My Design - Any advice or thoughts?

[paulec]

Just about to embark on a home cinema DIY job. Have attached a schematic and have some questions. Sorry there's a fair number of diverse areas here but I thought this forum would be the best place to start.

Screen Height: What should it be - will not have a lazy boy, I'll be about 12ft away from the 43" screen (436xde by the way) on a sofa. Should I stick it up the wall and get a tilting mount?

Kids: It will be a play room as well (necessary compromise to get it past SWMBO - the cupboard you see on the left will house the kids toys, the one on the right will house my toys!) - will the speakers look (sound) less than perfect if they had to go above the screen. If the screen is low and the speakers are in range of the nippers, they'll get a fair amount of prodding.

Lighting: Have one light (standard stuff) hanging from the 10ft ceiling - what would be the best lighting? Downlighters?

Remotes: Shall I have mesh built into the doors of the AV kit cabinet or invest in an RF remote like a pronto with an extender? Will this be a waste of cash or a useful gadget?

Will build the final plans and start to post the project as the room is now a 5m x 4m shell.

Anyway - with the 436xde on the way, a denon 2910 to add to it and all the building work to be done, any advice would be gratefully recieved.

Paul

PS Got a quote from a furniture builder to do this and they suggested that £5k would cover the cupboards - hence why it's now a DIY job.

[pjskel]

In sequence:

Eye level or about 12-20º above (based on central point of display) - do you remember your Trigonometry and Pythagorus Theorem?
Prodding fingers do less damage to glass, but glass costs more than speakers! Below.
Down-lighters and scene setting control - outer perimeter layout. 10 should be sufficient - 4 on the 5 and 3 on the 4 lengths.
Pronto RF would work, but IR repeaters could be done instead if blended in nicely.

[IronGiant]

Many remotes will work through the glass of a hifi cabinet so you may find you don't need to change anything so long as you put a piece of (tempered) glass in, rather than mesh. I'm firing a remote through a glass door backed with very fine black cloth (virtually mesh) to disguise what's behind and it still works (much to my surprise when I first tried it)

Dave