question for home theater installers

HT experts, I have a question. I'm in the process of purchasing a home with a wood-burning fireplace in the LR. My question is how to mount a flat screen on top of the mantel, without hitting the flute and how to run wires (power, hdmi, speaker) to the tv and surrounding shelves for speakers.

I've mounted tvs to plaster walls, wood studs and metal studs so I’m somewhat compitent. Still I’ve never worked above a fireplace nor have I ever run power or HDMI in the walls but want to here to keep the clean look of the place. Can I do this or do I call in teh pros...

Pic below. Any help would be very much appreciated.

You can totally DIY this. Mounting above a fireplace isn't really all that different from mounting anywhere else. You will still need to anchor the bracket to the studs and because of that, you should avoid the flue automatically.

I'm not a pro installer but based on the pictures you have provided, I'd just drill a hole from the inside of the shelf area all the way through to where you want to terminate the wires. You will need a long drill bit and a powerful drill to do this. Other option is to run down to the baseboard, over while under/behind the baseboard, and then back up inside the wall. The second approach is what I did for speakers in my house, it just takes some extra wire to make it happen.

I'm sure one of the guys that does this for a living will be by shortly to give you the correct way to do this...

nobody? There's already power above the fireplace if that helps. There is an outlet behind the mirror in that picture.