Electronic components for audio and/or audiovisual applications conventionally include multiple, free-standing enclosures that receive power and signals from facility wiring and communicate with other components on wired cables or wireless links. Support for numerous components has conventionally been provided by furniture called an entertainment center. A conventional entertainment center may have open shelving and/or enclosed shelving for supporting and enclosing not only the components but also media used with the components. Such furniture also conventionally provides holes through the back and through the shelving for accommodating the signal cables and power cables associated with the components.
A conventional entertainment center is spaced away from a facility wall to allow cabling to be tucked behind the cabinetry of the entertainment center because provisions for cabling inside the cabinetry of the entertainment center are inadequate. The space between the entertainment center and the facility wall also supplies ventilation air for the components.
Conventional entertainment centers typically provide movable shelving for accommodating electronic components of different vertical height, however, such centers typically provide a fixed horizontal dimension to accommodate a maximum component width.
Thus, use of a conventional entertainment center is limited by the fixed horizontal width of its design. Users of such conventional entertainment centers seeking, for example, to accommodate a larger home theater display (e.g., a big screen television set, a rear projection system, or a front illuminated screen) have little recourse but to purchase new furniture in the event the larger width display does not fit the fixed horizontal width provided by the existing entertainment center.
A large market exists for furniture to support objects such as electronic components, e.g., audio system components and/or audio visual system components which may include stereo system components, television system components, home theater system components and the like. New electronic components and other products of various sizes are frequently launched. Consumers owning conventional entertainment centers for accommodating objects having a horizontal width less than a fixed width associated with the conventional entertainment center may be reticent to purchase new entertainment centers for accommodating objects, e.g., electronic components, having a horizontal width greater than the fixed width associated with the conventional entertainment center. Moreover, such consumers may also forego purchasing newer larger electronic components if the existing fixed-width entertainment centers cannot accommodate the horizontal width of the newer larger electronic components. Consequently, without the present invention, both the consumer electronics and furniture industries face economic impairment.