My basement is being finished with a drop ceiling, and I am putting a small home theater in it. I bought an Optoma HD65 projector to mount on the drop ceiling…but how do I do it?! Can I use any universal projector ceiling mount or is there a special type I need to buy? What is the installation process?
Thanks for your help.
There are many ways to do this safely – I have installed many projectors in drop ceilings.
An easy way is to cut a piece of plywood that is as wide as the tile (2 feet?) and use that on top of the tile. You would mount the projector mount to the bottom of the ceiling tile with the screws going through the mount, tile and plywood. In other words, the plywood will reinforce the tile making it strong enough to hold the projector. This way the ceiling tile grid is holding up the weight of the projector. It is also a good idea to attach some type of safety cable from the top of the tile to something secure up in the ceiling above the projector.
Another way is to get a mount that includes a vertical pipe and mount that to the floor above the ceiling.
The bottom line is that a flimsy ceiling tile cannot support the projector and mount all by itself – you must make sure the projector will not fall and hurt someone and break your nice projector.
http://www. mountsandmore. com/OmniMount-PMD-. 5-P-OM0119. html
The tile in your drop ceiling is attached to something. In most cases it will be slats of wood across support beams.
It shouldn’t be all that hard to place a 1X6 strip of wood so that it is flush with how the tile lays. This wood (use screws to properly attach the strip). Now reattach your tile.
You will now have a solid under structure to support your ceiling mount.