AV Cabinet Shelf

In our corner bed CB floorplan, there is a dedicated AV cabinet just above the front TV. It was adequate for the basic AV items that came with the Unity. As we added more, such as a Bluray player, Roku, and Satellite receiver, things began to get crowded and stack on top of one another.

Wanting to keep that area both accessible and provide good ventilation for those warm components, we added a ventilated shelf, a dedicated power strip, cooling fan and some USB charge points.

Shelf

I originally was thinking some pegboard material would make a good ventilated shelf, but that can be flimsy. There are metal versions available, but the shape inside the cabinet is somewhat complex. Seeing the drop ceiling light diffuser panels at the big box store, I decided those may be worth a try.

Those panels cut with simple diagonal cutters, although they are brittle so go easy. I was able to cut out the shape of the cabinet interior without much trouble. To make the visible edge look nice, I used a piece of maple (the cabinets are maple) to match and cut a groove that the panel would fit and then hot glued the two together.

Supports

To best support the shelf, I added side and back ledges to the inside of the cabinet. The shelf sits on top of these so the perimeter is supported. The front edge was reinforced / stiffened by the maple trim section that was added. To avoid adding screws to the back, I made a simple “table” to allow the shelf to rest on, mainly as I did not know what was behind that wall and did not want to screw into something that would not appreciate it.

Cooling

Since that cabinet is sealed, meaning it does not have a louvered door or opening to allow easy air exchange, I added a USB powered fan. The fan comes with rubber isolators / feet which allowed one to simply place the fan on the shelf to circuit air. If you are concerned about noise, don’t be, that fan is very quiet.

Power

We added a power /surge strip to the back of the cabinet, everything except the TV plugs into the strip. This allows us to turn off all of those parasitic loads when we are off grid or in storage. The TV was left separate so one could still use the OTA with al of the other equipment off.

We also added a USB outlet and ran two USB cables down behind the TV to the area below and in front of the TV. This area is large enough to hold our phones, and now we can plug them into the USB plugs and charge them when needed and in a convenient location.

IR Repeater

To complete the cabinet we also added a simple USB powered IR Repeater so the cabinet door can remain closed and still allow the remotes to operate the equipment. The IR receiver sits just below the TV and sends the IR to a set of transmitters located inside the cabinet. You can see the receiver centered below the TV and the (2) two USB charge cables on either side. Works great!