I second the mirror approach. I used that while I was waiting for my IR repeater. In your case you would place it on the wall opposite the equipment and aim your remote at the mirror. That should bounce it directly to the equipment.

For IR repeaters you can get flood emitters that can control an entire rack of equipment but you need somewhere to mount it directly in front of the equipment - 3-4 feet away. Otherwise you'd run separate emitters to each device. Hot Link Pro would work.