Installing plasma/lcd mounts

["White, Peter" <peter.white@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've posted this on avforums, but thought there might be people on here
that
may have some views....

----------------------
My company has an opportunity to bid for installing plasma and LCD panels
for a major OEM. They're looking to offer 3 packages in the Home market.
The
first 2 are fine, just different amounts of gear connected together,
however
the 3rd option includes wall mounting the screen (and, in theory,
chasing/hiding the speaker wires). All the requirements so far have come
from the US, where (generally speaking) the construction of the houses are
more of a known quantity. However here in the UK and Europe the walls can
be
made of anything from wattle and daub through to stone.

My question is really aimed at the installers on this forum; bearing in
mind
the variations in wall types, how do you cope for every, or most,
eventualities? I suspect the answer would be to do a site survey in
advance,
and/or carry lots of tools and fixtures to cope with any situation. However
in this instance we're looking at high volume work, with lower margins than
are typically associated with AV installs, so would you have any
suggestions
on how best to deal with this? As we currently see it (bearing in mind we
HAVE to keep our costs relatively low), we have the following options:

- Run a pre-installation site visit for a nominal fee that would be
refundable if the install goes ahead
- Partner with a national installations or building/carpentry firm to
install the bracket, and let our engineers do the technical stuff
- Just ask the client what wall type they have. If they're wrong once we
turn up, then we reserve the option to walk away.

One of the many issues we have is that our engineers currently only carry
the tools needed to service a PC, and indeed, many of them will not have
the
skills required to install a plasma bracket. I guess that can be trained
into them, but really we're just looking for the easiest, least risk
solution.

Just looking for views and ideas really, any input welcome....
----------------------

Thanks all!


Pete



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