Early-Bird Deadline: May 31, 2019
Deadline: August 6, 2019
Spaces
Best Whole-House/ Smart Home Project over $150K - This award recognizes an installation firm that delivered an integrated system with an installed, end‐user price over $150,000. The entry must show how the product selection, hardware, and system programming solved problems, improved lifestyle and/or delivered a user‐friendly experience in either a new construction or retrofit project.
Best Whole-House/ Smart Home Project under $150K - This award recognizes an installation firm that delivered an integrated system with an installed, maximum, end‐user price of $150,000. The entry should show how the product selection, hardware, and system programming solved problems, improved lifestyle and/or delivered a user‐friendly experience in either a new construction or retrofit project.
Best Home Theater Under $25K - This award recognizes the best designed and installed dedicated entertainment system, including video display, surround sound, multiple sources, and control under $25K. The winning entry should demonstrate ease of use, integration with the room's environmental systems (lighting, window coverings, and temperature) and/or other house systems (security, cameras, access control, distributed audio/video, etc.).
Best Home Theater Under $25K-$100K - This award recognizes the best designed and installed dedicated entertainment system, including video display, surround sound, multiple sources, and control between $25K and $100K. The winning entry should demonstrate ease of use, integration with the room's environmental systems (lighting, window coverings, and temperature) and/or other house systems (security, cameras, access control, distributed audio/video, etc.).
Best Home Theater Over $100K - This award recognizes the best designed and installed dedicated entertainment system, including video display, surround sound, multiple sources, and control over $100K. The winning entry should demonstrate ease of use, integration with the room's environmental systems (lighting, window coverings, and temperature) and/or other house systems (security, cameras, access control, distributed audio/video, etc.).
Best Master Suite - This award recognizes the best designed and installed technologies utilized for comfort, convenience, privacy and entertainment in a master suite. The products and systems installed should showcase the aesthetic features of the room and provide the ability for occupants to easily adapt the environment to meet their specific needs—sleeping, reading, relaxing, etc.
Best Media Room / Den / Multipurpose Room - This award recognizes the best designed and installed products and systems, including entertainment products, lighting controls, motorization and more in a room that accommodates a variety of activities. The winning entry should demonstrate ease of use, integration with the room’s design, and the benefits provided to its end users.
Best Kitchen & Bath - This award recognizes the best designed and installed systems for a kitchen or bath environment. The winning entry should demonstrate how technologies can enhance the efficiency, comfort, and convenience in a kitchen or bath, introduce innovative methods of controlling the environment via a keypad, touch panel, sensors, voice, or some other method. The winning entry should also demonstrate a high level of integration with the room design.
Best Home Office - This award recognizes the best designed and installed networking, communications and control systems in a dedicated home office. The winning entry should explain how the integrated technologies improve the user’s level of efficiency and productivity, and how the systems enable easy, intuitive control over the room environment, such as lighting, music and video, climate and more.
Best Outdoor Entertainment Area - This award recognizes the best designed and installed entertainment, lighting, security and other systems in an outdoor area. The winning entry should demonstrate the care by which the integration firm specified and integrated products and systems to withstand the rigors of an outdoor environment, and how these systems deliver enjoyment to its users and beauty to the landscape.
Best Strange & Specialty Area - Our catch-all category, this award recognizes the best designed and installed smart home systems in rooms including home gyms, wine cellars, garages, and other “unusual” spaces. The winning entry should showcase how the integration of products and systems such as entertainment devices, lighting controls, motorization, automation and more have helped turn these rooms into usable, functional areas of a home.
Best Rack / Equipment Room - The heart of any smart home is a well-designed and configured equipment room, including well-dressed equipment racks. The winning entry should demonstrate the high level of planning and design involved in the implementation of the rack and room, showcase special features, and explain how the rack/room serves the present and future tech needs of the homeowners.
Functions
Best Lighting Control Project - This award recognizes the best residential lighting control and/or automated shade/drapery project. The winning solution should provide tangible benefits to the homeowner, including ease of use, convenience, integration capabilities, and energy savings. Projects may include the use of distributed wireless products, hardwired or wireless lighting control products or systems, automated shading/drapery systems, scene control devices, and unique controlling techniques.
Best Shade Control Project - This award recognizes the best residential shade control project. The winning solution should provide tangible benefits to the homeowner, including ease of use, convenience, privacy, comfort, integration capabilities, and energy savings. The winning solution should also demonstrate a high level of control and unique automation to suit the needs of the homeowners. Projects may include wired and wireless products, draperies, and shades and blinds of all styles.
Best Integrated Security Project - This award recognizes the finest integrated security system, including security controllers, sensors, cameras, and access devices. The winning entry should demonstrate how technology was used for fire and intrusion protection; property monitoring; door entry control; and/or emergency detection, such as water leakage, as well as hard integration with other home technologies, including lighting, HVAC controls, distributed video and/or home automation.
Best Sound / Audio Project - This award recognizes the best residential audio project. Projects may include two-channel listening rooms, whole-house audio, and surround sound systems. The winning solution should explain the level of planning required by the integration firm to integrate the audio systems into a specific environment, the precision of the installation in order to provide the best sound quality, and the ease by which users can manage and control their audio system.
Best Health & Wellness Project - This award acknowledges a home that best uses technology to facilitate the health and/or special needs of customers. The winning entry should epitomize Universal Design by fulfilling specific current or future needs of the homeowner, such as aging in place, an adaptable living environment, simple and flexible user interface solutions, communication of critical user information, low (or high) demand for physical effort, and a high tolerance for the users capabilities. This project may also highlight technology solutions that anticipate the evolving needs of the homeowner as the user's abilities, needs and desires change over time.
Best New Technologies Project - This award recognizes the high level of innovation and creativity entailed during the design and implementation of systems in a residential setting. The winning solution should feature newly released, innovative products and systems, creative applications of the products and systems, and explain how the new technologies provide the homeowners with benefits such as comfort, convenience, and safety.
Features
Best Combo Design + Tech Project - This award recognizes the best demonstration of how design and technology can work together. The winning project should focus on how the chosen technologies enhance, complement and fuse with the specific design of the space. The project should explain how the design and integration teams collaborated to ensure harmony between the technologies and the room aesthetics.
Best Before/After Retrofit Project - This award recognizes the ingenuity of an integration project where a new system has been installed into an existing residential structure, where the home or section of the home is not under construction. The entry must demonstrate how an existing home was upgraded with new technology. The entry should include the hardware used, the wiring or wireless approach, the installation methodology, customer requirements, ease of use and how the most difficult installation challenges were overcome. Creativity and expertise should demonstrate your retrofit prowess.
Best Budget-Compromises Project - This award recognizes the best designed and installed systems on a budget. The winning project should detail the types of products and systems chosen, special installation techniques, and other tactics employed, and the specific budget and compromises that were met to create a solution that fits under a tight budget. Projects should showcase a wide variety of products and systems and provide tangible benefits to the homeowners.