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Product Review
CineTension2
INTRO:
In addition to the Elite EzFrame that I was sent, I was also sent Elite's
new CineTension electric screen. As with the EzFrame, the CineTension
is part of Elite's new higher end line, designed to meet the needs
of the more demanding consumer. This is a tab-tensioned design,
which the key part of this is the lack of waves/wrinkles. However, this
screen is revolutionary from one standpoint...price. The Elite CineTension
screen retails for about what most other companies nontensioned
screens sell for. This is a big advantage for those looking for
quality performance, but also are still budget conscious.
I received my test unit in a timely fashion. The first thing I noted was
the weight...62lbs. Now this is not an overly large screen that I used
for testing, but it still weighed a substantial amount. This generally
corresponds to a heavier duty unit. The box was about normal size
for an electric, 8"x8"x~96". The test unit I had was a 45"x80" as an
aside. I opened the outside of the box and low and behold another
box! If you have read my reviews you know I love double boxing,
especially with this sort of specialized gear. I should mention that in
addition to the double boxing, the actual boxes were thicker than
normal (corrugated cardboard, of course); very heavy duty. I
continued on opening the boxes. Inside, there was the screen.
Surprisingly though it was double boxed, the inside protection was a bit scarce (see pictures). Basically there were 2
end cardboard protectors and then 4 thick foam wraps on the screen. I cannot comment on if this has proven to be
sufficient as I don't know. But for a screen this size, compared to how some other companies' internal packing looks,
this was potentially a bit light in my opinion. Essentially delivery companies are having a lot of trust put into them to
transport these carefully. From my experience, that could be dangerous. Again, it may have proven to work fine for
Elite, I just wanted to point that out.
Moving on I took everything out of the box. As I mentioned, the screen had some serious heft to it. It was definitely a
larger roller design (likely 3") which tends to be the better type for supporting the fabric weight. Inside the box were a
couple small accessory boxes, and a manual. In one box were the control parts. Perhaps the most impressive thing
about this model is that though it is already priced well below the competition, they include both IR and RF remotes at
no additional charge! This is often a $250+ option for many companies (just for 1 of them). Because of this, there is no
hardwiring that needs to be done. You simply take the main control box, and plug it into the small 3 pin connector on
the case. Then that box simply plugs into a standard wall outlet. Piece of cake. The only tricky part of hooking this up
was hiding that control box somewhere. The case is big enough to hide it behind, but then you would have to extend
it off of the wall a bit.
The other accessory box held the brackets. These were extremely thick aluminum. They allow for both ceiling and wall
mount (I chose ceiling for the testing). They are also floating, which means you can slide them back and forth along
the top/back channels to line up on your joists/studs...very nice. I hung my brackets onto the ceiling with 2 bolts straight
up into the ceiling. I then simply lifted the case and hooked it onto the back channels. This then held it in place. Last,
I simply tilted up the case and slid the specialized bolts into the top channel and bracket, tightened them down, and I
was done. I should mention I did this all on my own so that is a sign of a good design (although again, it was a smaller
size, so please don't try it with the bigger sizes on your own).
I removed the small piece of packing foam that kept the batten from moving, grabbed the control, and dropped the
screen. My first impressions were that the motor was about average noise level. The tab-tensioning system was very
nicely done...the screen was as flat as could be (which you would expect). All the controls have up, down, and stop
positions. This is nice such that if you want to change ratios, or adjust the amount of drop exposed (they have 2 options
for that upon ordering), it is simple.
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