Simple controls, centralized management, tight deadlines, scalability… integration firms encountered all the usual suspects on the checklists of the AV integration projects they entered into CI’s annual Integration Awards program. For their customers (and bottom lines), the submitted installations were all winners in their own ways.
CI’s panel of judges had the unenviable task of whittling the entries in more than a dozen awards categories down to those that simply stood out as the best, and came away with 14 more than worthy winners in .
“Each year it seems like the Integration Awards get more competitive across each of our vertical market categories,” says Tom LeBlanc, CI editor-in-chief.
“As the editors of Commercial Integrator and TechDecisions scour AV integration projects submitted by integration firms, we try not to get hung up on the ‘wow factor.’ Instead we’re focused on the context of the applications. What were the challenges that the customer brought to the integration firm? Were those challenges solved? Does it seem like a solution that has legs? Is there a plan in place for continuing to support the customer?
“The judges, we’ll admit, had some healthy debates and there could easily have been multiple winners in each category. That being said, the winners of the 2018 commercial Integration Awards should be extremely product of creating solutions to customers real problems. That’s what integrators are meant to do.”
Here are this year’s winners — stay tuned for extensive coverage of each of them later this month right here on Commercial Integrator!
- Best Bars & Restaurant Project: Pier 17 at Seaport District NYC — ANC
- Best Casino Project: Ocean Casino Resort, William Hill Sportsbook — McCann Systems
- Best Corporate Campus Project: PTC Headquarters, Seaport Boston — Red Thread
- Best Government/Mission Critical Project: ERDC Headquarters — M3 Technology Group
- Best Health Care Project: Kimmel Pavilion/Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital @ NYU — Whitlock
- Best Higher Education Project: The University of Arizona Health Science Innovation Building — Level 3 Audio Visual
- Best Hotel/Hospitality Project: Dream Hotel — South Central A\V
- Best House of Worship Project: Franklin Ave. Baptist Church — Mankin Media Systems
- Best K-12 Project: BenQ Portsmouth Public Schools — BenQ
- Best Large Venue Project: University of Notre Dame – Campus Crossroads Project — ESCO Communications
- Best Meeting Room Project: White & Case LLP — AVI-SPL
- Best Museum Project: Sheikh Abdullah al Salem Cultural Centre — Electrosonic
- Best Small Office Project: World Wide Technology DC Innovation Center — Coltrane Systems
