Carada Masquerade CIH Review- A Motorized Masking System For Your Projector Screen 3

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Art Feierman

Masquerade CIH Installation

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I don't like installing things. I've given it up. I've torn a hip ligament, messed up rotator cuff, etc. I leave that to those younger or more foolish than I. I normally pay someone to assemble screens that I'm reviewing.

In the case of the Masquerade, I thought I'd try something novel. We had recently moved into the house (which also houses the company), so I asked my general contractors if they wanted to tackle it, as long as they were painting the room. These are two good guys that do impressive work. It must be noted, they never installed a screen before, nevermind a masking system, they're more of the travertine floor, ceiling fan type contractors.

They opened a box, looked at the instructions and said sure.

The blue is the room's flat navy blue paint.

Now, I've read through the instructions for assembly, a couple of times now, and it seems to all be there, and well laid out, but I didn't see the Masquerade assembled.

I can tell you two things. I came back a little more than two hours after I had left (which was as they were unboxing the first box). At that point they were just finishing up.

All the instructions I gave our guys amounted to: Exactly how many inches off the floor I wanted the bottom, and How far from one side wall.

When I returned they plugged it in, handed me the remote, and it worked as promised. I can set to one of four aspect ratios at a push of a button.

So, our contractors, two guys, fully capable of using standard power tools, a level, etc, can follow instructions and assemble and mount in 2 hours. If you aren't using Carada's "MMS" screens, which seem to be their usual surfaces on a mount that makes the installation with the Masquerade especially easy, I assume a little extra time may be needed, with most fixed mount screens. Our contractors didn't report any difficulties. Now that's the way I like my installations done.

For those into some heavy reading, here's a link to the installation manual. As I said, it seems very thorough, and there was nothing apparently missing, to slow my inexperienced (at screens) contractors, from getting it right the first time.

One more thing to add: After several months, and hundreds of aspect ratio changes, it still works smoothly with no strange sounds, scrapes or squeals.