this might be too late but there is a toy sold by stores like thinkgeek.com and it is basically a set of lasers that act like an alarm for your cubicle.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/78df/
so according to thinkgeek when a laser beem is broken an alarm is sounded, which is basically a switch. So modify this toy to turn on your DVD player, VCR etc.