What does Future Automation make?
Future Automation designs and manufactures the mechanisms that move screens out of sight. Its TV range covers lifts that raise a screen out of cabinetry or the floor, including hinged and swivelling versions, manual and motorised wall mounts, ceiling lifts, ceiling hinges that fold a TV down from above, and sliding panel systems that close across a screen to hide it completely. For projectors there are ceiling lifts, a hinge that hides the projector in a wall when the ceiling has no depth, mirror-based concealment for dedicated cinemas, port glass for projection rooms and service mounts that make maintenance easier.
All its motorised mechanisms are made to order and assembled and tested by hand, and the company offers a bespoke design service when no standard product fits. That matters in the homes we work in, where the ceiling heights, joinery and finishes are rarely standard.
Why hide the TV or projector at all?
A large black rectangle is hard to design around. Interior designers working on a drawing room, a library or a principal bedroom often want the television out of sight when it is off, and in a multi-purpose room the same wall may need to read as panelling or joinery by day and carry a 120 inch picture at night. Concealment lets the room keep its proportions and finishes while still offering a proper cinema image.
There is a practical reason too. A projector that only comes down when it is needed is out of the way of guests, children and cleaners the rest of the time, and a screen that drops in front of a TV means the family does not have to choose between an everyday television and a big cinema picture. Our guide to choosing a projector or a TV explains why many of the rooms we design end up with both.
Planning a hidden projector with architects, joiners and interior designers
Concealment succeeds or fails at drawing stage, long before the mechanism arrives. For a ceiling projector lift we need the void depth confirmed early. Future Automation's PDR residential lift needs 263 mm within the finished ceiling in its PDR2 version, which carries up to 15 kg, and 295 mm for the PDR3, which carries up to 45 kg. That depth has to be clear of joists, ductwork and downlights, so we talk to the architect and the mechanical and electrical engineer before the ceiling is set out.
The order of work matters as well. The PDR's in-ceiling frame can be fitted before the mechanism, so the plasterer finishes around it and the motor stays clean. The lid takes matching trim panels that can be painted to the ceiling finish, leaving a 3 mm shadow gap when closed. For a TV lift in a cabinet or a sliding panel in wall joinery, we give the joiner the mechanism's dimensions and clearances before the carcass is built, and agree who supplies the facing panel, the ventilation and a removable access panel for servicing.
Power, a control cable and a network point all need to reach the mechanism, and the screen size should be fixed before any of this, using our screen size and viewing distance guide. Our home cinema design service brings the drawings for all these trades together in one set.
