If you decide to scoop up one of the widely popular Plasma TV’s and hang it on the wall yourself, give it plenty of air and plenty of wire. My best advice is to have a professional mount the screen, but do-it-yourself seems to have become a sometimes unwise tradition. Hanging a Plasma is not the same as hanging a mirror. The Plasma glass is more delicate. The Plasma needs power and signal wires. The Plasma runs very hot and needs good ventilation. The Plasma needs to be seen and heard. Because of normal component failure with heat and aging, Plasma screens need to be taken down for repair every few years.

McCann Electronics is a factory authorized service center for almost every brand of Plasma TV. As this high technology has entered the family rooms of our clients over the past five years, we have learned a lot. Here are a few suggestions:

Use the mounting brackets made for your Plasma; do not gerry-rig something and hope it sticks well enough. If you put the screen above a working fireplace, be certain the brickwork is well moisture sealed and insulated at the level behind and below the screen. If you build a frame around the Plasma for decoration, or install it into a piece of furniture, provide adequate air circulation so you don’t slow cook the screen.

Allow plenty of extra wire inside the wall to allow the screen to be dismounted without breaking wire connections. Label each wire and cable as though you would have to connect twelve wires with one hand while holding the 65 pound screen with the other hand. If the Plasma is on a wall across the room from your DVD and Audio equipment, run extra signal wires. Anticipate changing technology as cable boxes change to cable cards, DVI migrates to HDMI and Cat-6 popularity increases. A new Plasma screen will probably be on your wall for less than seven years before the picture display technology leaps to something beyond today’s imagination.