IKEA targets cable clutter with integrated HDTV entertainment system

I'm not entirely proud to say that an absurd amount of the furniture in my home has been furnished by Ikea.

But Ikea, clearly, wants more. The company announced on Tuesday that it's venturing from the world of sofas and Sweedish meatballs to the slightly more uncharted realm of home electronics with its own home entertainment system.

Dubbed "UPPLEVA",  the entertainment system's main targets are the bundles of wires that inevitably accumulate around the average home theater. To that end, IKEA, teaming up with TCL (better known as RCA in the U.S.) is embedding everything within the TV stand itself. The result is a television that is closer to a piece of furniture than a large and incongruous bit of electronics. History, it seems, has come full circle.

The display itself, which comes in multiple colors and four sizes, appears, at first glance, to be pretty solid. 1080p HD, 400Hz refresh rate, Wi-Fi, 2.1 channel surround sound, and intregrated Blu-ray and DVD players are all included. Also a part of the package is a wireless subwoofer, which, as the video below points out, can be placed anywhere in the vicinity of the display.

The whole assemblage, which will run for at least $960, will be available in Europe this year and next Spring in the U.S.

In all, the move is a bright one, and its approach closer to that of what Apple, rather than, say, Samsung, would attempt. IKEA has spotted a clear problem that most home theater owners experience pretty regularly, and though power users may balk at the whole thing, most of people will flock to it.