As luxuries become commodities, the trend continues wherein AV Pros place their focus on selling services and expertise, rather than just hanging their hats on the brands and technologies they work with.

That’s no accident. Ten to twelve years ago, flat panel televisions were remarkable and expensive, and only high end dealers sold them, and there was plenty of money to be made selling them, irrespective of whatever attachments or services went along with them.

That changed virtually overnight (well, really over two to three years, but still swiftly) as brands proliferated, prices dropped and big box stores began vending them. At that time, AV Pros had two distinct strategies to differentiate themselves from big box retail.

The first was to focus on premium brands over mass market. Specialty dealers promoted the performance, benefits, and of course the steep price tags of flat panels from Runco, Fujitsu and Pioneer Elite.

The second was to focus on installation services. At a time when a 50-inch flat panel was an expensive thing of beauty, it seemed sacrilegious to just leave it perched on top of a console or entertainment center. They could be hung on the wall, so they ought to be hung on the wall, and of course the customer could pay handsomely for that service.

Both of these profit strategies have faltered. First with the demise of many of what was already precious few premium branded flat panels.

As if that wasn’t enough, big box stores began offering installation services. Seasoned AV Pros can mock the technical competence of big box installation services all they want; for all their relative ineptitude, they’ve taken a bite out of the installation dollars that used to belong solely to the specialists.

What to do know? One solution is to simply be better than the competition and do things that lesser AV companies dare not attempt.

As dramatic as that sounds, one sub-category that remains the domain of AV Pros is hidden flat-panel installations: hiding the display in floor, wall, ceiling or furniture, and deploying it for use by means of motorized mounts.

There’s one key advantage to hidden display installations. The first is that they can be daunting to design, engineer and install, which means that trunk-slammers and big box stores seldom have the skills to pull them off.

In a world where a 42-inch flat planel sells for $300 and everyone owns one, a concealed installation where the TV slides out of nowhere costs a couple of thousand dollars to make happen, and those installations remain “special.”

I will caution you: I said that concealed installations can be daunting, and I wasn’t kidding. They require serious attention to detail in the design and install phases, as well as partnering with mount vendors who know their business. They’re not always easy to create, and I know more than one veteran AV Pro company who avoid doing them in all but their highest-end projects just because of the complexity.

But don’t let that stop you. Just because something is challenging is no reason to avoid it, provided that the client is willing to pay for it. These days differentiation is everything in this business, so there’s all the more reason to work hard and make your work stand apart from your competitors.

Before you even get started, understand that motorized mount-makers offer a dazzling variety of configurations and solutions, which mean that it’s possible to install a flat panel pretty much anywhere. But beware: Installing a lift is not a last-minute add-on idea. To do it right, you’ll have to start at the beginning.

Incorporating a lift must be included right from the beginning of your project’s design.  In new construction, look at the drawings that your client has supplied, think about the requirements that they’ve outlined of you in their Needs Assessment, and possible TV locations that would benefit from a lift will occur to you.

Think about all the necessary variables, such as sightlines, viewing angles and the logistics of how well the overall size of the necessary hardware might fit into the space you want to place it in.

If you plan to have the TV drop out of the ceiling, consider the ceiling’s height, and calculate how far the TV will have to descend to create a reasonable viewing angle.  No one wants to watch TV with a crick in her neck from watching a TV that’s too high.
Think hard about where you plan on locating the lift, and think about the pros and cons, and educate the client. In one installation I designed, the clients wanted a 42-inch flat panel on a ceiling lift in the kitchen. The best sightlines came from having it installed in front of the range, just forward of the range hood.

I had concerns about this, from a cleanliness perspective. On the one hand, their range hood was a very expensive model that had plenty of airflow, but on the other hand, it was inevitable that grease, dust and smoke particles would make their way into the lift enclosure over time and befoul the TV.  In the end, the clients would not accept the poor sightlines that would come from any other location, and accepted with full understanding that the TV and its lift enclosure would require special attention for cleaning from their household staff at least once a year, maybe more.

Related to location, consider whether or not the TV will deploy to a fixed position, or if it will need to rotate. Think of the “cool factor” that comes from having the TV swivel 180-degrees at the client’s command to be able to view it from two separate locations.  Never underestimate the power of the “cool factor.”

Remember that expression “measure twice, cut once.” Yeah, you’ll need to keep that in mind during design. While some off-the-rack lift designs that are built to accommodate a generic TV size, others are custom-built to the AV Pros’ specifications. This means that you have to be 100 percent certain that the dimensions that you supply to your vendor are accurate.

Two other main concerns are power and control. The electrical needs have to be clearly communicated to the jobsite’s electrician so that the right size box that services the mount, the TV, and any additional equipment is located appropriately, and wired with enough outlets.

Another thing that needs to be figured out in the design phase is how to route the audio.  Are you going to use the TV’s speakers to play the audio from your video sources? Is this TV location going to be stereo or surround? Are you going to integrate a set of speakers into the same enclosure as the TV, so that they deploy and retract along with the TV?  Or are you going to make use of on wall or in-ceiling speakers in the same room to carry the audio?

Whichever decision you make will decide how you wire up the room that the TV lives in. There’s no one best way that you should make a standard in your installs, but it’s a choice that you and your client need to make early, and stick with it. Changing your mind after the home is drywalled and painted will be more trouble to fix than it’s worth.
For the A/V integrator who is either high end, or beginning to trend their business in that direction, just hanging a TV on the wall for your client is entry level. Taking it to the next level means being able to offer your clients remarkable solutions for incorporating their TVs into their décor.

Photos via Inca TV Lifts

Lee Distad is a rAVe columnist and freelance writer covering topics from CE to global business and finance in both print and online. Reach him at lee@ravepubs.com