Hollywood Home Hides 103-inch Plasma in Ceiling

Have a 103-inch plasma descend from the ceiling? Ben Henkel and his team at Integrated Systems (iSys) in Tarzana, Calif. didn’t know if it could been done.

Panasonic’s titanic plasma had mounting holes for its own wall-mount system, but not for any commercially available motorized lift on the market. A lift would have to be completely customized. So Henkel turned to Art Walker at Activated Designs in Valencia, Calif. to make something that could carry the 485-pounder.

Walker built a pretty standard but heavy-duty lift that uses a rack-and-pinion like mechanism to lower the plasma from a 4-by-10-foot wall cavity above this great room/family room/rec room. Walker’s lift lowers the plasma in about 10 seconds. And Walker’s elegant lift also uses hydraulics, so it doesn’t sound like a freight train when it lowers the plasma out of the ceiling.

The plasma lowers on side rails in the cavity, but the only visible piece of the lift when it’s in place is the center post.

Getting the lift and plasma screen in place were challenges in and of themselves. By the time the lift was ready to be installed, the ceiling had been framed out, so Henkel’s crew had to take the lift apart and install it in three parts. This meant making sure they lined up the two side rails perfectly. The lift installation took two nights. Then it was time to hoist 485 pounds of 1080p-capable HD. This requires some scaffolding, six men, and a lot of care. But Walker’s customized mounting system worked to perfection, and the 103-inch display was soon doing the old up and down in this room.

The mammoth plasma screen wasn’t the only unique aspect of this installation, though. The owner of the house, a Hollywood actor who lives in the Hollywood Hills overlooking L.A., wanted to be able to view the plasma screen while he was relaxing on the patio by the pool. The mount was designed so the plasma could be rotated 65 degrees to face the patio.

Because of the unique viewing alternatives, the plasma is in the center of the space, which is divided by cabinets beneath the screen. Three Triad InCeiling Mini/8 LCRs provide the front-channel sound, and four more Triad InCeiling Silver/8 Omni SEs supply the surround channels. However, when the actor is on the patio or watching something like CNN, he can press a button on an RTI T2 color touchpanel remote to switch to 7-channel stereo sound, using the full array of surround speakers to listen in simple two-channel stereo.

Two subwoofers boom some bass - and both are hidden. A Velodyne DD-15 fires from the front cabinets, while an in-wall Triad sub rocks ’em from the back side wall.

The equipment rack is in a nearby closet, home to a Lexicon processor and amplifier, Sony Blu-ray player, DirecTV HD receiver, Furman power conditioner, RTI control processor and Triad subwoofer amp.

But we all know the real star of this room. “The whole room was designed around the plasma and the lift,” says Henkel.

How They Did It
Walker has been crafting customized TV lifts for decades. He started with rack-and-pinion-type lifts, in which the TV is transported via a mechanism that travels up and down on side rails via gears. He has since moved on to more innovative mechanisms and takes pride in finding the quietest motors around.

Walker makes sure to overbuild his lifts because “my clients are celebrities and millionaires, and one job leads to others. I want them to be impressed and blown away and tell their friends.”