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Inca Lifts: 10 Things You Might Not Know
Did you know that every Inca motorized lift is custom made in its Calif. shop? That the company has the best animated demos in the biz? Why Inca doesn't make under-bed mounts?
Inca Corp. has been motorizing TV mounts and projector lifts for nearly 40 years.
Its products are such fixtures in the A/V world that integrators often take them for granted.
I thought I knew Inca pretty well: They make motorized things for A/V stuff, their products are expensive, everyone in the A/V industry knows them, and they’ve been around for a long time.
During a recent visit to Inca headquarters in Gardena, Calif., with sales manager Sheree Aguirre as my guide, I learned a few things about the company that I didn’t know before:
When it comes to Inca's more complicated lifts, “Everything we do is custom-made.”
You can buy several standard products off-the-shelf such as pop-up lifts and swivels, but anything with a glider, slide-slider, fold-down or other complicated assembly is custom-fabricated in the Inca shop.
No wonder we have a tough time getting prices out of Inca.
“You can’t just say, ‘Give me a price for a 42-inch TV,’” Aguirre says. “TVs come in all different dimensions and we want to make sure the mount fits.”
Aguirre says Inca was the first company to deliver fold-down TV mounts, and she advises dealers and customers not to skimp on one of these.
“Ours are expensive, but they’re rugged,” she says. “They last longer.”
A fold-down motorized mount takes about four weeks to produce and can cost around $10,000. As with its other products, Inca provides dealers with dimensional drawings so if the originally specified TV changes, they can pick a new display that fits the custom-made mount.
Everyone has a big TV now, so there’s no need to show it off … and that’s a good thing for makers of motorized TV-hiding devices.
“When plasmas first come out, they were a status symbol so they [consumers] put them on the walls,” says Aguirre. “Now everybody has one so they want to hide them.”
Motorization isn’t just for TVs anymore. Aguirre tells of one client that used an Inca lift for accessing and hiding a toaster, blender, microwave oven and other erstwhile kitchen clutter.
“They want to see the counter spaces,” she says.
Inca has also helped to hide computer monitors (one stockbroker stashed five of them), stow fishing gear in a motor boat, drop a safe into hiding, and moved walls to obscure a kitchen during dinner parties.
In another case, an Inca lift was used to adjust the desk height (as with this table) for a customer with back issues.
Psst … don’t forget the loudspeakers and the sliding doors.
Don’t forget the dumbwaiter. Inca makes those, too.
Aguirre explains there are plenty of applications for these “old fashioned” machines – not just for hoisting dinner plates and tea trays, but also for lifting and lowering groceries, garbage and laundry.
It’s all the rage these days – mounts that lift a flat panel from beneath the bed into proper viewing position. But Inca isn’t going there, at least not yet. The company has concerns about the safety of these mechanisms. You never know where Fido might be napping.
One of Inca’s proudest accomplishments is the newish flat-screen TV glider system.
Let’s say you have a flat screen hidden in a narrow cabinet against a wall in the family room. It lifts up for a straight-on view if you’re seated right in front of the display.
But, then, what if you want the TV to pivot all the way to the right for viewing in the kitchen, or all the way to the left for viewing in the game room? Typically, the TV would have to extend way out from the wall – the distance of at least half the width of the display – to accommodate the swiveling.
However, Inca’s glider system eliminates the need for an extra motor to extend the TV from the wall. Instead of the mount pivoting around a center rod, the mount glides from left to right across the rod as it simultaneously swivels. At peak extension, the TV is balanced on its left or right corner.
The result, says Aguirre, “You can have a cabinet closer to the wall, like eight or 10 inches.”
The idea came to Inca after a customer requested a corner-mounted pivot “in order to get more swivel” in one direction, Aguirre says.
If one direction is good, then two directions must be twice as good!
Motors can be so noisy. There’s nothing worse than disturbing a sleeping spouse when you want to raise up or flip down a television.
Inca now has an ultra-silent lift, so consumers have a choice: save a few shekels and deal with a little grinding, or pay a little more to enjoy some peace and quiet – until you turn the TV on, of course.
Automation rut? Inca inspires with online animations showing TVs (and tea pots and other things) lifting up, folding town, pulling out and swiveling every which way.
For the client who thinks he has everything … have a look at some of these demos.
Here’s my favorite.
About 70% of Inca’s business is residential. With all of those industrial-strength products, who knew?
About Inca
Inca Corp.
Manufacturer of motorized and automated systems to move TVs, tables, appliances and other devices, as well as the items that conceal them.
Founded 1971
(310) 808-0001
http://inca-tvlifts.com/
Its products are such fixtures in the A/V world that integrators often take them for granted.
I thought I knew Inca pretty well: They make motorized things for A/V stuff, their products are expensive, everyone in the A/V industry knows them, and they’ve been around for a long time.
