I have purchased a new stand for my TV. There is some gear inside blocked by wooden doors, I have heard you can use "IR Emitters" and it you can easily control the components from the outside.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for this sort of thing?, is there a particular brand that I should use?

Here is a link to some great tutorials about IR systems. sounds like you are looking for an IR receiver which you will place somewhere that is in line of sight of your remote. It is connected to an IR block and then the IR block connects to the IR emitter which passes the signal to your components. Sound complicated but it's not really. I'm no expert but I managed to get mine working. I believe xantech is one of the better companies making such systems. Also note not all IR receivers are equall. If you have lots of light in the room or a Plasma TV you can get interference unless you use a " Plasma freindly" IR receiver. I tried cheaper units but where flaky. try some searches here for xantech and you can get some good information.

http://www.xantech.com/news/training.htm