Nextgen Image Gallery in place of the rotating images

Following suggestions from a previous post I managed to get the Nextgen gallery inserted the header of my Atahualpa theme but have decided to place it in the location of the rotating images. For some reason I can't seem to get this work. Any attempts to change or remove either of the following from the header.php file screws up the theme:

<td id="header" colspan="<?php echo $bfa_ata['cols']; ?>">

or

<?php bfa_header_config($bfa_ata['configure_header']); ?>

I've searched the forums and got as far as page 9 before throwing in the towel and creating the thread. I wonder if I'm making this harder than it really is so if anyone can give me a push in the right direction I'd really appreciate it. Basically I'd like my nextgen header to sit in-place of the rotating images with the opacity setting as it is.

tia