Introduction

One of the things I like about CEDIA is discovering something that I hadn’t expected to impress me. Oh sure the dazzling larger than life flat panels, or bright projectors are always omnipresent. The beautiful glossy speakers and sometimes those overstuffed theater chairs are a welcomed relief. But this year walking by the WallWizard booth it was the motorized wall mounts caught my attention. When I was introduced to them I was shown some innovative ideas that seemed to solve issues we’ve all thought about but never seen addressed.

Really you say, a TV wall mount impressed you!? Well yes it did. Some of the mounts are designed for the installer, ease of lifting the TV, accessing the rear while the TV is in place for the cables, and on and on. Then I was shown the motorized mounts, cool! The feature that impressed me most was on their TA55, a 1” low-profile motorized tilting mount that keeps the TV as tight to the wall as possible. WallWizard supplies a toslink optical cable which when triggered would tilt the TV down to just the right angle for viewing and back to the home position when the TV is powered off. I see it all too often, the flat panel mounted above the fireplace that strains your neck to look up. Well WallWizard solves the problem and keeps the decorator happy.

The company is relatively new (begun in 2005) and some of these mounts were just prototypes although now I understand like the TA55, are available. One that was available was sent to me, the XM37 at about $140 retail. It can support a panel up to 37 inches and about 50 pounds. For larger panels, the XM60 will support 120 pounds. It tilts, swivels, turns, splices and dices!

Specifications

  • Design: Wall Mount for Most: 26”- 37” Flat Panel HDTVs
  • Weight Capacity: 50 Pounds
  • Swivel: 90° Left or Right
  • Tilt: +3°/-15°
  • Extension: 18”
  • Profile: 2.0”
  • Color: Black
  • Warranty: Limited Lifetime
  • MSRP $139.99 USA
  • WallWizard

Design

The XM37 is engineered superbly, let me start by saying! I’ve never seen a mount that is actually attractive in looks and operation. Attention to detail like the main center swivel mechanism is machined and shiny, yet nobody will ever see it!

Barely 2” deep, it sits quite flush and tight to the wall yet the operation is smooth and effortless. The XM37 mounts to a single stud and pivots off the wall a full 90 degrees, swivels a full 180 degrees and tilts as much as 15 degrees down and 3 degrees up.

It offers a terrific telescoping arm that allows it to be extended in case that support stud isn’t quite where you want it and also handles wire management concealing ugly cables.

Setup

The XM37 comes out of the box fully assembled, complete with the “universal mounting interface”.

The instructions are clear and concise and lead you through the entire operation without feeling like a roadmap to hell.

The XM37 also comes fully stocked with screws of various lengths for your particular panel. Also supplied is a hex-wrench to make adjustments that fix the swivel or the tilt leaving just the pivoting feature off the wall.

I installed the mount in about an hour for a 32” flat panel. I wish there was some magic to it, but finding a stud, drilling 2 7/32” holes vertically aligned, wrenching in two supplied bolts, and two smaller screws was the whole chore, or not a chore.

In Use

Mounted on the rear of the TV, the main body of the mount where all the swivel and tilt happens. I’m sure I’m not the first to coin the phrase, but it seems robotic in its clean and solid movements.

Conclusion

When the least glamorous part of watching a great flat panel TV is mounting it to a wall, the process should be quick and painless. If it can also be attractive when seen, nicely engineered, function as advertised and contribute gracefully to the experience, then that’s a bonus. The WallWizard XM37 does that all very well!

WallWizard