2010 Spotlight Award Winners...Hurray!

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At InfoComm 2010 in Las Vegas, with little fanfare but with lots of guests in attendance, we announced the winners of the 2010 PRO AV Spotlight Awards. This year's winners range from a New York City wayfinding application to an Army distance learning system. And starting this summer, the fanfare to celebrate these 16 great projects will be in full effect.

2010 PRO AV Spotlight Awards
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For those of you who don't know, this is the third year of the Spotlight Awards, which we set up to recognize great projects by AV integrators, consultants, architects, and others. It's strictly a program for AV pros and the folks who design and build AV systems. We saw a gaping hole in the pro AV media for this well deserved recognition and committed ourselves to filling it. And we were particularly interested in evaluating projects in the context of the built environment, so we partnered with ARCHITECT magazine (the soon-to-be official magazine of the AIA) and this year, for the first time, InfoComm International, to help raise the awareness of AV as a critical part of commercial construction.

Each year since the beginning, the number of great entries has increased. And this year, it took a panel of eight judges, including myself, to pick the winners. So quickly I'd like to recognize and thank for their time and effort:

  • Tim Cape, CTS-D, Technitect
  • Ned Cramer, Editor in Chief, ARCHITECT magazine
  • Elizabeth Donnoff, Editor, Architectural Lighting magazine
  • Michael Fay, CTS, Sound Image
  • Thom Mullins, CTS, BRC Acoustics & Technology Consulting
  • Frank Sheehan, Visual Acuity
  • Kris Vollrath, CTS, Advanced AV

Over the next several months, we'll be featuring the projects in a new online portal, with additional pictures, discussions, video, and more. We'll get the word out, but check back often. We plan to add project features to the portal incrementally starting later this summer.

Now, if you want a list of all the winners, skip to the end. But I want to highlight a few first.

2010 PRO AV Spotlight Judges' Award


New York-based VideoSonic Systems won one of two Judges' Awards this year for its work at the New York City Visitors Information Center (above). The advanced wayfinding application was one of the most universally praised in this year's judging

Best Hospitality AV Project

 

The work by Robert Singer & Associates at Stay Hotel in New York City (above) was similarly regarded for its innovation. What you're looking at above is a photo shot from ground level, up toward the sky, in the courtyard of the Stay Hotel building. On the left is a vertical stack of projectors, which create dazzling visual effects on the hotel's wall on the right. Robert Singer & Associates is a lighting design firm that, like so many others these days, have adopted video-as-lighting in its installations.

Other projects of note? As we did last year, we recognized one exceptional project that was pulled together with a very modest budget (under $250,000). We don't have categories dedicated to low-budget projects. Instead, judges are directed to examine all projects based on their own merits, regardless of budget. When a very highly rated project also happens to come in under $250,000, we recognize it with an award. This year, that project is the Boston Scientific Visitors Center by Sensory Environment Design. The center is highlighted by a custom four-foot-high by twenty-foot-wide curved, seamless rear projection screen that uses 3M Vikuiti rear-projection film and custom edge-blending software. And it's designed so that behind the screen, on 10 feet of film, it can accommodate an interactive training area. Very cool.

And 2010 marks the first year recognizing residential AV projects, some of which are as involved as many commercial projects, like this year's $804K install by Electronics Design Group in a Greenwich, Conn., home. Dubbed "Classic Comforts," the project employs a slew of hidden AV systems, 14 TVs (including one by the Jacuzzi), 31 zones, and, in a nod to commercial AV, a Tandberg videoconferencing codec in the home office.

Expect to see multiple detailed photos of these and all the other winners in the coming months. Here's the complete list:

Best Corporate AV Project
Bank of America, CMS Audiovisual Consultants

Best Corporate AV Project (Under $250K)
Boston Scientific Visitors Center, Sensory Environment Design

Best Education AV Project (tie)
NYU Dolan Recording Studio/Research Lab, Walters-Storyk Design Group

Best Education AV Project (tie)
Cuyahoga Community College Center for Creative Arts, Westlake Reed Leskosky

Best Entertainment AV Project
Centre of the Cell, D J Willrich Ltd.

Best Government AV Project (State & Local)
New York City Hall Situation Room, AVI-SPL

Best Government AV Project (Federal)
U.S Army TRADOC Classroom XXI Modernization Program, Audio Video Systems

Best Health Care AV Project
Center for Connected Medicine, The Sextant Group

Best Hospitality AV Project
Stay Hotel, Robert Singer & Associates

Best House of Worship AV Project
The Block, Mankin Media Systems

Best Museum AV Project
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum, Design and Production

Best Residential AV Project
Classic Comforts, Electronics Design Group

Best Restaurant/Casino AV Project
Parx Casino, Production Technology Consultants Group

Best Retail AV Project
Peeps & Company, RTKL Associates

PRO AV Spotlight Judges' Award
Coca Cola Live Site Pavilion, Dangers/Robert Levac Design Services

PRO AV Spotlight Judges' Award
New York City Visitors Information Center, VideoSonic Systems

 

 
 

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About the Blogger

Brad Grimes

thumbnail image Brad Grimes is editor of PRO AV magazine and has covered technology for 17 years. Prior to PRO AV he edited Hanley Wood’s DIGITAL HOME, focused on residential builders, AV installers, and architects. He was also chief technology editor for Government Computer News and Washington Technology, covering IT and AV in the federal, state, and local government markets. Grimes spent five years as executive editor of PC World magazine, where his work was recognized by the American Business Media, the American Society of Business Publication Editors, and the American Society of Magazine Editors. He lives near Washington D.C. with his wife and two sons.