Screen Innovations occupies an unusual position in the residential AV market. They manufacture both motorized window shades and projection screens, and the overlap between those categories is more substantive than it might appear. Both involve precision fabric engineering. Both require accurate motorized operation with minimal drift over thousands of cycles. Both sit in visible locations in high-end interiors where the product’s appearance at rest matters as much as its performance in operation. SI approaches both categories with the same engineering seriousness, and the product quality across their lineup is consistent with that approach.
Motorized Shades: Solo Motor Series
Screen Innovations’ Solo Motor series is a tube-motor shade system designed for high-end residential applications. The motor is housed in the roller tube itself, producing a clean fascia-free installation where the shade fabric rolls directly off the tube without a visible motor end cap. For applications where the shade hardware needs to be architecturally minimal. a floor-to-ceiling window in a modern interior, a skylight installation, a room where the designer has specified a particular window treatment approach. the Solo Motor delivers a finished appearance that motorized shade systems from less design-focused manufacturers cannot match.
Solo shades integrate with Crestron and Lutron natively, which matters operationally. Shade position can be called by a Crestron scene or a Lutron keypad, with feedback confirmation that allows the control system to verify position. A “movie mode” scene that dims lights, lowers a projection screen, and closes the room-darkening shades to a calibrated position requires that level of integration to execute reliably. For a full discussion of when motorized shades are worth the investment. and when they are not. see our post on motorized shades: when they are worth it.
Projection Screens: Zero-G and Black Diamond
SI’s Zero-G motorized projection screen is the reference product in our dedicated home theater installations when a fixed-frame screen is not specified. Zero-G uses an active tensioning system that keeps the screen fabric taut at every position in its travel, eliminating the edge waves and fabric sag that plague less sophisticated motorized screen products. A screen that is not taut produces visible image distortion at the edges. not dramatic, but noticeable enough to bother a client who is watching carefully. For a project that used the Black Diamond acoustically transparent fabric specifically, see our post on the private cinema at a Bergen County estate.
The Black Diamond series is SI’s ambient light rejecting screen fabric, designed for installations where controlled room darkening is not possible or desirable. Black Diamond’s optical layer structure reflects projected light toward the viewer while rejecting ambient light arriving from other angles. In a room that cannot be fully darkened. a living room with sidelight from windows, a media room where blackout shades are not specified. Black Diamond produces a usable projected image at ambient light levels where a standard matte white screen would be washed out completely.
“The projection screen question used to be simple: white or grey, fixed or motorized. Black Diamond changed the installation conversation. Clients who assumed they couldn’t have a good projected image in their main living room are now getting one.” __EMDASH_PROTECT_0__
Why Screen Innovations Over Elite Screens or Da-Lite
Da-Lite and Elite Screens are legitimate manufacturers at the commercial and mid-range residential tier. For the luxury residential installations we handle, SI’s build quality, fabric technology, and integration capability are consistently superior. The Zero-G tensioning system has no equivalent in Da-Lite’s residential lineup. The Black Diamond fabric performance exceeds anything in the Elite Screens catalog. And SI’s motorized shade integration with the major control platforms. particularly Crestron and Lutron. is more reliable in field conditions than the control integration options in competing shade lines. For the technical detail on pre-window shade motor wiring, see our post on shade motor wiring before the window goes in.
Shades and screens are specified as part of the same control and design conversation in our installations. Our Partners page covers the full scope of our product ecosystem for these categories and others.