• CEPro_logo_blue-new
  • TOPICS
      • News
        • People & Places
        • Product Briefs
      • Projects
      • Events
      • Control
        • Central Vac
        • Energy/Power
        • HVAC/IAQ
        • Interfaces/Devices
        • Lighting
        • Motorized Shades
        • Whole House Systems
      • Audio/Video
        • Audio/Video
        • AV Accessories
        • AV Racks
        • Cabling
        • Displays
        • Furniture
        • Headphones
        • Home Theater
        • Media
        • Mounts/Lifts
        • Multiroom AV
        • Projectors/Screens
        • Speakers/Subwoofers
        • Wireless AV
      • Security
        • Access Control
        • Alarms/Sensors
        • Services/Platforms
        • Surveillance/Cameras
      • Business Support
        • Associations/Buying Groups
        • Cell Phone Boosters
        • Distributors/Reps
        • Operations
        • Recurring Revenue
        • Research
        • Sales/Marketing
        • Software Services
        • Tools/Testers
      • Networking
        • Cellular
        • Devices/Equipment
        • Wireless
        • Wired/Installation
      • Markets
        • Builders
        • Commercial
        • Design
        • Europe
        • Outdoors
        • Resimercial
        • Wellness
      • CE Pro Hub Pages
        • Bose
        • Savant
        • Inside Sound United
  • PRODUCTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Reports/Downloads
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Webcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Integrator Jobs
    • Digital Edition
    • CE Pro-iQ
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • CEDIA SHOW UPDATES
    • CEPRO PRINT EDITION
    • CEPRO DIGITAL EDITION
    • CEPRO NEWSLETTERS
  • DISCOVER
    • CEDIA Expo
      • September 29 – October 1
        Dallas, TX
      • VISIT SITE
    • KBIS
      • February 8 – 10
        Orlando, FL
      • VISIT SITE
    • Total Tech Summit
      • October 26 – 28
        Orlando, FL
      • VISIT SITE
    • Commercial Integrator
      • VISIT SITE
    • Security Sales
      • VISIT SITE
    • Tech Decisions
      • VISIT SITE
    • Campus Safety
      • VISIT SITE
    • Design Well
      • VISIT SITE
    • KBB Online
      • VISIT SITE
    • AV-iQ
      • VISIT SITE
    • CE Pro-iQ
      • VISIT SITE
  • Search
  • TOPICS
    • News
      • People & Places
      • Product Briefs
    • Projects
    • Events
    • Control
      • Central Vac
      • Energy/Power
      • HVAC/IAQ
      • Interfaces/Devices
      • Lighting
      • Motorized Shades
      • Whole House Systems
    • Audio/Video
      • Audio/Video
      • AV Accessories
      • AV Racks
      • Cabling
      • Displays
      • Furniture
      • Headphones
      • Home Theater
      • Media
      • Mounts/Lifts
      • Multiroom AV
      • Projectors/Screens
      • Speakers/Subwoofers
      • Wireless AV
    • Security
      • Access Control
      • Alarms/Sensors
      • Services/Platforms
      • Surveillance/Cameras
    • Business Support
      • Associations/Buying Groups
      • Cell Phone Boosters
      • Distributors/Reps
      • Operations
      • Recurring Revenue
      • Research
      • Sales/Marketing
      • Software Services
      • Tools/Testers
    • Networking
      • Cellular
      • Devices/Equipment
      • Wireless
      • Wired/Installation
    • Markets
      • Builders
      • Commercial
      • Design
      • Europe
      • Outdoors
      • Resimercial
      • Wellness
    • CE Pro Hub Pages
      • Savant
      • Bose
      • Inside Sound United
  • PRODUCTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Reports/Downloads
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Webcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Integrator Jobs
    • Digital Edition
    • CE Pro-IQ
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • CEPRO PRINT EDITION
    • CEPRO DIGITAL EDITION
    • CEPRO NEWSLETTERS
    • CEDIA SHOW UPDATES
  • DISCOVER
    • Cedia Expo
      VISIT SITE
    • Commercial Integrator
      VISIT SITE
    • Security Sales
      VISIT SITE
    • Tech Decisions
      VISIT SITE
    • Campus Safety
      VISIT SITE
    • Design Well
      VISIT SITE
    • Total Tech Summit
      VISIT SITE
    • KBB Online
      VISIT SITE
    • AV-iQ
    • CE Pro-iQ
M
POPULAR SEARCHES
News
Projects
Control
Audio Video
Security
Business Support
Markets
SUBSCRIBE CEDIA EXPO CEPro-iQ
Audio/Video | Design | Events | ISE | Markets | Mounts/Lifts | News | Products
July 11, 2022

Nexus 21 Helps Dealers Own the Ceiling, Satisfy Design Specifiers

The motorized mounts/lifts specialist showcased greater positioning functionality, aesthetic enhancement and installation flexibility at ISE 2020.
Arlen Schweiger  

The drop-down and swivel L-75ix and flip-down and extend CL-65e were among motorized highlights at Nexus 21's ISE 2020 booth.

