Essential Install – EI Live Review

With a regular flow of visitors passing through the AWE village to find out about the latest products and solutions, and a celebratory evening as AWE took a double win at the Smart Building Awards, the UK distributor enjoyed a successful two days at EI Live 2018.

Smart Building Awards
Showing that dedication to providing the best service to customers is key, AWE stole the show at this year’s Smart Building Awards, taking the prize for ‘Distributor of the Year.’ AWE was acknowledged as setting the standard for customer service, award winning training, technical support, and competitive pricing.

“Being recognised as Distributor of the Year is a fine reward for the AWE team” comments Stuart, AWE’s Managing Director. “This recognition follows a busy year for us, as we expanded and improved AWE’s Smart Apartment, providing integrators with an additional space to demonstrate the capabilities of a home cinema to their customers. We’ve also increased our brand portfolio with several new product launches and continue to offer professional development to integrators through our Smart Home Academy.”

AWE also took top spot with ‘TV/Display of The Year (conventional)’ for the Sony BRAVIA A1 OLED TV & ‘Matrix/Signal Distribution Product of The Year’ for the HDANYWHERE MHUB.

This OLED TV brings together the best of Sony’s unique picture quality technology, including the 4K HDR processor X1™ Extreme, which increases the visual appeal of 4K HDR content. Available in 55", 65" and 77" models.

HDANYWHERE’s renowned MHUB a centralised AV system for sharing up to eight Ultra HD HDMI media sources to different screen locations, adds another award to its impressive tally.

Both the Sony BRAVIA A1 Series and the HDANYWHERE MHUB range are available to technology integrators via AWE.

AWE Village
Stuart Tickle, Managing Director of AWE comments: “EI Live provided us with a great opportunity to showcase our latest products and talk to our dealers about their current and future projects.”

As AWE’s product portfolio continues to expand, as does its line-up of screen offerings. AWE showcased the latest screens from all the major brands, with a particular focus on cutting-edge TVs. This included Samsung’s new The Frame TV, combining elegance and functionality to visually enhance a residential space with its unique picture frame design and Art Mode function, as well as the new Sony AF8 series, the latest Sony OLED TV with hugely impressive picture performance with wall mount practicality.

Elsewhere on the stand, attendees were immersed in Videotree’s Lifestyle Bathroom, Mirror Hyper Illusion XT, and Oceana Outdoor TV ranges, whilst Panasonic and LG demonstrated their latest OLED TV products.

Featured in the dedicated control zone, the latest URC products on display included the award winning Total Control system featuring the latest TC2.0 software and new Amazon Alexa and google home voice integration. Key integration products including Philips Hue and Dynalite lighting control solutions, video distribution from HDAnywhere, wireless blind control from QMotion and window shading from Silent Gliss were also on show.

KEF showcased its range of premium THX certified range of architectural speakers for the custom installation market, from in-ceiling to in-wall speakers and the simply jaw dropping Blade loudspeakers. Denon and Marantz also demonstrated its latest AV receivers and processors alongside the newest addition to the HEOS by Denon range - the HEOS Super Link, a 4-zone multi-room streaming device housed in a 1U rack chassis.

In the solutions zone, AWE demonstrated the SANUS product range, which provides integrators with everything 19” rack and wall mount related needed to complete a professional installation.

Epson Home Cinema
Returning for the 2018 edition of the show, the impressive Epson Home Cinema wowed attendees with the Epson EH-TW9300 3LCD 4K Enhancement projector, for the ultimate home cinema experience. Together with a Draper ReAct projection screen, Marantz amplification and KEF loudspeakers, the pop-up home cinema showed just what can be achieved in a compact space for a very sensible budget.

Retra Seminar
As if putting on the biggest and busiest stand at the show wasn’t enough, AWE teamed up with CEDIA and Retra to host the Retra Smart Home Seminar, offering electrical retailers the opportunity to find out more about the available opportunities in the sector. With a morning and an afternoon session on both days of the event, AWE presented a full explanation on how to understand the smart home market, as well as practical steps that should be taken to get started.

For more information on the products available from AWE, please visit www.awe-europe.com call +44(0)1372 729 995 or email [email protected].