Help us figure out what this is

In the process of cleaning Media Services, we found this unusual... thing in one of our viewing rooms. It appears to be an end-table of sorts, but it goes up or down depending on the weight that's on resting it. You can adjust the tension, but you can't lock it at a particular height.

We're stumped. Does anyone out there have any good guesses about what this is? We assume it has some sort of audio-visual purpose, possibly as a monitor stand, but we've having trouble coming up with a practical application for it.

Please tell us if you can think of a way this would be useful. Help!