There was a time when TVs and speakers sat on a cabinet in the corner of a room, inconspicuous and small. But now they are the focus of the modern living room and take pride of place on the wall - so how do you get them up there and what are the advantages?

The first big plus of hanging your TV on the wall is the floor space that you'll free up. In a small room this can make all the difference, changing a cramped environment into an airy space. In a larger room, it will allow you to get a more interesting piece of furniture or extra seating in place of a dull TV cabinet.

With the new large plasma screens that are increasingly the norm, placing the TV up on the wall means you can sit back on a sofa or lie back in bed, look up and enjoy a cinema experience. And speakers up high will give better acoustics, so that you get more from your music system.

Of course you must make sure that the wall you are using is strong enough to carry the load. Plasma, wall mounted screens are heavy and need adequate support so you don't end up with a disaster on your hands. The same applies if you are wall mounting a box TV set. LCD screens, until now not as popular as plasma screens are improving in quality and have the distinct advantage of being lighter weight so they may well gain market share.

An electrician can help to hide the wiring which would otherwise be exposed, tavelling up the wall. This is certainly a job for a professional - he will need to run the wires through the wall cavity and bring them back out at the right level. Alternatively wiring can be camouflaged by being painted the same colour as the wall or wrapped in tape that, again, matches the wall. You will also need an electrician to run the cables for your video feeds, in addition to the power cables.

Wall mounted speakers have the advantage of being smaller than traditional speakers so they will make less of an impact on the look of your room. They can also be angled in any direction, allowing them to be installed on any part of the wall and still be effective. If you want something even less visible then in-ceiling and in-wall speakers use the ceiling and wall cavities as the speaker cabinets, with only the front exposed, which can be the same colour as the ceiling or wall so they are barely visible.

And if even that spoils the aesthetics of your room you can go for the ultimate sound experience. This involves the speakers being placed entirely in the wall cavity and using powerful electronic devices called transducers which can transmit high quality sound through solid walls. This is the technology that cinemas use and as long as you have a wall cavity there's no reason why you can't have it at home. You'll need the expertise of a good electrician who is familiar with the technology and you'll need to buy the hardware but prices are coming down and certainly this system is becoming a feasible alternative. And it will allow you complete freedom to decorate and arrange your room as you wish.

Home entertainment is getting more sophisticated and exciting but the bits you don't need to see are increasingly easy to hide - surely that's the best of both worlds. Just get the right hardware and a good electrician to help you and you can enjoy all the benefits of modern entertainment technology.