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By: Richard Del Cazzo
Web site: http://www.hdtv-hdtv.com
You can't stop marveling at a T. rex thundering across the
giant movie screen at the neighborhood multiplex. But what
you might not have known is that the company that invented
the silver screen has been based in Warsaw for half a century.
Da-Lite Screen Co., whose founder invented the movie screen,
employs about 600 worldwide including about 350 in Warsaw.
Business appears to be going well for the company. Da-Lite
is adding about 30 mostly manufacturing jobs with customer
demand up about 15 percent compared with the same time last
year, the company's Wendy Long said. The privately held company
did not disclose revenues.
"Our business is just growing, so we're increasing our
(production) capacity," Long said.
The global audiovisual industry, which includes screens,
projectors and audio equipment, is a $6 billion to $7 billion
industry, said Randal Lemke, executive director of International
Communications Industries Association, a Fairfax, Va.-based
trade association representing the audiovisual industry.
The projection screen industry, which got its start in the
movie business, took off in the 1960 with the use of overhead
projectors in schools, followed by the computer boom of the
'80s, Lemke said.
"All of the display for data from computers has to go
up on a screen someplace," he said.
The '90s also introduced home theater technology, which transplanted
the movie theater experience into living rooms, Lemke said.
Most high-end home theaters use projectors that require a
projection screen, though some use plasma televisions, Lemke
said.
The home theater segment and business applications are Da-Lite's
major growth markets, Long said.
Da-Lite primarily makes projection screens used in home theater
systems, schools and businesses. The company also makes audiovisual-related
furniture such as lecterns, easels and carts.
Da-Lite takes credit for a number of innovations including
developing the first electrically operated screen and the
first perforated screen, which allow speakers to transmit
sound from behind the screen, Long said.
Today's projection screens vary in size from 50 inches to
30 feet and are made of fiberglass, acrylic and flexible vinyl,
Long said. Models include simple pull-down and motorized versions
to screens that can be connected to and controlled by a computer
network.
Although Da-Lite's screens are similar to competitors', the
company's strong customer service sets it apart, said Robert
Martin, account manager with Indianapolis-based Markey's Audio
Visual.
"I have been selling their products for 22 years, and
I've found them to be one of the most helpful companies,"
Martin said about Da-Lite. "If you need something custom,
they typically will bend over backward to take care of you."
The majority of projection screens sold at Markey's Fort
Wayne store, where Martin is based, are the Da-Lite brand.
The store primarily sells to businesses, schools and churches.
Da-Lite offers a wide quality of projector screens and is
quick in getting product to dealers, said Darrell Henline,
controller at Classic Stereo, a Fort Wayne-based electronics
retailer.
Although demand for projector screens is higher in the commercial
sector, it is fairly strong in the home theater business,
too, he said. Size and cost are factors for projection screens'
growing popularity.
"A plasma television is limited to a 60-inch screen,
but you can go as large as you want with a projection screen,"
Martin said.
A 42-inch plasma television, for instance, costs about $4,000
to $6,000. A projector and screen, meanwhile can be bought
for the about the same cost, he said, "plus you've got
a larger image."
Projection screens and televisions also serve different needs,
Classic Stereo's Henline said.
"If you want a huge screen, that's where you go to front
projection, where you can get a 120-inch (screen)," he
said. "But you don't have quite the quality that you
would from a plasma or LCD television."
Although projection screen technology itself does not rapidly
change, projectors and other related products are constantly
evolving, Long said.
Da-Lite has been a staple in the Warsaw community for decades,
but the company's roots are elsewhere.
Founded in Chicago in 1909 by Adelle DeBeri, the inventor
of the movie screen, the company moved to Warsaw in 1954.
Da-Lite moved to Warsaw because it was an inexpensive city
and had a growing labor force, which was attractive to the
company, Long said.
And Warsaw's proximity to Fort Wayne and its workforce continue
to make it attractive for Da-Lite.
"We have a large pool of people to draw from,"
Long said. "We've got some very good local colleges,
. . . that we are able to recruit graduates from. It's a nice
place to grow up in, to raise kids."
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