During a recent visit to Inca headquarters in Gardena, Calif., with sales manager Sheree Aguirre as my guide, I learned a few things about the company that I didn’t know before:
1. All custom
When it comes to Inca's more complicated lifts, “Everything we do is custom-made.”
You can buy several standard products off-the-shelf such as pop-up lifts and swivels, but anything with a glider, slide-slider, fold-down or other complicated assembly is custom-fabricated in the Inca shop.
No wonder we have a tough time getting prices out of Inca.
“You can’t just say, ‘Give me a price for a 42-inch TV,’” Aguirre says. “TVs come in all different dimensions and we want to make sure the mount fits.”
2. First with fold-downs
Aguirre says Inca was the first company to deliver fold-down TV mounts, and she advises dealers and customers not to skimp on one of these.
“Ours are expensive, but they’re rugged,” she says. “They last longer.”
A fold-down motorized mount takes about four weeks to produce and can cost around $10,000. As with its other products, Inca provides dealers with dimensional drawings so if the originally specified TV changes, they can pick a new display that fits the custom-made mount.
3. Flat panels are so passe
Everyone has a big TV now, so there’s no need to show it off … and that’s a good thing for makers of motorized TV-hiding devices.
“When plasmas first come out, they were a status symbol so they [consumers] put them on the walls,” says Aguirre. “Now everybody has one so they want to hide them.”
4. Unusual installs
Motorization isn’t just for TVs anymore. Aguirre tells of one client that used an Inca lift for accessing and hiding a toaster, blender, microwave oven and other erstwhile kitchen clutter.
“They want to see the counter spaces,” she says.
Inca has also helped to hide computer monitors (one stockbroker stashed five of them), stow fishing gear in a motor boat, drop a safe into hiding, and moved walls to obscure a kitchen during dinner parties.
In another case, an Inca lift was used to adjust the desk height (as with this table) for a customer with back issues.
Psst … don’t forget the loudspeakers and the sliding doors.
5. Dumb installs
Don’t forget the dumbwaiter. Inca makes those, too.
Aguirre explains there are plenty of applications for these “old fashioned” machines – not just for hoisting dinner plates and tea trays, but also for lifting and lowering groceries, garbage and laundry.
6. Nothing under the bed
It’s all the rage these days – mounts that lift a flat panel from beneath the bed into proper viewing position. But Inca isn’t going there, at least not yet. The company has concerns about the safety of these mechanisms. You never know where Fido might be napping.
7. Coolest TV mount ever?
One of Inca’s proudest accomplishments is the newish flat-screen TV glider system.
Let’s say you have a flat screen hidden in a narrow cabinet against a wall in the family room. It lifts up for a straight-on view if you’re seated right in front of the display.
But, then, what if you want the TV to pivot all the way to the right for viewing in the kitchen, or all the way to the left for viewing in the game room? Typically, the TV would have to extend way out from the wall – the distance of at least half the width of the display – to accommodate the swiveling.
However, Inca’s glider system eliminates the need for an extra motor to extend the TV from the wall. Instead of the mount pivoting around a center rod, the mount glides from left to right across the rod as it simultaneously swivels. At peak extension, the TV is balanced on its left or right corner.
The result, says Aguirre, “You can have a cabinet closer to the wall, like eight or 10 inches.”
The idea came to Inca after a customer requested a corner-mounted pivot “in order to get more swivel” in one direction, Aguirre says.
If one direction is good, then two directions must be twice as good!
8. Shhh!
Motors can be so noisy. There’s nothing worse than disturbing a sleeping spouse when you want to raise up or flip down a television.
Inca now has an ultra-silent lift, so consumers have a choice: save a few shekels and deal with a little grinding, or pay a little more to enjoy some peace and quiet – until you turn the TV on, of course.
9. Inspiration!
Automation rut? Inca inspires with online animations showing TVs (and tea pots and other things) lifting up, folding town, pulling out and swiveling every which way.
For the client who thinks he has everything … have a look at some of these demos.
Here’s my favorite.
10. Mostly resi
About 70% of Inca’s business is residential. With all of those industrial-strength products, who knew?
About Inca
Inca Corp.
Manufacturer of motorized and automated systems to move TVs, tables, appliances and other devices, as well as the items that conceal them.
Founded 1971
(310) 808-0001
http://inca-tvlifts.com/
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Article Topics
News · Product News · Displays · Mounts and Lifts · Furniture · Mounts · Inca · Hidden Tv · Motorized Lifts · 10 Things · Lifts ·About the Author
Julie Jacobson, Editor-at-large, CE Pro
Julie Jacobson is co-founder of EH Publishing and currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro, mostly in the areas of home automation, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. She majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player with the scars to prove it. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson.
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