David Rodgers, Marketing Manager for Elite Screens, has seen the Pro AV channel adopt Elite’s highest end home theater products. “I’m getting a growing number of requests from the corporate executive level,� Rodgers explains, saying that integrators will come to him looking to outfit CEO office and boardrooms in lux style with premium grade screens. “They want it to be the kind of place where Robert de Niro would in a chair getting things done. It’s theater. They see their offices as part of the diplomatic experience of their company.� As a result, the Cinetension 2 and Home 2 series lines (released end of last year) are moving through the commercial channels as well as the home theater channels. (Might be time to come up with some new names to suit the corporate channel).

One of the most interesting new products on the Elite booth is their translucent white board. It’s a high-reflective 15-gain material, surfaced for use with markers. So you can draw all over it, but the light also penetrates through the screen material. Speaking of names, it doesn’t even have one yet—it’s Elite’s first foray into white boards. It comes in standard widths, but like buying fabric by the yard it can be made to any length, opening up creative possibilities, especially for schools—white board wall anyone?

On the booth you can also see the Kestrel series of electric floor rising screens. Again, crossover from the home theater to the commercial market organically. Rental and staging likes it too he says, because of the flexibility where wall and ceiling mounts are unavailable and for events such as memorials where the classy, understated look is appropriate. “It’s the tuxedo they have in their arsenal,� he says.

Finally, Elite solves a very practical concern with the latest incarnation of their wall mount large screen VMAX Series. The motor mount in the new Plus3 series is easily accessed for maintenance and replacement—it slips in and out of the end caps, a task easily done from a ladder, catwalk or cherry picker.