On the closing day of an incredible InfoComm 2015, we are thrilled to announce the winners of the AV Technology Best of Show Awards.We take pride in the fact that our awards are based on the ability to see and test the product on the show floor, and talk with product managers and team members that developed the product. AV Technology's judges are anonymous during the show—made up entirely of industry-experts, AV designers, integrators, and AV/IT technology managers. The decision matrix for entries included: perceived value; ROI; total cost of ownership; richness of the feature set; ease-of-use; reliability; versatility; and overall network impact (if any). The Best of Show Awards supports our objective of meeting the needs of the tech manager community by spotlighting products that genuinely solve problems, offer value, and consider the operator/manager’s PoV.
Our evaluation process is the most thorough and hands-on in the industry, and it serves our community the best. The winners below stood out from the thousands of new products at InfoComm 15. Congratulations!
2015 Best of Show Winners: AV TECHNOLOGY
AptoVision BlueRiver NT+
AVT Judges: "By recognizing that Ethernet beat HDBaseT, this product is perfectly positioned to transport studio quality video."
Audio Visual Furniture International’s CR1016 & Modular Credenzas
AVT Judges: "Multiple options to customize furniture in a conference room setting. It's a good product that offers a lot of flexibility and options."
Barco NRC-200 Networked 4K Room Compositor
AVT Judges: "Adds additional functionality to ClickShare, but also facilitates a range of collaboration products."
1 Beyond, Inc. StreamCam AutoTracker
AVT Judges: "No human intervention needed. This very smart PTZ automatically follows the speaker, pastor, or educator. Beta-tested at MIT for lecture-capture, this auto-tracking PTZ is a complete game-changer for any live streaming or recorded event. An end-user can connect the camera via HD-SDI to a monitor/capture system, then absolutely nothing needs to be touched — by anyone."
Black Box DCX3000 Matrix Digital KVM Switch
AVT Judges: "The unique thumbnail preview provides a simplified graphical user interface (GUI), making it easier to view multiple screens than text-based, on-screen menus."
Blackmagic DesignATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K
AVT Judges: "Top quality frame-rate switcher with ease of use.”
Calibre HQView625 scaler-switcher / Kramer VP-796
AVT Judges: "Extremely well-conceived switcher with unique underlying technology."
Dataton WATCHOUT
AVT Judges: "The new 3D projection and mapping features in Version 6 empower users to create dynamic presentations using almost any style and quantities of displays possible."
Digital Projection International INSIGHT 4K LASERAVT Judges: "A high brightness, high resolution projector that promises lower maintenance cost than their lamp based counterparts."
DVI Gear DisplayNet: DN-100 Series HDMI 10GbE Transmitter / Receiver
AVT Judges: "A video distribution platform that appears to hit a sweet spot between cost and performance for applications requiring video selection and distribution."
Cambridge Sound Management Qt Conference Room Edition
AVT Judges: "Sound masking is the unsung hero of the modern office building. Interior designs using glass walls and open spaces have created major issues for speech privacy. Sound masking is a cost-effective solution to ensure meetings are not overheard. "
Canon REALiS WUX6000 Pro AV Installation LCOS Projector
AVT Judges: “Ton of features and a very reasonable price-point based on the high number of lumens.”
Crestron’s 4K DigitalMedia Receiver & Room Controller w/Scaler (DM-RMC-4K-SCALER-C)
AVT Judges: “Crestron is a company that has strong support in North America and cost versus operations; this is a good investment.”
Da-Lite Parallax UST 0.45
AVT Judges: "An innovative screen technology that provides an impressive image in less than optimum lighting situations."
Epson PowerLite Pro G6970WU
AVT Judges: "Combining high brightness with a variety of video input types not typically found at this price point, this unit should meet the needs of many education and house of worship clients."
Gefen Multi-Format Processor (EXT-MFP)
AVT Judges: “Great price point for its place in the market."
IHSE USA K480-576 Tera Enterprise KVM Switch
AVT Judges: "The Tera Enterprise KVM provides end users with a massive KVM frame supporting 4K video resolutions and USB 3.0 with instantaneous switching response for mission critical applications."
IHSE USA 480 XV KVM Matrix
AVT Judges: "The clean interface and extreme speed of switching of video and control was complimented by an easy to use interface and a vast array of modular interface options."
InFocus Mondopad 2.0
AVT Judges: "This product does everything you can think of — it supports wireless projection from all operating systems and can be easily upgraded by changing the PC module or upgrading the OS. I can't wait to get one at my institution!"
Kramer Electronics USAK-Touch V3.0
AVT Judges: "AV control and room automation that's easier to use than a home theater remote control. Device-agnostic and cloud-based, the K-Touch V3.0 could be a game-changer."
Lab.gruppenLUCIA 70V
AVT Judges: "Lab.Gruppen continues to deliver the highest quality amplifiers combining small form factors with the pristine sound they are known for."
Mersive Solstice Pod
AVT Judges: "A perfect fit for the BYOD professor, engineer, or physician."
Pexip Infinity
AVT Judges: "An excellent job of integration with WebRTC”
Phoenix Audio TechnologiesCondor
AVT Judges: "A perfect solution for the boardroom or other location where conferees don't want to see the AV equipment."
Planar DirectLight LED Video Wall System
AVT Judges: "Stunning, crisp, high contrast images are produced with ultra-fine pitch direct view LED video wall system and scales to nearly any size or shape. Off-board distributed architecture increases reliability and improves serviceability by removing heat, complexity, and potential points of failure."
Prysm Synthesis
AVT Judges: "Rather like a Cascde display system control software sytem, this product is impressive and easy to use."
Revolabs FLX UC 1500
AVT Judges: “Stellar VoIP endpoint audio conference mix."
Seneca VWC-PLUS
AVT Judges: "Offers a lot of flexibility through swapping video cards when needed. The system will power a legacy video wall but is robust enough to support 8K displays through video intensive processing power.”
Sony Electronics’ SRG-300SE
AVT Judges: Sony’s first 3G-SDI and Live IP streaming PTZ camera. The camera combines full HD video and ease of use at an affordable price and is optimized for various applications
Shure’s MOTIV Digital Microphone Product Line
AVT Judges: "Combines traditional pro-look with excellent use of new technology."
SiliconCore Lavender 1.2mm LED
AVT Judges: "Lavender provides stunning image quality whose performance exceeded most other video walls on the show floor."
SunBriteTV SB-4217HD
AVT Judges: "So many sizes available! Just provide power to the unit, and the TV will power all auxiliary devices. It has a a weatherproof enclosure to house media players which is a nice feature."
AMX SVSi N3510 Multi-Channel Windowing Processor
AVT Judges: "There are a variety of benefits and pluses that make it affordable and work consistently with IT/Networking. Product bonus — the variety of input signals can be compressed easily and routed to multiple displays."
Vaddio RoboSHOT 12 USB
AVT Judges: "Vaddio products are manufactured in US. Price-point is reasonable given the next step-up is true broadcast quality and not necessary for most customers. High-def, PTZ, and USB 3.0 capability, PoE is a good feature and the direction of the future. Camera tri-motion has added ease of PTZ function and very quiet."
VDO360 Clearwater
AVT Judges: "This is a perfect fit for physicians, traveling executives, and off-campus professors.”
wePresent WIPG-2000
AVT Judges: "In addition to duplicating AirPlay in any environment, this device is user- and network-friendly."
Full coverage of all entries, winners, and product details will follow soon in a custom publication covering the InfoComm 2015 Best of Show Awards.
