Fast-fold screen

A fast-fold is a collapsible frame that a crew snaps together on site, with the screen surface attached under tension. It is the standard large-format projection screen for ballrooms and general sessions, because it ships flat and builds in minutes at sizes a tripod screen cannot reach.

The surface is interchangeable, and the choice matters: a front-projection surface reflects light back at the audience, a rear-projection surface passes it through from behind. The same frame takes either.

A screen should always be quoted dressed. Bare frame legs and an undressed back are the visual difference between a staged room and a school hall, and the skirting and dress kit are cheap next to the screen itself.

The question worth asking before specifying one is whether the room can be darkened. A fast-fold in a ballroom with the house lights up and windows uncovered will look washed out no matter how bright the projector, and an LED wall is the better answer in that room. Where the room can be controlled, projection remains the cheaper way to get a very large picture.

AV rental — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Rear projection Projecting from behind the screen instead of in front of it, so nobody walks through the beam and no presenter is ever lit up by the projector.
• LED wall A screen built from modular LED panels bolted together, bright enough to read in daylight and sized to the room rather than to a projector lens.