A flat-panel TV is probably in your future, if not already in your home. But many new owners of big-screen plasma and LCD sets find that their setups need some reconfiguring to accommodate these newest and leanest members of their home-entertainment families. In other words, the big and bulky cabinets designed to accommodate large tube TVs are out and thin is in.

"When people make the change to plasma, they frequently have to change their entertainment units," observes Leslie Young, president of Cliff Young, Ltd., a New York City-based interior-design company specializing in A/V furnishings. "They had these huge units that just aren’t appropriate anymore. We don’t even need to push the business in the direction of plasma sets — our customers are doing that for us. Plasma is creating a lot of demand for new screen-mounting and furnishing solutions."

Flat-panel TVs have an obvious aesthetic appeal that’s led to women being as involved in the decision to buy a set as men. "I literally see it every day," Young says. "Plasmas provide a solution for both members of the couple, who are driven by different reasons."

Mark and Addie Van Gessel of Marina Del Rey, California, are a prime example of a couple collaborating on the buying decision. They were both involved because they both stood to benefit by it. "The older big TVs were just awful," Addie says, "and I fought getting one for a long time. But a plasma is much more aesthetically pleasing and I was all for buying one. We had a 27-inch TV before, and that was okay because we have limited space. But now we have a 42-inch screen, and it’s great because it’s hanging on the wall."

PREPARE TO MOUNT

Mark Van Gessel installed the plasma on the living-room wall himself. If you decide to take on the project, make sure the framing is strong enough for the weight of your flat-panel TV. "With the bigger screens, you might have to add reinforcement," notes Bruce Garipay, president of the custom-installation firm Electronic Concierge of Phoenix, Arizona, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. "To put the plasma where the homeowner wanted it to be, we’ve cut out drywall and put in extra framing. For homes with steel studs, you usually have to add wooden bracing perpendicular to the studs. There’s also a special mount for concrete-block homes."

If the arrangement of your wall studs won’t let you put your flat-panel TV where you want it, tilting mounts from companies like Chief, OmniMount, Peerless, and Sanus ($200 to $700) offer extra installation flexibility. "With these mounts, the bracket the plasma attaches to can slide about a foot or so right or left," Garipay says (see above).

These companies also offer articulating or cantilevered mounts ($200 to $800) that let you pull the TV away from the wall and turn it to either side. Garipay points out that “if the plasma is mounted in a living room or family room and there’s an adjacent kitchen or dining nook, you can position the TV so it’s visible in the other room.” The Van Gessels’ set, for example, can be turned so they can watch it in the kitchen.

Another concern is getting power to your TV without having a thick cord hanging down the wall. "With new construction, you can address that with the contractor," explains Jack Mixon, co-owner of Ensemble Audio in Nashua, New Hampshire. "But it’s more of an issue with an existing home." One solution is to place an electrical junction box in the wall behind the TV. "We like to locate the electrical source and other A/V connections behind the plasma for a minimalist look," says Garipay.

He recommends concealing the wiring in the wall when you mount the set. "You want to get the wiring into the drywall behind the display and then bring it out where the rest of the components are," he said. "If you have to open the wall to mount the plasma, put conduit behind it. That will let you pull any sort of cable you want in the future."

For a more integrated appearance, a flat-panel TV can be recessed into the wall so that it fits flush — but make sure the screen is properly ventilated so it doesn’t overheat. "You have to be careful since the cooling fans are usually on the back of a plasma and toward the top," Garipay observes. "We usually try to dissipate the heat by creating vents that push the air away from the set or by directing it into a return duct for the house’s air conditioning."

HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT

Recessing the TV makes it easier to cover the screen when it’s not in use, and there are several products available to help wall-ensconced flat panels blend in. Eli Wilner & Co. sells high-end frames for flat-panel TVs ($10,000 to $20,000) in over 3,000 styles modeled after elaborately carved and decorated Old Master picture frames. Vutec and VisionArt offer frames, in dozens of styles, that can be combined with retractable artwork that slides over the TV screen (see below). Vutec’s ArtScreens start at $2,800 for a 42-inch flat-panel TV and go up to $5,500 for larger screens, while VisionArt’s run between $3,500 and $7,500.

Maybe the best way to make a flat-panel set disappear is to make it, well, disappear. A custom installer can mount the TV so that it lifts out of a tabletop, drops from the ceiling, or pops out of a piece of furniture at the foot of a bed. Motorized flat-panel TV mounts ($1,000 to $5,000) are available from companies like Auton, Cabinet Tronix, Chief, Draper, and Ginni Designs. Installing the necessary hardware is best left to professionals like CEDIA-certified installers (cedia.net has a free finder service).

OFF THE WALL

While hanging a flat-panel set on the wall is a popular and attractive option, many people are finding that it’s more convenient and practical to simply place it on a tabletop stand ($200 and up) or even in an existing cabinet. As these TVs have become more popular, companies such as BDI, Bell’O, Boltz, Green Design, Salamander, Sanus, and Soricé have created a wide variety of furniture to house them. If you want something more elaborate or specifically tailored to your own home, interior designers like Cliff Young, Ltd. offer high-end cabinets or can custom-build furniture.

Another option is to modify a piece of existing or new furniture to accommodate the flat-panel TV and other components. "I’ve seen people keep the exterior of their rustic furniture intact," Garipay says, "but inside is all this high-tech gear." But such retrofitting can get elaborate. "One client had a huge cabinet he’d used for a big rear-projection TV," he says. "I had a cabinetmaker build shelves in the opening used by the old TV, and I put a 60-inch plasma on the top shelf with a tabletop mount. Below the TV are shelves for the equipment, and we also built a shroud around the screen to hide the empty space."

Where to put your speakers can become a problem with a flat-panel TV, especially if it’s mounted on the wall. Fortunately, Definitive Technology, Mirage, Polk, Thiel, and many other companies have responded with slim speakers designed to hang with ultra-thin plasmas. In-wall speakers also go well with flat-panel sets, but they can be hard to mount in existing homes and can have sonic drawbacks if not properly installed.

"You have to decide what you’re looking for," explains Ensemble Audio’s Mixon. "In-walls are fine if you’re only going to use them for home theater and not for music listening. But if you want the best of both worlds — a speaker that’s great for both movies and music — on-wall speakers are usually the better choice."

Thanks to plasma TVs, you don’t have to give up a large chunk of your precious floor space if you want a big screen. “It’s amazing when I walk through my neighborhood at night and see how quickly plasmas have caught on,” observes Addie Van Gessel. “Virtually every house has one. It’s definitely a space saver.” And once your TV gets thin, the rest of your system — and the space it occupies — can downsize too.

Contacts

Auton auton.com BDI bdiusa.com Bell'O bello.com Boltz boltz.com Cabinet Tronix cabinet-tronix.com Chief chiefmfg.com Cliff Young Ltd. cliffyoungltd.com Draper draperinc.com Eli Wilner & Company www.eliwilner.com Ginni Designs ginnidesigns.com Green Design Furniture greendesigns OmniMount omnimount Peerless peerlessindustries.com Salamander Designs salamanderdesigns.com Sanus Systems sanus.com Soricé sorice.com VisionArt solarshadingsystems.com Vutec vutec.com