TV Stands: More than Just a Piece of Furniture

Television consoles have traditionally been designed based on appearances, with only a secondary focus on functionality. As a result, you would some stands that were great to look at and could support a television but wouldn’t include a wire management system or would lack room for speaker components. In some cases, the central shelving would even be too small to fit a standard cable box or DVD Player.

Fortunately, over the past few years a lot of tv stand manufacturers have become more attuned to the needs of the consumers, so we’ve seen features like speaker cloth inserts and media storage drawers become more and more common. And lately, we’ve seen some models by Parker House that include all of the features mentioned above plus an iPod docking station on the top shelf of the stand. This is a really great feature, basically the port, which is recessed, gives you the ability to run an A/V cable from the out port to your entertainment system while a separate dock gives you the ability to connect your iPod to a power block (which comes included along with the necessary USB cables and converter).

What this basically means is that once you connect the iPod to the dock (using the universal well adapter included with the iPod) you are able to charge it while simultaneously uploading videos and music onto your home entertainment system, giving you the ability to play some tunes on your surround sound system. Or you could watch your favorite downloaded shows on a much bigger screen than what your iPod provides!

This is by far the best feature we’ve seen yet on a television stand. Obviously, docking stations have been around for some time, but its great to see a manufacturer actually incorporate it into a stand design, and do so in a way that is not obtrusive. It seems that finally the manufacturers are catching up with the times and are realizing that tv stands more than a piece of furniture, they’re now about seamlessly integrated the many components that make up a home entertainment system. And now that they have seen the light, expect to some more features down the road that will further meet the needs of a changing technologies of the home electronics industry.


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