normal system alignment cover it. The power multiplier reads dramatically and is not: decibels are logarithmic, so a 35 to 41 per cent power increase is a small fraction of a fader move.
Results apply to the tested specimen and this measurement configuration.
A little over a decibel across the range where voices sit, and a gentle softening at the very top. No resonance, no notch, nothing that moves an image of the sound stage. Loudspeakers stay in the plane of the picture, which is what the surface is for, and the cost of putting them there is a trim on a fader.
What Both Builds Do in the Real World.
Designed for stage and touring, where transport and handling are unforgiving. Rolled, kabuki dropped, flown, or run on a sliding frame, then struck and set again and again, including with storage in between. Large surfaces travel soft folded rather than on an unwieldy tube, and hang out over a day or two. Cold cut to shape with any cutter, so bespoke geometry is a finishing operation rather than a compromise.
The opaque build takes concave, convex and cyclorama curvature, set or changing during a show, and dynamic surface tension and oscillation are part of its brief. The acoustic build is the opposite intent: single-axis sweeps and cyc curves are geometry rather than stretch, so they are straightforward, while compound and dome shapes want the give the opaque build has. In exchange it stays flat and passes sound, with loudspeakers behind the picture.
Naturally anti-static and dust rejecting. Neither build attracts confetti or particle effects, both resist lint and smoke residue build-up, take steam, haze and hydro-particles in the air, and stand up to the rapid heat change of pyro used repeatedly in a permanent installation.
Adhesive-backed materials do not key to the surface, so tape lifts away without residue or a witness mark. On a stage, where everything ends up taped to everything, that is a maintenance saving rather than a detail.
Washable. Cold water and a microfiber cloth, or Qualia Forge cleaning products for anything stubborn. Highly water resistant, and intended for indoor use. Because the flame retardance is in the material, cleaning does not wash it out.
Woven, coated, cut and finished in the United States, with color density matched to the grade you order and certification issued against the production run that makes your surface rather than a generic datasheet. Active 3D works normally on both builds. Passive polarized 3D does not survive the surface; plan on active.
The information on this page is supplied for guidance only and should not be construed as a warranty. It is not a legally binding document and is based on average results from current production. The purchaser is fully responsible for determining the suitability of the product for its intended application. Both builds are NFPA 701 flame retardant certified, the Acoustically Transparent build under reference P 238749, and this product meets the minimum requirements of flame resistance established by the California State Fire Marshal for products identified in Section 13115, California Health and Safety Code. The acoustic figures come from a single reported pink-noise measurement and apply to the tested specimen and measurement configuration. Technical details are subject to change without prior notice. Please contact Qualia Forge LLC for any additional information you may require. Made and finished in the USA.