What is Screen Goo? Goo Systems Screen Goo products are specially formulated, color corrected, screen coatings in liquid form. They are designed to achieve the highest performance levels possible for a given display situation. Who uses it? Screen Goo products are being used by all levels of the video industry from do-it-yourself home theater aficionados to large scale commercial and industrial clients. Can I use it? Designed for easy application via spraying or rolling, screen goo products can be successfully applied by the novice or professional alike. Is it expensive? The cost of screen execution can be as little as the price of the coating itself - when applied to an available wall space. More dedicated videophiles can investigate the possibilities of elaborate framing systems and custom screen design. Which product for which projector? A seemingly simple question to which, of course, there is no simple answer. We have recently introduced a Goo Calculator section to our website. Filling in the requested data as accurately as possible will result in a recommendation of the products best suited to your projector and to your installation. How much do I need? The Finish Coat and Reflective Coat work together; both are required to create a screen. Finish Coat and Reflective Coat coverage per sq. ft. can vary somewhat, depending on the surface conditions. 1 liter (just slightly more than a US Quart in volume) will typically cover approximately 50 sq. ft. with two thin coats, under ideal conditions on an ideal non-absorptive surface. Starting with a primed white surface is strongly recommended for peak performance. What Can I Put It On? Recommended Substrates: Front projection Screen Goo can be applied to any smooth paintable surface. Many materials other than the products listed below can be used successfully. For best results the surface should be flat and smooth. If this surface to be coated is not smooth, it should be sanded down and wiped off prior to applying the Screen Goo Reflective Coat. Porous surfaces such as drywall, gyproc, and wood based materials such as plywood, particle board, MDF, should be sealed with a flat, white latex primer prior to applying Screen Goo Reflective Coat. Colored surfaces should also be primed with a flat, white latex. alusuisse-comp.com - Sintra is an excellent material to apply Screen Goo front projection coatings to. It is very hard and durable and requires no priming prior to being painted. It is, however, somewhat floppy and should be supported to ensure a flat viewing surface. We suggest choosing white and a minimum 6mm thickness. alusuisse-comp.com - Gatorfoam is another excellent choice for paainting. It is light weight and rigid enough to be self-supporting. It is, however, prone to denting and should probably not be used in high traffic areas or to stop hockey pucks. No priming is required. We suggest choosing white and a minimum 1/2 inch thickness. dazian.com - 3 pass foam, sometimes called blackout cloth, is an excellent fabric substrate for a front projection Goo application. No priming or special preparation is required before painting. This material can be used with a stretcher frame to make a lightweight, portable Goo Screen. It is sold by the yard and available in widths up to 110". Rolled Screen Goo applications are not recommended for blackout cloth. Spraying will give optimal results with this substrate. Curing Times: The product can be used immediately after rolling or spraying and will look very good after the first day, but its performance will continue to improve for up to 6 weeks by which time the acrylic mixtures should be fully cured and clarified. Following these instructions when applying Screen Goo coatings will give you a uniform high-performance screen surface that will look fantastic for many years to come. Sit back and enjoy, you will not believe your eyes! Why Goo instead of typical wall paint? Wall paint is designed and engineered principally to cover an underlying surface and to provide color in a room. These are relatively straightforward objectives and they are accomplished by paint manufacturers through the use of an inexpensive dispersion medium (typically, water-based acrylic or an oil-based medium) to which a pigment or pigments are added to provide color. Usually, relatively small amounts of pigment are used and then supplemented with extenders whose main purpose is to reduce the amount of expensive pigment required to produce the desired color. This can be done because the quantity of light reflected by wall paint is relatively unimportant. By contrast, Screen Goo has been specifically engineered to accurately reflect and disperse the complex colored light patterns produced by video projectors. To that end, Screen Goo starts by employing a premium acrylic dispersion with very low light absorption characteristics and excellent durability. To minimize light loss and to ensure color fidelity, Screen Goo uses much greater concentrations of pigment than those found in house paint. These pigments are carefully chosen to accurately reflect the full spectrum of color produced by video projectors as opposed to house paints where the goal is to reflect that portion of the light which produces the single desired color. In addition, Goo Systems employs proprietary dispersion and pigment treatment techniques to maximize the reflective properties of the pigments employed. These techniques require custom built machinery and are very time and labor intensive. Lastly, unlike wall paint which involves the application of a single product, a Screen Goo application consists of two different products. Screen Goo Reflective Coats provide an ideal reflective surface to which a diffusive, color correct Finish Coat is added. It is the combination of the reflective Reflective Coat and the diffusive Finish Coat which gives a Screen Goo screen its remarkable qualities of high reflectivity, color accuracy, wide viewing angles and excellent contrast. The icing on the cake is the very special sense of image depth, or feeling of looking into the picture that only a Screen Goo screen provides. Why a Grey coating instead of white? One of the key properties of high quality projected video is contrast. Contrast is defined as the difference between the brightest and darkest portions of an image. The latest generations of digital projectors have very little difficulty in producing high levels of brightness. However, the darker areas of an image, specifically black areas, are a different matter entirely. Black is defined as the absence of light. Any light in a room, even light produced by the projector and reflected from the rooms wall and ceilings, will compromise the accurate reproduction of black. By using a neutral grey reflective surface, or screen, the levels of incidental or unwanted light can be significantly reduced without affecting color accuracy and overly compromising image brightness. Less unwanted reflected light means better black levels, which in turn means enhanced contrast. Unless the viewing room is completely light controlled, including dark, non-reflective walls and ceiling, a grey screen will always provide better black levels and higher contrast than a white screen. Goo Systems "Which Goo" online calculator will help you decide which of the Screen Goo grey coatings will provide the maximum possible contrast in your room with your projector. My projector is not listed on the calculator, now what? Simply select "Other" from the projector drop down menu and enter the requested projector specifications. You can then proceed as if your projector was one the models already listed in the projector drop down menu.