Things to consider before having a "custom made" home entertainment unit (tv cabinet) built or when purchasing prefabricated tv furniture from a retailer:

• Measure the size of your components especially the depth of your surround sound receiver/amplifier, it not only has to suit your taste in aesthetics but it must be functional. The shelves or cells need to be the right size to accommodate your components. I have on a number of occasions had to advise a customer that the expensive piece of home entertainment furniture could not accommodate their new expensive equipment.

• Amplifier receivers need to be well ventilated because they need to dissipate heat. They need to have space on the top because of the ventilators. Allow at least 10 cm.

• The depth of the furniture should be deep enough to accommodate all the cabling. When the unit is hard up against the wall for example, the cables may stick out from the back leaving you amplifier no option but to overhang at the front.

• From a cable connection point of view the ideal piece of furniture would be something without a back on it

• Stacking your components is not a good Idea because they need to get the right amount of ventilation.

• Remember if your planning to have doors on your entertainment unit the ventilation has to come from somewhere.The doors also need to be able to allow infrared signals through in order operate your components via remote control. There are infrared extenders that can remedy this, however, glass, frosted glass or mesh does allow infrared through.

• If you have large floor speakers for your stereo or surround sound, allow enough space on either side of the unit.

Motorized lifts that can be incorporated into your custom entertainment unit design is a great way to hide your TV from the kids. They are also being installed into bed ends for small lcd tvs