Planning my first setup - Need advice

[fishbyname]

I am currently deciding the bits of kit i'm going to put into the system, at the moment it's looking like being a 50" plasma, surrouind sound, sky+, dvd, video, radio frequency remote

the plan at the moment is to mount the tv on one of the walls in the lounge and then drill a hole out of the back into a cupboard in the hall

in the cupboard there will be some sort of cabinet/rack/shelves that will hold all the boxes

the cables for the speakers will then come back into the lounge and be run under the edging of the wooden floor (comes away easily). i don't think there's much chance of being able to channel all the cabling through the walls to the back of the room

this is all just in the planning stage at the moment and i want to try and find out as much as possible about doing it. things i should look out for? good tips? possible problems?

any advice will be much appreciated

[mrm3]

Couple of things as I am doing the same sort of thing soon.

1) Planning on have some ventilation for the heat to escape the cupboard/cabinet.
2) Using Harmony 895 for my RF control.

[fishbyname]

yeah the harmony remotes look pretty good

would i need some sort of fan in there? what sort of size/power would i need for a cupboard about 1m wide?

[leef1234]

I've got a similar set up and was a bit worried about heatbut, so far its not to bad at all, i've got quite a few cables coming in from the garage so there is a small amount of ventilation. I was expecting to put some sort of air brick or bathroom type fan in but at the moment it doesnt seem to be a problem.
So long as there is quite a bit of space around each component to 'breathe' you should be ok. The top of my equipment seems to be cooler than when it was all stuffed in a AV Cabinet.

[stricko]

Just echoing most of the above. In the lounge I've got a two inch bore hole behind my plasma, through what used to be an outside wall (double skinned) into my cinema room. This carries all the plasma interconnects, power, speaker cable for the centre speaker (mounted just above the plamsa) and the sensor lead for the Wii

I use a Harmony 885, with an IR extender (also through the bore hole) but will probably switch to the RF model when it eventually breaks after being repeatedly dropped on the wooden floor by the kids.

In the cinema room, I've ended up with a double rack, with the gear for both the lounge and cinema side by side. Each has it's own amp and DVD player, and they share a Sky HD and a media PC.

The racks are quite open (modified Ikea IVAR shelving!!!!!) so there are no heating issues, but it is quite odd sitting in the cinema, seeing the IR emitters and kit responding to the remote in the other room.

Biggest challenge was drilling through the wall for the front left and right speakers. Due to the alignment of the walls, I ended up using the full length of a 1 metre drill bit to get through. It was a bit hit and miss, but I got the hole within an inch of where it needed to be.

There is a second bore hole at ground level in the corner which carries the power and interconnect for the sub.

The end result is very wife friendly, with no visible cables around the plasma or the speakers.