Quick answer

• Pick a home for every box before the build starts. Console, set-top box, AV receiver, router, optical drive — each needs a planned location with airflow and access.
• A vented compartment beats a sealed cupboard. Game consoles and AV receivers throw real heat. Plan ventilation in.
• IR remotes need line-of-sight (or a repeater). Hidden kit means hidden remote signals — design for it.
• Wi-Fi/Sky Q signal hates being boxed in. Anything wireless wants ventilation slots, mesh-fronted doors, or sits semi-open.
• Run conduit, not just cables. Future-proof for the kit you don’t own yet.

Why this part of the plan gets skipped

Most homeowners come to us with a Pinterest board full of clean, minimal media walls — gloss panels, hidden cables, maybe a fireplace. What’s almost never in the photo is the PS5, the Sky Q box, the Apple TV, the AV receiver, the router, the games and the controllers. They live in real homes, and they need to live somewhere on the wall too.

If you don’t plan their home in advance, one of three things tends to happen. The kit ends up on a shelf in front of the wall, ruining the built-in look. Or it gets crammed into a sealed cupboard and overheats. Or you end up with cables draped down to a unit on the floor. None of those are what you wanted.

Equipment planning is a job we’d rather do at the design stage — before stud work goes up — than retrofit later. That’s the point of going bespoke. Our TV media wall service handles the build and finish around your kit, not the other way round.

Step 1: List every box you actually own (and might own)

Before measuring or designing, write a list. Not a guess — an actual list. For each item, note the dimensions (W × D × H), the connection type (HDMI, optical, ethernet, mains), and whether it needs airflow.

Common items we plan for in South Yorkshire homes:

• TV. Mounted, with cable run down the studwork. Note brand and panel depth.
• Game console (PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch dock). Heat output is real. PS5 standing or laid flat — it matters for the recess size.
• Set-top box (Sky Q, Sky Stream, Virgin, Freeview recorder). Most need IR line-of-sight unless they’re using app/Bluetooth control.
• Streaming stick or box (Apple TV, Fire TV, Chromecast). Small enough to tuck behind the TV in many cases.
• Soundbar amp / AV receiver. These are the warmest items. They want air.
• Router or mesh node. Often left out of plans, then signal suffers. Don’t bury it.
• Games, discs, controllers, remotes. Need a home, ideally a soft-close drawer or shallow shelf.

Send us a photo of the lot when you enquire. It’s faster than measuring and we’ll spot the awkward bits straight away.

Step 2: Choose a placement strategy

There are three approaches we use for hiding AV equipment in a media wall, and most homes end up with a mix.

A) Recessed compartment behind a hinged or magnetic door

A purpose-built cavity, typically below the TV, finished flush with the rest of the wall. The door opens to reveal the kit. Looks invisible when shut.

Best for: consoles, set-top boxes, AV receivers in a tidier home. Needs ventilation in the back panel and an IR repeater if you’re closing the door during use.

B) Open recess (no door)

A shelf-style alcove sized to the kit, set into the wall. Honest about what’s there, but the kit is corralled and the cables are hidden inside the build.

Best for: items you use every day, kit that needs constant signal (router, mesh node), or households with lots of remotes flying around.

C) Behind the TV

For small kit only — a streaming stick, a Chromecast, a Sky Stream puck. Velcro it to the back of the TV mount or sit it on the wall plate.

Best for: anything under 150 mm wide that doesn’t run hot. Don’t put a console behind the TV — it will cook.

Step 3: Plan ventilation properly

This is where DIY builds and quick installs go wrong. A PS5 under sustained load runs at 35–40°C exhaust temperature. An AV receiver pushing 7.1 surround at film volume gets warmer still. Box that kit into a sealed MDF cube and you’ll see thermal shutdowns within months — and a shorter lifespan even when it doesn’t shut down.

What good ventilation looks like in a built-in media wall:

• Inlet at the bottom, outlet at the top. Heat rises. Give it somewhere to go.
• Slotted or perforated back panel. The wall behind is rarely sealed — use that cavity.
• Mesh-fronted door (for compartments). Looks deliberate, lets warm air out and IR through.
• Allow space around the kit. 30–50 mm of clearance on every side is sensible.
• Optional: USB-powered cabinet fan. Quiet, cheap, makes a real difference for AV receivers.

Step 4: Solve the remote-control problem

Most modern kit talks to its remote via infrared (IR). IR needs line-of-sight. Close a wooden door over a Sky Q box and the remote stops working.

Three workarounds we use:

• Mesh-fronted doors. IR passes through fine. Looks intentional.
• IR repeater kit. A small sensor sits visible on the wall, the receiver sits inside the cabinet, signal carries on. Around £30–£50 of kit. Solid solution for fully-hidden compartments.
• App and Bluetooth control. Sky Q app, Apple TV remote app, Xbox app — many newer boxes don’t need IR at all. Worth checking your kit before you over-engineer.

Step 5: Power, data and conduit

Plan more outlets than you think you need. Every recess that holds kit needs a double socket inside the cavity, and every cable run from the TV to the kit recess should go through proper conduit — not just a hole in plasterboard.

Why conduit matters: in three years’ time you’ll want to replace something. Maybe the AV receiver, maybe a longer HDMI cable for a 4K/120Hz upgrade. Conduit means you pull the old cable out and feed the new one through. No wall damage. No drama.

For deeper detail on power planning — socket counts, switched versus unswitched, where to put TV-power-on points — see our media wall sockets and wiring guide.

Common mistakes we fix

• Compartment too shallow. Many AV receivers are 350 mm+ deep. Measure the deepest item, then add 50 mm.
• Router buried in a sealed cabinet. Wi-Fi range halves when boxed in metal-foil-backed plasterboard. Keep the router semi-open.
• No power inside the recess. Cables snake out of the cavity to a strip on the floor. Avoid by planning sockets in the build.
• Console standing upright in a horizontal slot. PS5 vertical needs 390 mm+ of height. Lay it flat or build the cavity tall.
• Forgetting future kit. The next console, the next AV receiver — leave a slightly bigger compartment than you need today.

Send us what you’ve got, we’ll plan around it

Equipment hiding is one of those things that’s much easier to design from a photo than describe in a phone call. Snap a picture of your current kit pile (don’t tidy it — we want to see the reality), measure your wall, and tell us your TV size. We’ll come back with a layout that fits the kit, the room and the budget.

Two more reads if you’re early in planning: how to hide cables in a media wall and integrated fireplace options if you’re combining the build with a fire.

Ready to plan a media wall around your kit?

Send a photo of your wall, your TV size, and the equipment list (a phone snap of the pile is fine). We’ll come back with a layout, a clear quote and realistic timings.

Contact Media Wall Master

Or call 07477 405111 / email dan@mediawallmaster.co.uk