Electronic Lifestyles Awards Competition Deadline is Approaching
Apr 7, 2011 2:16 PM
The deadline for entering the Electronic Lifestyles Designer Awards is May 6 and Manufacturers’ Excellence Awards entries must be submitted by June 10. Manufacturers can also enter the Attendees’ Choice Award Competition, for which entries are due July 29. Awards competitions can seem intimidating. Don’t believe the myths:
Designer Award Myths:
Myth: My projects won’t fit into the cost categories.
Truth: Cost categories are not pre-determined but rather are set after all entries have been received. This allows judges to compare entries that have similar project costs without restricting who is able to enter.
Myth: The judges favor certain companies.
Truth: The competition is completely anonymous—all identifying information is removed from each entry before judges review the projects. Judges do not know whose work they’re evaluating until after winners have been selected.
Manufacturers’ Excellence Awards Myths :
Myth: The same companies win every year.
Truth: In the past five years, 123 different manufacturers have received over 155 Manufacturers’ Excellence Awards.
Myth: My product category never wins.
Truth: No products are excluded from consideration and all categories have an equal chance of winning. Judges are looking for the best new product. They are looking for innovation and products they haven’t seen before or technology that performs a completely new function. From software to tools as well as touchscreens, speakers, and televisions, all categories are on the same playing field.
CEDIA is also accepting nominations for the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award
This award recognizes an individual who has exhibited outstanding, creative, innovative, and visionary leadership in the growth and advancement of the residential electronic systems industry. Nominations are evaluated on the basis of achievement and service within the industry.
Last year’s honor went to Lutron founder Joel Spira in honor his five-plus decades in the industry. Purdue graduate Spira introduced the world’s first dimming device in 1959 and has enjoyed a career marked by innovation and honors, including 500 U.S. design and utility patents. Who will be this year’s innovator?
Learn more about the Electronic Lifestyles Awards competition and submit your entries today at www.cedia.org/awards. Questions? Contact [email protected].
CEDIA is Your Resource for HDMI Training
HDMI is quickly becoming part of most custom installations. While HDMI is a fantastic single-cable solution for pairing a couple of consumer products, implementing custom whole-home distributed video systems using HDMI still presents challenges. Electronic systems contractors (ESCs) must pay careful attention to design, and even then systems can be difficult to troubleshoot.
CEDIA has developed an eight-hour hands-on workshop and boot camp to help ESCs understand HDMI as a technology and how to better design and troubleshoot complex HDMI systems. Instructors will cover design and installation best practices for distributed video systems, interoperability testing practices, and how to use established troubleshooting techniques with specific HDMI test equipment.
The course, developed in partnership with HDMI Liscensing LLC and Quantum Data, offers a minimum three hours hands-on training and attendees receive six Continued Education Units (CEUs).
The HDMI workshop will be offered at ADI locations across the country. To see a sample agenda and register for a session tailored to your professional discipline and geographic location, visit www.cedia.org/calendar for more information.
