Projectors have come a long way in recent years with laser and LED technology making them considerably brighter and allowing for a much sharper image with 4K. The challenge with projectors is that you needed a dark room so the glare from ambient light didn’t result in a dim picture onscreen. A relative newcomer, Ambient Light Rejection (ALR) materials have recently changed and significantly expanded the playing field.
ALR materials, such as Parallax, by Da-Lite, filter out indirect light and cut down on glare, so that only the projector light is reflected back to viewers. This allows projectors to display vivid images even in brightly lit areas, making them more appealing in certain situations as projector screens can be much larger than flat screen displays and a two piece projector system can be much more affordable these days as well.
According to the Da-Lite website, each layer of Parallax plays a role in preserving the image that is reflected back to the viewer in high ambient light environments. Contrary to the term ‘rejective’, some layers actually absorb light while one special layer is shaped like a microscopic saw-tooth that blocks light from above resulting in the preservation of high-contrast, bright images in brightly lit environments.
In both commercial and residential applications, the ALR screens provide users with brightness and image quality that rivals other displays whether the lights are on or off. Although flat screens certainly serve a purpose in many situations, ALR screens have now made projectors a much more applicable technology for everyday use.
