I just got my Panny 900 and after reading the manual, have questions that the manual does not address.

I was going to build a bracket out of Cherry hardwood that will span between the floor joists, but need to know how far from the ceiling the projector should be.

The ceiling height is 8.5’. The screen will be somewhere close to 7’ wide. Not sure about the height. Viewing distance is about 12’.

I have a little complication though. I am installing a light fixture in-between the projector and the screen in addition to perimeter soffit lighting. I’d like to mount a ceiling fan with light if I can find one shallow enough, but will mount a ceiling hugging fixture of some kind if the fan idea doesn’t pan out. (I have radiant floor heat, so fans are very nice to have in the rooms for those times when it gets a tad too warm in a room).

The fixture will be 4’ 6” in front of the projector lense.

Any thoughts on this???

There really is not a right answer. I think the Panny, like the Sanyo's have lens shift adjustment, which makes centering vertically/horizontally to the screen a snap. Since the projector will be mounted upside down, the image will be flipped in the menu. On my Sanyo, the top of the image does not move, however, when I zoom to bottom lowers and the sides widen. My projector is about 1 Foot below the ceiling, however, my ceiling is 9ft high.

You may have issues with the fan being in the way, not sure.

Check PT-AE900 Specifications page (sorry, link police - the [url=] trick did not work).
<ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/brochures/S_PT-AE900U.pdf>.
Check the last page for the setting-up position.

Actually this link should work:
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/brochures/S_PT-AE900U.pdf