Motorized Speaker and Mic Lift

This is the project behind one of the examples in our Custom Solutions description: a speaker built to rise and fall from the ceiling at a precise speed. The client, a private recording studio, wanted the center channel monitor in their control booth to retract into the ceiling when not in use — but it needed to move with real precision, and it needed to safely support a 200 lb speaker.

I designed the system around 3 Nm NEMA motors geared down at a 51.1:1 ratio, which calculated out to the speaker dropping into place in just under 9 seconds. Safety was built in at multiple levels: fail-safe braking motors that lock completely if power is lost, top-end limit switches for both safety and calibration, and a PLC controller triggered by a touch panel, with several large E-stop buttons placed around the room for good measure.

I fully designed and priced this system, but the studio's larger renovation fell through before it could be built and installed. It's included here as an example of the engineering that goes into solving a problem like this — even when the finished install never got the chance to happen.