Help setting up remote receiver (RX-V677)

Hi Guys - I'm trying to set up a receiver which ultimately will be located remotely in an equipment closet.

the receiver will primarily power a home theater surround system.

the home theater room is wired with 7.1

couple of questions

there is a "YPAO" microphone which is used to automatically configure settings etc for each speaker channel. to use it , you connect the mic to the receiver in the theater room and it will play sounds thru the speakers until it is happily self-configured.

the question is - since this will be remotely located, and the speaker wires terminate in the equipment closet, it's hard to connect the wires to the receiver and have the receiver and the mic in the theater room for configuration.

I assume I could use a very long mic extension cord (or not?)

another possibility is that the speaker wires actually might be accessible from a wall panel gang box. The wiring is basement to gang box, and then another bundle from gang box to ceiling (were the speakers will be). I could open the gang box and connect the ceiling wires to the receiver for configuration, then move the receiver to the basement, and connect the wires in the gang box to the appropriate pairs btw ceiling bundles to basement bundles...

hopefully this all makes sense

2nd question - I plan to use the iOS Yamaha AV app - any thoughts on how capable it is ?

I was told when I bought the receiver that the app allows full control via wifi - as my intention is to hide the receiver...

thanks for any tips