speaker placement in an open room (2 Viewers)

My family is building a new house and we will have something of a home theater in the basement. We are looking at a 7.1 configuration and I need help with the speaker placement. The sooner the better because the electricians are ready to wire the house. Here is a picture of the room
ht tp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v415/squirrel9000/room.bmp (remove the spaces)
As you can see it isn't ideal but it is the best that I can do. The 13' 6" wall will have the tv (my mom wants a front projection) and the main couch will be about 8 feet from the back wall.If we go with front projection there will be blackout curtains so don't worry about light control but I need help with speaker placement, probably equipment placement (should we build a rack into the long wall and have the wires go into the utility room behind it?), and also is there a good general area for the front projector so that we can run wires through the ceiling? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
And yes I am only 15 thats why I live with my parents.

Front projector placement depends on the specific model you want. The lens throw and screen size dictate where it needs to go. Is the screen fixed to the wall or will it be lowered from the ceiling? The size of the screen will dictate speaker layout as well. The two rear and left surround will have to be ceiling mounted. If you have low ceilings you will need to go with a flush mount swivel speaker like the AIM from speakercraft, or revolve from TruAudio. If you have tall ceilings you can get ceiling mounting posts and hang them.

I think you need to pick the screen and projector and that will drive the rest of this. Also the seating will drive some of these as well. How many and what kind of seats?



Here is a copy of the room layout:

Not much has been decided yet. If we end up going front projection it won't be right away. Really all I need to know now is where the outlets for the speaker wire should be. They just need to be in the general area. The seating won't be very home-theaterish but I will see what I can do. There will be a couch near the back of the room facing the tv and either (hopefully) more seating like that or a couch and some chairs on the sides of the home theater area.

I would probably run the wire near the ends of the wall for a front projection. Placement is not critical though you can just run a little longer wire if you need to move the speakers. If you are going to use inwall speakers that is where placement becomes an issue.