Hey AWfC!
I've used both a suspending frame and ceiling-mount with the crank rig underneath on the floor. Both ways worked well.
For 05 and 06 we used a wooden stand (WAY overengineered) based on the design of an engine hoist. It's painted flat black and is invisible to viewers. It comes apart, but still is bulky to store. It is over 7 ft tall, so it doesn't work
in our bay windows which are 7 ft high...
For 07 we wanted the ghost
in an upstairs bay window, but we didn't want a bunch of big holes in the ceiling. We cut a piece of plywood to the size we needed to mount the arm and head lines (maybe 2' by 2'?), painted it to match the ceiling, and then screwed that to studs in the ceiling with 2 screws. The hooks for the ghostie then went into the ply instead of the ceiling. 2 teeny holes in the ceiling as compared to 3 huge holes for molly bolts! I left the screws in the ceiling and painted them to match so that I'll know where they are for next year and won't have to drill more holes. I wish I had pics of it in action, but I just didn't get organized enough to take a lot of photos last year
Laying the rig on the floor caused
much more tension on the lines, so I had to make sure that they were sound and that the pulleys didn't bind up, but it still worked OK. Just a little higher maintenance is all.
HTH!