How to mount a soundbar under a TV
A soundbar is a 30 minute job done properly and a permanent annoyance done badly. This is the sequence, in millimetres, for Australian framing and the brackets you can actually buy here.
Mount the bar below the screen, centred on the television rather than the wall, with 80 to 120mm between the bottom of the screen and the top of the bar. Fix into a stud wherever you can, and check the remote sensor is still visible before you tighten anything.
Above or below? The short answer
Below, in almost every case. Dialogue lives in the centre channel, and a bar below the screen delivers it at roughly seated ear height. Above the screen it arrives over your head, and you lose exactly the clarity you bought the soundbar for. Go above only when a media unit or hearth makes below physically impossible.
What you need before you start
- The soundbar’s own bracket, or a confirmed compatible one
- A stud detector, plus a fine drill bit for probing
- Spirit level, ideally 600mm or longer
- Tape measure and pencil
- Drill with a driver bit, plus a masonry bit if the wall is brick or stone
- Fixings suited to the wall: coach screws for timber, sleeve anchors for masonry
- An HDMI cable long enough for the route you have chosen
Step by step
- Confirm the mounting method. Look at the back of the bar. Keyhole slots mean you are marking two points. A bracket in the box means you are fitting the bracket first. No fixing points at all means you need the manufacturer’s bracket, and it is worth ordering before you start rather than mid-job.
- Decide the vertical position. Measure from the bottom edge of the mounted screen and mark 80 to 120mm below it. If the television is not yet mounted, do the television first; setting the bar and then discovering the screen wants to sit lower means filling holes.
- Find the horizontal centre of the television and mark it. This is the line the bar centres on, not the centre of the wall and not the centre of the media unit.
- Locate the framing. Sweep with the detector and mark the edges of each stud, then confirm the centre with a fine bit in a spot the bar will cover. On lath and plaster the detector is a suggestion, not an answer.
- Check the remote sensor. Most televisions put the infrared receiver low on the bezel, often centre or bottom right. Hold the bar in position and test the remote before drilling. This is the step everyone skips and the one that generates the complaint.
- Mark, level and drill. Mark both fixing points, check level across them rather than off the skirting, and pre-drill. In old hardwood framing pre-drilling is mandatory or you will snap a screw.
- Fit and hang. Fix the bracket or drive the screws for the keyholes, leaving 2 to 3mm of shank proud so the chassis can drop onto them. Hang the bar and check level again.
- Run the cable. Into the wall cavity if you are concealing it, or into trunking painted to match. Leave a service loop so the bar can come off the wall without unplugging everything.
- Connect and verify. HDMI into the port labelled ARC or eARC on the television, not any other HDMI port. Then play something with dialogue and confirm the sound is coming from the bar rather than the television’s own speakers.
How high should the soundbar sit?
The bar follows the screen rather than having a height of its own. Once the television centre is set from your seated eye line, the bar sits 80 to 120mm below the bottom edge. On a 65-inch screen with its centre at 1,050mm, the bottom edge lands near 645mm, so the top of the bar sits somewhere around 525 to 565mm.
If that puts the bar into a media unit, the television needs to go up slightly or the bar needs to sit on the unit instead. Do not solve it by moving the bar above the screen. Full height guide.
Bracket types and which soundbars they fit
- Keyhole slots. Two screws in the wall, chassis drops on. Cheapest and most common. Unforgiving horizontally, so measure twice.
- Bracket pair in the box. Two small L-brackets plus a paper template. Accurate, provided the template can sit where the studs are.
- Proprietary brackets. Sonos and some Bose models. Not optional, and worth ordering with the bar.
- TV-mount piggyback bars. Clamp to the television’s own bracket rather than the wall. Useful on walls you cannot drill, but they add leverage to the TV mount, so check the combined weight rating.
Brand-by-brand bracket comparison: Samsung, Sonos, LG, Bose and JBL.
Avoiding the remote-sensor problem
If the bar covers the sensor, the television stops responding to its own remote. Three fixes, in order of preference: lower the bar slightly, shift it a few centimetres off centre if the sensor is at one end, or use HDMI-CEC so the television takes commands through the soundbar’s remote instead. An infrared repeater is the last resort.
Cable routing options
- In-wall. Cleanest. One HDMI run inside the cavity. Straightforward on modern plasterboard, more involved on lath and plaster.
- Surface trunking. Cheap, quick, and near-invisible painted to match.
- Behind the media unit. Fine if the bar sits on the unit rather than the wall.
Mains power is a separate matter. A new outlet behind the screen is fixed wiring and is licensed electrical work in Australia under AS/NZS 3000, so it is an electrician’s job rather than part of a mounting job.
When to stop and call someone
Stop if the wall is sandstone or solid masonry and you do not have an SDS drill, if the only fixing point is lath and plaster with no stud behind it, if the bar weighs more than the bracket is rated for, or if concealing the cable means cutting into a wall you do not understand. None of those are beyond a competent DIYer with the right gear, but all of them go wrong quickly without it.
In a Hobart home
The complication here is rarely the soundbar and almost always the wall. A bar cantilevers away from the wall, so the load levers on the fixing in a way a flush-mounted television does not, and lath and plaster is poor at resisting that. In pre-1940 Hobart housing, reach the hardwood stud behind or do not fix to the wall at all. What your Hobart wall is made of, or have us do it.
More guides
- Soundbar no sound over HDMI ARC - The full diagnostic tree, with the named settings paths for Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL and Hisense.
- Soundbar wall brackets by brand - Samsung, Sonos, LG, Bose and JBL compared: what is in the box, what you have to buy, and the quirks.
- Soundbar installation cost - What soundbar installation costs in Australia, itemised, and why bundling it with a TV mount is cheaper.
Reviewed: August 2026
Useful answers before the appointment.
The questions that decide whether a soundbar install looks deliberate or improvised.
Leave 80 to 120mm between the bottom of the screen and the top of the soundbar. That is enough to clear most remote sensors and stop the bar cropping the picture from a low seated angle, without opening an obvious gap.
Most, but not by the same method. Some ship with a bracket and template in the box, some have keyhole slots moulded into the chassis, and some need a proprietary bracket bought separately. Check the back of yours before buying anything.
On plasterboard you can use quality toggle anchors for a light bar, but a stud is better. On lath and plaster you must reach the stud, because the load sits away from the wall and levers on the fixing.
Modern Australian framing is usually 450mm or 600mm centres. Homes built before about 1950 are frequently irregular, so measure rather than assume, and confirm with a probe before committing to a bracket position.
On the television. Your ears associate the sound with the picture, so a bar centred on the screen sounds correct even if the screen itself is off-centre on the wall. Centring on the wall instead is a common and audible mistake.
You can, and occasionally you must when a media unit blocks below. It costs dialogue clarity because the centre channel then arrives above your ears. If you have to do it, angle the bar downwards towards the seating.
Rather not drill it yourself?
We mount and wire soundbars across Greater Hobart, usually in the same visit as the television. Send the soundbar and TV models for a fixed price.
What to send us
- Screen size and model
- Your suburb
- Roughly when the house was built
- A photo of the wall
Same-week installation across Greater Hobart. Same-day where the schedule allows.