A project that's been a long time in the scaffolding state is finally nearing completion: a home cinema that serves as a replacement of the old television. The beamer is an Optoma GT1080e, capable of 1080p projection and relatively low response times. This makes it, hopefully, a nice way of viewing media in high definition and playing video games in the couch. The beamer is mounted on a custom arm (one metre long), providing a two metre wide image at its maximum.

Before the thought of the beamer arose we'd actually wanted to install extra shelves to provide some extra - dearly needed - storage space. The beamer idea came naturally and seems to fit the room well. The beamer setup is completely separate from the shelves, which makes it removable in the future, if need be. I've used a massive hinge which is screwed onto a thick triplex plate, which is in its turn firmly screwed into the wall. If anyone should try and swing off the arm I wonder what would crack first, but I'm fairly confident the hinge would survive the ordeal. The rest of the arm is built completely out of MDF, partly because I had a lot of material leftovers, and partly because it is easy and cheap to manipulate.

Undeployed ...
... and ready for action!

As the beamer is slightly wider than the shelf is deep I had to keep track of that by making the bottom part capable of rotating. I managed to do just that, and it's pretty solid and smooth while actuating. There's a ball bearing in there somewhere, and extra wheels to provide stability. Neat!

Rotated to be stored away.
And rotated 90 degrees in order to face the wall.

I just finished the prototype version, and as my patience is already running thin on the thing I thought to already post some progress on it. Actually finishing it will entail removing material from the arm, which will help to reduce the weight of the mechanism. Perhaps finding some more suitable metal-ware would also be nice, although I'm reasonably happy with what I used now. Then, a nice sand-down and paint job to complete the arm.

Bottom view of deployed state.
The proof of the beamer is in the (uncalibrated) beaming.