The 2018 InAVation Awards will continue to judge and reward the best technology releases in AV by focusing on application and not product type and, yes, you can still enter free of charge.
The applications focused approach, that sets this scheme apart from other AV technology awards, was introduced for the 2017 event and met with an overwhelmingly positive response from award judges and embraced by a record number of entrants.
Awards organisers believed the change was necessary in part to respond to the increasingly diverse AV market and recognise that it simply is not possible to judge the full spectrum of technologies for the AV market within a sensible range of product categories.
Furthermore, a growing number of systems on the market are developed to handle a wider range of functions and aren’t easily categorised.
Therefore, to truly recognise innovation and brilliance in this sector we believe it is right to take a solutions based approach. For the second year, technologies can be entered into a number of categories that have been selected to highlight important sectors for the industry and key areas for recent product innovation.
Entrants will again need to write statements to convince a panel of judges (formed of integrators, consultants, technology managers and users as well as media partners of the event) what their technology adds to a particular application, task or environment.
A single product can be entered into multiple categories but the entry statement must change to demonstrate its suitability for the category.
This shift demonstrates that the judging panel is less interested in the specifications of a particular technology, instead placing more emphasis on the benefits it brings to designers, integrators, managers and users of AV systems.
In short, if you want to enter a product you need to think less about its feature set or what it does, and more about what experience it offers to installers and users of the product.
However, in a departure from last year’s event, organisers have added an AV Accessory category. We realise that the often unsung heroes of the industry – let’s face it where would we be without brackets & mounts, specialist furniture and floor boxes – might have a tough time in the updated categories.
All categories will be open for entry from September 18, 2017 to October 20, 2017. Finalists will be announced on November 6, 2017 when the readers of InAVate will vote to decide winners. All winners will be announced on the first evening of ISE, February 6, 2018 when a ceremony and gala dinners will be held in Amsterdam.
