NEWS EISA Gala
NEWS EISA Gala 2017 Group Photo EISA Awards Celebrate Best in Class Innovation and excellence the focus of the EISA Vision On Friday September 1, the prestigious EISA Awards were handed out during IFA at a glamourous ceremony in Berlin’s Kempinski Bristol hotel. Paul Miller, EISA President, welcomed a packed crowd of manufacturers and EISA members to the 2017/18 event by saying: “Everyone in this hall you are winners, you have innovated, and you are ‘best in class’ ”. EISA stands for the European Imaging & Sound Association, and technical experts from 53 leading specialist magazines in 25 countries across the globe recognised and awarded no fewer than 66 products as the best in their categories. These include OLED TV, floorstanding loudspeaker, compact camera and best buy smartphone. Following Miller’s presentation, Award winners were called on stage to receive their Awards. With six awards in the photo categories, Sony was one of the big winners of the evening. TCL’s Marek Maciejewski, Product Development Director Europe, was on stage to receive the company’s first EISA Awards for the U55C7006, awarded as the ‘Best Buy TV 2017-18’. Mareike Oer from Sennheiser was pleased to be back at the EISA awards with the Momentum Wireless in-ear headphones, which received an Award for the best inear wireless headphone. Also in the sound category, Yamaha’s Michael Geise picked up two EISA Awards for the categories Best Multi-Room Network Player (for its WXC50) and Best Home Theatre Receiver (for its RX-V483). EISA has been selecting the most innovative, cutting-edge products for its prestigious EISA Awards for the last 35 years. To win an EISA award all products undergo a comprehensive multi-step judging process. Products are intensively tested at the facilities of EISA member magazines and are also presented at the Association’s annual Convention in Antwerp in May. The final deliberations take place at EISA’s annual General Meeting in June where a democratic voting process determines the winning products. After this, EISA Award-winning products can be promoted with an EISA Award logo and short video, designed for social media channels, both providing a clear visual buying recommendation. “So whether consumers are looking to purchase a feature-rich smartphone, a versatile camera solution or a pair of highend floorstanding loudspeakers, the EISA Awards are their unequivocal guide to the cream of today’s entertainment technologies,” said Miller. Miller underlined the importance of innovation as one of the core values of EISA when choosing the products that receive an award. But he also added that EISA is innovating and reinventing itself. For instance, the categories of the prestigious awards programme are evolving and adapting themselves to new and changing product categories. In addition, EISA and its vision are evolving. One recent change is a new location for the annual EISA convention in an exclusive chateau retreat near Antwerp, Belgium, where leading manufacturers get the chance to present their products to the different panels of EISA experts. Miller named the EISA convention as a “one stop shop” for manufacturers to present their products and technologies to the EISA member magazines which, through their coverage, reach out to a huge readership of tech-savvy opinionleaders. Overall, EISA estimates that its 53 members reach an impressive 500,000 print and two million online readers. THE EISA AWARDS ARE THE UNEQUIVOCAL GUIDE TO THE CREAM OF TODAY’S ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES. Another important evolution outlined by Miller is that EISA is “going global”. EISA now has three new member magazines in Australia and two in the US, and the aim for the coming year is to win more members in even more countries, with a focus on Asia and Canada, in order to become the biggest Consumer Electronics Awards organiser in the world www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Monday 4 st September 2017 13