Article:
Audio/Video | Design | Events | ISE | Markets | Mounts/Lifts | News | Products
July 11, 2022

Nexus 21 Helps Dealers Own the Ceiling, Satisfy Design Specifiers

The ability to hide technology or make it unobtrusive has always been one a hallmark differentiator for custom integrators. Motorized items such as mounts and lifts remain the “ace up their sleeve” for achieving such results, and lately manufacturing partners are dealing out more ways to give integrators a winning hand with clients.

More design-minded customers and those who work with specifiers, plus increasingly larger and thinner displays have changed the installation game these days, Cory Lovett, CEO of Nexus 21, explained during the recent Integrated Systems Europe 2020 show in Amsterdam.

“We listen to integrators and they have requests, they always have motorized things but now they need to be a little bit different,” Lovett says.

“They need more automated function, they need options for larger TV screens, they need better forms of control. So these are things we’ve been trying to address.”

Making Designers and Architects Happy

Lovett adds that integrators are working more – or trying to work more – with interior designers and architects. So the visual impact of technology is more front and center in their potential solution designs.

CE Pro 2022 Product Guide

CE Pro's 2022 Product Guide showcases some of the latest and innovative solutions from manufacturers serving the custom electronics industry in a cross-section of categories.

Download the guide now!

“We came in originally with a lot of mechanical solutions, but they need to be more aesthetically sound,” Lovett says. “The integrators are getting specifiers like architects and designers telling them the space and the flow of a home is important – we want technology but we need to preserve the aesthetic.”

To assist as this trend continues to influence projects, Nexus 21 has tweaked its versatile product designs of late, adding things like more positional features and IP control and two-way communications.

“In other words, more options for positioning devices, which provides more design freedom for architects and designers,” Lovett says. “If you have to orient every seating area in the home to the one wall with the display, obviously it creates headaches for them, so you don’t want to do that.

As an example, he cites Nexus 21’s L-75ix drop-down and swivel for displays up to 75 diagonal inches. The original version lowered from the ceiling as well, but its positioning was constrained by the direction of a particular room’s ceiling joists. If the room’s seating didn’t jibe with the layout of the joists, then so much for hiding the display with the slick motorized drop-down.

The L-75ix in action at Nexus 21’s ISE 2020 booth in Amsterdam.

But for an innovative company like Nexus 21, the solution presented itself: add motorized swivel functionality.

“We’ve had requests for a long time to give [integrators] the ability to drop it down and anywhere in 360 degrees, plus you can use multiple angles now with this,” Lovett cites. “So if you have a living room over there and a kitchen over here, then the device can serve both rooms – you get a lot of benefits from having that motorized swivel capability.

“Now the remodeler can use the least expensive or least invasive construction methods but still provide the position anywhere in the room with that TV,” he adds.

“They can cut where it’s the least damaging to the home and requires the least amount of expense and time and redo. By giving them that positional functionality, they can now select the easiest construction method and still face the TV any way you need.”

‘Technology in Motion’ Sends a Message

It’s part of why the company now goes by the broader tagline “Technology in Motion” as opposed to its original “Nexus 21 Concealment Systems,” Lovett says. “It’s less about concealment and more about multiple-use rooms.”

He points out that ceilings in general have become a more favorable concealment environment, compared with pop-up boxes at the foot of the bed, for instance, that Nexus 21 commonly sold in the past.

“Nobody wants to build a piece of furniture or have it at the end of the bed. Sometimes they don’t want to see it at all,” he says. “And that’s where the ceilings are so handy.”

Nexus 21 CEO Cory Lovett ISE 2020
Nexus 21 CEO Cory Lovett says products that enable flexible display installations from ceiling positions are popular with designers, architects and remodelers.

Of course, not every room will have the luxury of lots of above-ceiling height to stow a big display, and for those instances another key motorized product integrators can implement is the CL-65e flip-down and extend lift. Lovett says it’s becoming a hit with not only residential spaces, but commercial and especially watercraft – in fact the CL-65e is the company’s top-selling product into the marine market.

It only requires 7 inches of clearance above the ceiling, plus another version enables integrators or remodelers to bolt the lift directly to the ceiling (if they can’t cut into it) and build a finishing box or soffit around it. Meanwhile, the extender aspect lowers the display up to 24 inches for improved viewing and greater installation flexibility.


Related: Integrator Rescues Ye Olde Poolside with Clever TV Install #SoCustom

“What’s new about this for us is that it comes down and drops down, so you can use it with higher ceilings,” Lovett adds. “It used to be that we had it only a flip-down, but with 12-foot ceilings that’s still pretty high, that’s why we added this extender.”

Now available for displays up to 65 inches, the company is working on a flip-down and extend model that will house up to an 85-inch screen by CEDIA Expo 2020, Lovett says.

“Ceilings are becoming our biggest growth sector, which I didn’t see up until a couple years ago – I thought pop-ups were going to be the thing,” he admits.

