Furniture Modification & Technology - Let's Hear It

[foogama]

Has anyone ever modified furniture in their living/theater room to accommodate USB hubs, electrical outlets, or ethernet ports?

Whenever I'm in the market for new furniture, I'm definitely going to base my search around which pieces will be easiest to add these things to. My vision would be to open up a center console on a couch, and have two electrical outlets, two Cat6 jacks, and 4 usb hubs that are connected to an HTPC for things like game controllers.

Anyone want to share any related projects they've done?

[waldoverkill]

I drilled a tiny hole in my cabinet for a remote receiver. It is just under the lip of the top where the mouse is. Keeps everything clean looking.

The TV has since been replaced with a Panasonic 55VT50 and the plant has been binned.

Cheers

[spanner]

I ran a Usb charger, Headphone Jacks, and added shakers on a couple of kmart theater chairs

[barnabas1969]

Geez. Sorry, but no pictures. I've gone as far as to cut the mirrors in the back of an entertainment center to make room for HT equipment to extend out the back of the unit (and also for ventilation) because the front doors of the cabinet were glass, and made new wooden frames around the mirrors so that the whole thing looked professional once all the gear was in the cabinet.

I've never modified furniture for ethernet ports and USB ports, but I've done both of those (and more) to walls and ceilings! Whatever works!

[foogama]

I ran a Usb charger, Headphone Jacks, and added shakers on a couple of kmart theater chairs

I hadn't considered shakers, thanks! Having no experience with them, how does the install/setup for that work? I assume the sub line-out from your receiver is split so one goes to the sub, and another goes to a shaker amp (which then powers the shakers?) How variable/dynamic are the shakers? Will you notice them subtly throughout, or is it more of a "only used on Jurassic Park stomps" kind of device? Where did you end up mounting the shaker amp in your setup?

[spanner]

I ran a Usb charger, Headphone Jacks, and added shakers on a couple of kmart theater chairs

I hadn't considered shakers, thanks! Having no experience with them, how does the install/setup for that work? I assume the sub line-out from your receiver is split so one goes to the sub, and another goes to a shaker amp (which then powers the shakers?) How variable/dynamic are the shakers? Will you notice them subtly throughout, or is it more of a "only used on Jurassic Park stomps" kind of device? Where did you end up mounting the shaker amp in your setup?

Yes My receiver has a second sub line out and also my woofer has a line out i use. The shakers are powered from their own amp like any sub woofer. each shaker is set at a lower freq than the sub woofer so that they usually respond only to appropriate bass in movies, explosions, background hum of a star ship and such. It depends a lot on the movie soundtrack and I don't always use them, but for a newer bluray, HD audio, scifi, or action flick they can really shine. I experimented with placement and ended up with a mounting board on the inside back of the chairs. on my sofa i went with mounting plywood on the bottom. Sometimes at night I use headphones and shakers instead of subwoofer and let my wife sleep, after a while it can be hard to know which bass you are hearing and which you are feeling. AVS forum has pages on DIY shakers