Actually, blasters are inherently less reliable than individual emitters. I would recommend that you use low power visible emitters from Xantech placed near the components sensor eyes. These visible emitters are great they are called BlinkIR by Xantech.

Daniel's review says:
The IRF-6 is a six-zone IR router, IR connecting block, RF receiver and control system all in one package.

Since it is a ROUTER, you can count on the fact that each IR port is routed. However, that doesn't mean there aren't many ways to configure it. Hopefully, someone from RTI will comment.

I would expect that you could in fact use your idea. I just don't expect that you could find a place to put a blaster that would:

1) Reliably control all of your components all the time.

2) Not get accidentally knocked around by your dog or yourself.

3) Look good.