Has anyone here used the ir input in the back of the 970 to connect to a remote ir receiver?

My home theatre is coming along nicely and my system will sit in a rack on the side of the room. I want to add an ir receiver to the front of the room since that's where people will naturally point the remote. I have been looking at both SmartHome and Xantech brands but none of their kits offer "plug-to-plug" connection to take advantage of the 970's IR input. I don't want to stick on a repeater to the front of the 970.

I need to control 3 devices, all of which have IR input connections.

Any recommendations?