BRIDGTON, MAINE — October 10, 2021 — Todd Morton wanted the perfect outdoor movie theater setup to watch movies next to a bonfire under the stars and moon with friends and family at his Woods Pond home.
Residential outdoor movie theater inflatable systems took 30 minutes to blow up with an air compressor and they didn’t blend in with his wooded backyard. Telescoping tripods screen frame systems only work on perfectly flat ground and weren’t rugged enough.
He hit his wood shop and built a business.
The Wireless Outdoor Cinema Company launched in the spring of 2020 after a year of prototyping different screen frames and testing various cinema equipment and projector screens.
For 22 years, Morton, 49, worked in the high-technology field as an internet marketer selling consumer products online for companies such as Lycos (the internet search company) and Dragon Naturally Speaking Software (a division now owned by Microsoft).
After a company-wide layoff four years ago, “I took a break, unplugged, and got recharged,” he said. “I knew I wanted to do something different in my career and return to my passion of woodworking and being outside. This idea just laid into place at the right time. I love what I’m doing. Being able to help other homeowners set up a dream outdoor movie theater in the privacy of their backyards at an affordable price is an amazing feeling, especially when you see the excitement on their faces.”
Step one was deciding on a screen frame for his backyard that could remain outdoors permanently and endure Mother Nature year-round. No solutions online fit his outdoor movie theater vision.
“I know from experience that getting anything inflatable has the potential of getting tears or leaks, and I knew the residential outdoor movie theater inflatable systems online were not going to make the cut,” Morton said. “The telescopic tripod screen frame systems I found online and tested were all cheaply made in China and only worked on perfectly flat ground.”
Next was finding a solution for organizing and setting up all the cinema electronics and getting the projector at the proper height to cast movies in perfect alignment with the projector screen. After extensive research online, no products came close to his vision.
“The telescopic tripod projector shelf stands available online can only hold a projector and none of the other cinema electronics,” he said.
Like a DVD player, laptop, receiver, tuner, battery station, or Bluetooth speakers.
“After I built my first screen frame system, the next challenge was setting up the cinema electronics and organizing them,” Morton said. “I would stack milk crates on top of each other and use 5-gallon buckets to place my cinema electronics on, which looked awful. That’s when I decided to design a portable, lightweight projector stand built out of pinewood to organize all of the cinema equipment – similar to an entertainment center. At the end of the night, when the movie is over, all you have to do is bring the projector stand inside your home, and nothing has to be unplugged or boxed up so it’s ready to use for your next outdoor movie night.”
He sells 12-foot wide permanent screen frames to fit 150-inch diagonal screens. Once the screen frames are set up outdoors, they’re built to stay out year-round but remain moveable around the yard. Screen options include manual pull-down projector screens and cinematic grommet hole screens, which take less than two minutes to attach, Morton said.
Screen Frames are built out of 4″ x 4″ pressure-treated lumber and projector stands are built out of a lightweight pinewood in his wood shop and take two to three days. Sales so far have been within Maine, but he can travel all over New England to deliver and set up for customers.
Packages, including screen frame, projector screen, projector and cinema equipment, and custom projector stand, start at $2,899.
His favorite two movies to watch under the stars are “Lost Boys,” “which brings me back to being a teenager hanging out with friends and family watching Halloween movies,” and “Tombstone,” “which reminds me of watching Western movies with my dad.”