Lovett notes that in these examples Nexus 21 tries to set up its dealers for better success by keeping costs down (20%-45% less than the competition, he says) and turnaround time fast (built in advance, most products ship within a few days of ordering). The company also touts a 10-year warranty and in-house customer support to aid integrators.

Apex Adds Motorized On-Wall Appeal

Below the ceiling, Nexus 21 also showed in its ISE booth the motorized Apex Wall Mount, which came out last year and just began shipping. The company showed a couple of versions of the ultra-thin mount, one mounted to the surface of the wall, another where the back box is inset and enables the display to sit only about an inch off the wall.

Nexus 21 Apex mount ISE 2020
Nexus 21 showed surface-mount and inset versions of its Apex product.

“It’s very impressive, because you don’t even know that there’s a motorized mount back there,” he says.

Lovett adds that the articulating mount includes a drive release in case people happen to push or pull on it, and it won’t break – something that has hampered similar products that users would push/pull mistakenly thinking they were manual articulators.

The “smart drive technology,” as Nexus 21 calls it allows people to move the mount manually as many times as they want.

“It always knows where it is in its travel and you can’t break it. It’s also extremely safe,” Lovett says. “You can have a kid’s arm in there when it closes and that smart drive will let go.”

The company doesn’t intend for the Apex to be used manually, but the smart drive technology offers a bit of protection for dealers against user error and resulting finger-pointing.

“If the thing breaks, who’s responsible? Can you prove that it’s a warranty issue or did the client mishandle it … and then who’s going to pay to replace the mount, whose fault is it?” asks Lovett. “When I speak to dealers about that, it instantly resonates because it’s a story they’ve heard many times.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Follow
Arlen Schweiger:
Arlen Schweiger is executive editor of CE Pro and former managing editor of sister publications Commercial Integrator and Security Sales & Integration. Arlen contributes installation features, business profiles, manufacturer news and product reviews.
View Arlen Schweiger's complete profile

ARTICLE TOPICS

Audio/Video • Design • Events • ISE • Markets • Mounts/Lifts • News • Products

ARTICLE TAGS

Design • Mount • Nexus21

SHARE

Share On Facebook
Share On Twitter
Share On Linkedin
Share On Whatsapp
Share Via Email
Copy URL
← Previous Article Next Article →
Article Audio/VideoCommercialControlDesignEventsISELightingMarketsOutdoorsPress ReleasesProductsResimercialWellnessWhole-House Systems

KSCAPE RAIL Lighting/Audio Solution to Debut at ISE 2023

KSCAPE notes that its new model of RAIL integrates Casambi for the ultimate ‘plug-and-play’ light audio system solution.
Article Business SupportNewsSoftware/Services

Portal API Integrates with iPoint

Portal.io opens its API to other business management software solutions, and announces its first integration is with iPoint.
Article Audio/VideoCommercialControlDesignEventsISELightingMarketsOutdoorsPress ReleasesProductsResimercialWellnessWhole-House Systems

KSCAPE RAIL Lighting/Audio Solution to Debut at ISE 2023

KSCAPE notes that its new model of RAIL integrates Casambi for the ultimate ‘plug-and-play’ light audio system solution.
Article Audio/VideoDesignLightingMotorized ShadesProjectors/ScreensSpeakers/Subwoofers

Technology Has Become an Interior Design Statement All Its Own

From LED light fixtures to loudspeakers to shades, access control and keypads, to solutions used as ways to conceal technology, design was on everyone’s minds at the recent CEDIA Expo in Dallas.

SHOW NEWSLETTER

Sign Up

CE Pro

Subscribe Sign Up

Content Types

News
Products
Projects
Companies
Downloads
Webcasts
Podcasts
Events

Specials

IntegratorJobs
CEDIA EXPO
CE Pro 100
CE Pro Summit
Awards Programs

Company Info

About
Contact Us
Customer Service
Media Solutions & Advertising

Subscribe

Magazine
Newsletters
Digital Edition

Connect

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
RSS Feed

Categories

AUDIO/VIDEO
AV Accessories
AV Racks
Amplifiers/Receivers
Cabling
Displays
Furniture
Mounts/Lifts
Multiroom AV
Projector Screens
Speakers/Subwoofers
Wireless AV
CONTROL
Central Vac
Energy/Power
Interfaces/Devices
HVAC/IAQ
Lighting
Motorized Shades
Whole-House Systems
NETWORKING
Cellular
Devices/Equipment
Wireless
Wiring/Installation
SECURITY
Access Control
Alarms/Sensors
Services/Platforms
Surveillance Cameras
BUSINESS SUPPORT
Associations/Buying Groups
Distributors/Reps
Operations
Recurring Revenue
Research
Sales/Marketing
Software/Services
Tools/Testers
MARKETS
Builders
Commercial
Design
Europe
Outdoors
Wellness
FOLLOW US ON
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

© 2023 Emerald X, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

  • ABOUT
  • CAREERS
  • TERMS OF USE
  • PRIVACY POLICY