[cbostard]

I was trying to do the same thing and got it to work ok but I only need to center the flash in the space, but what I did was took the code posted above(reguards to above ) and inserted it into /customer/main/welcome.tpl you might be able to copy and paste the entire code as provided below into this folder but 1st make a backup copy
template will look like this:

{* $Id: welcome.tpl,v 1.28 2006/04/12 09:54:19 svowl Exp $ *}
{if ($active_modules.Greet_Visitor ne "") and ($smarty.cookies.GreetingCookie ne "") and $logout_user eq ''}
{assign var="_name" value=$smarty.cookies.GreetingCookie|replace:"\'":"'"}
<h3>{$lng.lbl_welcome_back|substitute:"name":$_name} </h3> 
{else}
<h3>
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="{$ImagesDir}/custom/flash_logo.swf" width="500" height="250" id="flash_logo" align="bottom">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="movie" value="{$ImagesDir}/custom/flash_logo.swf" />
<param name="menu" value="false" />
<param name="loop" value="true" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" />
<param name="FlashVars" value="not_home_page={if $main eq "catalog" && $current_category.category eq ""}0{else}1{/if}&final_image={#FinalImage#}&company_name_path={$ImagesDir}/custom/company_name.swf&home_path={$current_location}/customer/home.php" />
<param name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
<param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" />
</object>
{/if}
{* $Id: welcome.tpl,v 1.28.2.3 2008/07/15 12:07:40 ferz Exp $ *}
<br />
{if $active_modules.Bestsellers ne "" and $config.Bestsellers.bestsellers_menu ne "Y"}
{include file="modules/Bestsellers/bestsellers.tpl"}
{/if}
<br />
{include file="customer/main/featured.tpl" f_products=$f_products}

next what you need to do is create a flash (.swf) file. to make it simple name it " flash_logo" and place into /xcart/skin1/images/custom

so far it works on my testing site witch is a full site with a few mods installed and there are no errors on page. once I figure out how to center it. ill post it on site. IM sure it is just adding a <cell padding > type code