Baby proofing an AV system

[adairusmc]

My son is going to be crawling soon, so I wanted to get this sytem baby proofed, preferably with a cabinet with closing doors to keep everything away.

Right now I just have a TV stand in the living room with my audio receiver, HTPC, and game consoles underneath.

I will be wall mounting my TV, so everything can be contained in a cabinet. I also have two klipsch floor standing speakers that will be flanking the TV.

I was just wondering if there are any recommendations for cabinets that will fit my needs, and keep the consoles, HTPC, and receiver away from the child wanting to destroy them.

Thanks for any input.

 

[Kaido]

I would suggest investing in a Logitech Harmony remote system: ($129 to $299)

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/harmony-smart-control?crid=60

1. It uses a central hub for signals. It receives signals via Wifi & RF and blasts out IR & Bluetooth commands to devices (8 devices for the basic unit, 15 for the higher-end model). You can control all of your devices from this single unit. More importantly, it means you can hide everything away in a cabinet somewhere.

2. The base model includes a simple physical remote control that communicates via RF - no need to point it at the devices. Great for when toys are in the way of the IR receivers on devices!

3. It includes apps for smartphones & tablets, so if you misplace your physical remote, you can still use a remote control on your phone or whatever via Wifi.

4. You can setup macro commands, i.e. push a button to have the TV power on, speakers power on, DVD player power on, etc. all at once. Very convenient when you want to just "watch a movie" or "listen to music".

So basically, plan on the kiddo destroying your stuff & hiding your remote control. Therefore, the best course of action is to hide everything out of reach and have a backup remote control. I found our remote control in the trash can the other day when my kiddo learned how to operate the food pedal on it

 

[adairusmc]

I actually have a Harmony One right now, but I ordered a Harmony Ultimate today due to the screen on the Harmony one not working so well after the wife stepped on it one day.

They reduced the price on the Harmony Ultimate today on Amazon, so I figured it was time to replace the dying Harmony One.

 

[Kaido]

I actually have a Harmony One right now, but I ordered a Harmony Ultimate today due to the screen on the Harmony one not working so well after the wife stepped on it one day.

They reduced the price on the Harmony Ultimate today on Amazon, so I figured it was time to replace the dying Harmony One.

You're ahead of the game then! Pretty much, hide all of the devices out of the way (and lock the doors/drawers if those are accessible), and put the TV up high enough the baby can't reach it.

 

[tedrodai]

I was thinking about this very thing recently, because I finally bought some speakers and a receiver, and my daughter is almost 2yrs old. What I've been worrying about though is her pulling the (tower) speakers down on top of her, or trying to play with the speaker wires. I haven't thought of a good solution to that yet, cause we don't have a separate entertainment room...it's all in the living room.

But I'm gonna need to look for some new furniture as well just to house everything now. A lockable cabinet + one of those remotes sounds like a good idea.

 

[boomhower]

Certainly do something. When my daughter was little I my son's Wii quite working. They sent it back with the three discs my daughter had managed to cram into it. Props to Nintendo though, didn't charge a nickel for something that clearly wasn't a warranty issue.

 

[quikah]

Tether the speakers to the wall. Just a nylon strap you screw one end to the back of the furniture and the other to the wall. Pretty easy to find these in CA (good earthquake protection), not sure where you are.

 

[adairusmc]

Good suggestion on the nylon strap, thank you.

I found this decent looking audio rack on Amazon, which looks like it could work. Am I asking for trouble with a glass door like that one has, or will it work okay?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009W3ZP/...=IR8UXISZ4RX48

It seems like it is about the same height as my floorstand speakers, so I could put this centered under my wall mounted TV, and set the center channel on top of the rack instead of mounting it to the wall. Then I could tether the rack along with the floorstand speakers to keep them from tipping over.

 

[tedrodai]

Yeah, thanks. I'm sure I can find straps somewhere. I'd have to slightly shift my TV & speakers because of a window and doorway, but I think that would work out fine.

 

[Oyeve]

After my son ripped off the door on my $1000 cassette deck 20 years ago I too a big cardboard box and cut it so my whole stereo system would be covered. The ghetto stereo childproofing way.

I did, many years later after my $1200 VHS player died. find a strange "plastic" stick inside the vcr. It baffled me until i realized it was a polly-o string cheese (mozzarella). It must have been in that VCR for a least 10 years and I swear, it turned into plastic!

 

[adairusmc]

I made some progress on this. I moved around my living room, and ran come Cat6 from the wall I am mounting the TV to down to my patch panel in the basement. I also fished HDMI and more CAT6 up to where the TV will be mounted. I figure if I wall mounted the TV securely, that will keep it out of reach for the most part and that big 52" TV wont have to fall on him.

I found a cheap wall mount on Newegg on a black friday sale, so I used that to mount the TV. Above the TV, using the CAT6 I ran up there, I put my wireless access point, an 802.11AC Ubiquiti Unifi. I ran HDMI from a keystone up there to one lower on the wall.

I found a cheap TV stand at Wal-Mart that has sliding doors, which I am going to lock. I am also tethering the floor speakers to the wall as suggested.

The fishing of the wire -

Completed Setup -

I kept the HTPC on the top of the table to give it more air, and I will have easier access to USB ports and the like from up top rather than stuck in the TV stand. And if anything gets busted on it, I can more easily fix it myself rather than sending in one of the consoles to get repaired.

Still have some work to do, but it is a start.