Positioning tips for your television

1. Place your TV so there is little or no reflection or glare from windows for example.
2. Place it away from high-traffic areas for safety, you don’t want the kids keep running into it and less interruption of viewing purposes.
3. Rather obvious but make sure its positioned so that the majority of your seating has a decent angle for viewing.
4. Keep your TV away from heat sources. Electronics like cool environments. It might be worth re-considering hanging a flat panel above the fire place if you use the fire a lot.
5. Regardless of where you’re positioning it do it securely.  If it’s going to be on a wall make sure it’s secure – find the wall studs and use them (you can purchase a stud finder and its much more accurate than tapping on the wall!).  You don’t want your new, expensive tv falling down the first night and smashing on the floor. 
6. If you're mounting your HDTV on brick over a fireplace you'll need a masonry bit for your drill and considerable muscle if you don't have a hammer-drill. Be sure to properly seat the inserts in their holes and use the biggest bolts you can to anchor it -- especially if it's a plasma as they are generally much heavier than LCDs.
7. You will need a power drill if you’re wall mounting or extremely big arm muscles so make sure you have the right equipment rather than attempting to do a ‘bodge job’!
8. A mirror can make the process of connecting the rear cables a lot easier, especially if you’re mounting it over a fireplace and the mantel makes it difficult to get in the right position to see.  If its possible its worth connecting your cables before you hang it and buying cables a bit longer than needed will make connecting everything up a bit easier.

How to wire your speakers

The first step is to complete your in-wall wiring first as this can be the more time consuming and difficult task.  Allow yourself plenty of time and decide upon the best wiring solution for your property, you should consider wall composition, loft or floor access, etc.

Placing your speakers at ear level is obviously more acoustically desirable but it will require the running of wires either up from the floor or down from the ceiling.  Ceiling height placement can be easier with only running the wires a short distance to the speaker.

Colour coding your wiring will greatly assist when it comes to connecting your speakers.  Measure and cut your wire to length (its worth adding at least an extra foot to each wire on top of what you will think you need, far better to coil a small amount than have to start all over again), lay the wires out on the floor a so they are separate now either attach a label, coloured tape or even different colour nail varnish (yes really!) to each one at both ends.

It’s also worth noting your + and – speaker and receiver connections to ensure you have a proper phase relationship.

When you drop your wires through the walls the easiest tool to use is fish tape, perfectly made for fishing wires through external, insulated walls.  If you don’t want to purchase one just for this occasion you could try a metal tape measure but they aren’t as flexible and it will be more difficult.  Whatever you use ensure that you have taped your wiring to the device securely (black electrician’s tape works well).
Information sourced from http://www.home-theater-systems-advice.com/

A/V Equipment placement

You will want your components within normal sightlines for visual feedback of their front panel displays. Place your components on a rack in view of your seating position; it's a lot easier to access your DVD player when it’s not hidden away in a cupboard.

Keep your components cool

A well ventilated equipment rack is the best environment for your heat-creating audio-video source devices. Your A/V receiver will create the most heat. The power supplies and amplifiers in receivers consume the most electricity and produce heat as a result of normal operations. DVD players are not great heat producers, they can be placed on the top shelf for easier access during DVD insertion and removal.

The tricky bit - Connecting them all!

Make sure you have all the right cables and wires and plenty of time.  Don’t try to rush it and assume that it will probably take at least twice as long as you think!  Visualise in your head (or sketch on paper) the signal flow of each device and be sure to follow the flow of outputs to inputs. It seems like common sense - but make sure a signal's output is going to the appropriate input of the next device. When using RCA type connectors - such as for component video and analog or coaxial digital audio - be sure you connect to the proper inputs and outputs.
Good Luck!

If this all seems a bit too complicated you can get the experts in, simply use our tradesman search to find a TV and Sound Specialist in your area.