Stewart Filmscreen makes Director's Choice Gen 2 shallower and easier to service
Enclosure depth drops from 16.5 to 7.25 inches on Director's Choice Generation 2, Stewart Filmscreen's masking screen, which adds QuickSnap servicing and Somfy control and won a CEDIA BEST Award.
Four-way masking that once needed 16.5 inches of ceiling pocket now needs 7.25. Director's Choice Generation 2, which Stewart Filmscreen introduced at CEDIA 2026, cuts the enclosure depth by more than half while still supporting image widths up to 20 feet with roughly 7-inch borders. The system went on to win a 2026 CEDIA BEST Award in the projection screens category, with entries judged on innovation, functionality, competitive advantage and benefit to the installer.
Stewart says the four masking panels are individually motorised and independently joggable, so an installer can store a custom aspect ratio at any scale rather than choosing from fixed presets.
From 16.5 inches to 7.25
On the outgoing EVO-generation enclosure, fitting a 20-foot-wide masking screen into a ceiling pocket meant finding 16.5 inches of clear depth, often in direct competition with HVAC trunking, lighting or acoustic treatment for the same soffit space. At 7.25 inches, Director's Choice Gen 2 opens up rooms that previously could not accommodate four-way masking at that scale at all. Stewart VP of sales Adrian Silva framed the redesign around a broader trend: he said products will need to become less visually intrusive, easier to integrate and more flexible in installation and control as custom theatres get built into tighter architectural envelopes.
QuickSnap servicing and Somfy control
The design adds a QuickSnap front-loading screen attachment, which lets the screen material be attached from the front of the frame rather than requiring the whole unit to be pulled from its pocket, and the fascia is removable for access. For a masking screen mounted permanently in a finished ceiling, that is the difference between a five-minute material swap and a service call that involves scaffolding.
Somfy Digital Network (SDN) compatibility covers automation systems including Crestron, Control4, AMX and Clipsal. These details may sound mundane, but they count when a premium screen needs to remain accessible and controllable after the room is finished.
On the CEDIA show floor
Stewart paired Director's Choice Generation 2 with Epson's 10,000-lumen QL7000 4K laser projector for a 215-inch, 2.0:1 cinematic display at CEDIA 2026, a format chosen to suit the growing library of 2.0:1 streaming content. The QL7000 uses 3LCD laser illumination with pixel-shift 4K and HDR10 and HLG support, and lists at $32,999 for the projector body alone. It is also the kind of setup where masking earns its place: hiding unused screen area when the content aspect ratio changes lifts perceived contrast and makes the room feel more intentional, especially in a reference-style cinema.
Sources
- https://www.cepro.com/sponsored/behind-the-silver-screen-with-stewart-filmscreen-on-the-directors-choice-gen-2/627995
- https://www.stewartfilmscreen.com/en/screens/directors-choice
- https://www.ecoustics.com/news/epson-stewart-filmscreen-cedia-expo-2026/
- https://www.projectorcentral.com/projectorcentral-2026-cedia-awards.htm
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