Living in the Baltimore area, you can't have a basement without a Raven's wall.
This is a neat trick that we saw in a model home. Many basements have those small 'half windows' just above ground level. In this instance I just framed a full window, put some rope lighting behind it with shutters on the front and it gives the illusion of a full window.
The component rack was placed under the stairs to make it easier to get to the wires in the back.
Of course you start off trying to make your wires all nice and neat and then.... GIVE UP!
Equipment consists of an Audio Source 60W amp for the four speakers in the game room. An old BSR equalizer that actually doesn't really do anything but provide a cool display (everyone likes 'blinky lights'). Denon head unit AVR2807, Samsung BDP1600 BluRay player, and DirectTV HR21 DVR.