Reviewed by Petr Barcal from AV Media - Supernova is an optical front projection screen bringing rear projection screen advantages to a front screen projection system. It appears to have a silver/grey painted surface, but according to DNP people it contains seven or so various layers. In fact it is a piece of advanced technology. And it really works!
The screen reflects light coming from a ceiling-mounted projector to the audience and suppresses ambient light coming from lighting fixtures, from windows or reflected from the walls. The screen makes it possible to achieve high contrast ratios (15:1 or better) in a standard office environment.
What we like about it
This is one of those products you have a pretty good chance to sell once you make a shoot-out for the client. The difference from standard front projection screens is simply huge. I believe that all of our clients decided to go for the Supernova once we demonstrated the performance to them.
What we would change
At the moment available sizes for one piece fixed models are limited - the largest size is 100“ (4:3) in diagonal which is too small for mid-sized rooms. You can create large screens by using a modular system called Supernova Infinity (which works excellently: the gaps are invisible from a short distance) but there is a price increase for the modular systems. It would be great to have single piece screens with the size 120-125“ for 4:3 ratio.
We also sell more and more projectors with 16:10 screen aspect. Especially with such a nice (and expensive) screen you cannot afford to leave a black border of the screen due to non-compatibility of the screen´s and projector´s aspect ratios. I am not sure that screen manufacturers including DNP are following the new 16:10 trend fast enough.
Where we would use it
Our favorite location for the Supernova screen is a corporate boardroom or meeting room.
There you can usually face a pretty demanding environment in terms of high ambient light level. On the other hand, these users expect really good picture quality and are ready to pay premium prices.
One installation we are really proud of is in the boardroom of a large global logistics corporation. With one wall entirely made out of glass and another wall essentially just one big window, there was a lot of ambient light to contend with. The client was really excited by the results we achieved with Supernova Infinity.