DALLAS, TX (September 29, 2022)—URC, a global leader in smart home automation and control for residential and commercial applications, announced today, from CEDIA, the winners of its 8th annual Unsurpassed Awards.
Launched in 2014, URC’s Unsurpassed Awards celebrate excellence and creativity in residential and commercial automation installations. Entries are accepted from domestic URC dealers and International distributors. Categories for consideration include: Best Residential, Best Commercial, Most Unique, and Best International.
Entries for the 2022 competition showcase unique smart residential and commercial installations featuring creative system design, innovative product use cases, distinctive environments, and advanced implementations. Home and business owners rave about the benefits of these breakthrough automated systems. “This system has let us to be more productive on a daily basis by being able to quickly and easily setup and adjust based on our needs,” stated a commercial customer. He continued, “being able to quickly go from testing of a system to monitoring an account for service and back has been extremely helpful.”
“With URC’s support and superior products, our dealers continue to surprise and delight us with creative installations in diverse environments,” said Mr. Chang K. Park, URC Founder. “We thank all of our dealers for their dedication, especially those who entered our annual celebration of excellence. Our community has never been stronger and announcing as we return to in-person gatherings at CEDIA makes this even more special.”
This year’s entries include prior winners, like Starpower, Hemag and Digital Lifestyles, who consistently excel, as well as dealers new to the competition like AAA Electronic Services, Inc., Infinity Security Group, Quality TV, and Unique Audio. The categories were so competitive, it challenged our ability to select winners.
Winners of the 2022 URC’s Unsurpassed Awards include the following URC dealers:
Starpower Chairman’s Award
Starpower (Dallas, TX) https://star-power.com/ has been a valued URC dealer for over 10 years and has won several awards for excellence in design and installation of incredible residential automation projects. This year was no different with another stunning entry in the residential category. This project was design in a luxurious home located in the Dallas area and contains an expansive URC’s Total Control system. The project was installed with a HDA (High-Definition Audio) platform for concert quality sound, voice control among 9 touch screens and handheld remotes, and an extensive URC Lighting system including 55 dimmers and switches. The system was expertly designed to automate nearly every aspect of a contemporary lifestyle including Good Morning, Dinner Party, and Good Night scenes. With 14 zones and a dedicated home theater, the system was installed to seamlessly integrate with global brand devices like Somfy shade motors, Sony TVs, Sonos audio players, and Aladdin garage door openers. URC’s new, certified Apple TV integration provided another break-through feature driving homeowner satisfaction. For this installation and several over the prior years, URC proudly awarded the Chairman’s Award for excellence to David Pidgeon and the team at Starpower.
Hemag, Inc. Wins Most Unique Installation - USA
Hemag, Inc. (Miami, FL) https://www.hemaginc.com designs such interesting projects that it’s difficult to choose among them. With this installation, Hemag has another winner! The project contains a video distribution system programmed throughout the home via sources: Apple TV, Roku and DirectTV. As the client selects Netflix, a light strip around the screen turns to red matching the primary color of the app currently in use. From anywhere in the home, the homeowner can tap a source and start watching immediately from any of the seven TVs. The Home Theater contains a 100" EPV acoustic transparent screen boasting a 5.2.2 set-up to deliver a true cinema experience. Using a URC Total Control keypad and Fusion Research, the client can select from their Spotify library or click a Karaoke button that activates YouTube for a Karaoke concert like no other. All rooms are customized to the preferences and personalization of the homeowner and can be controlled remotely for flexibility and security. The system is set to Spanish language to ensure that the entire family can easily activate, and it contains favorite family pictures among the touchscreen backgrounds. Highly customized, meticulously programmed and creatively designed for unique entertainment. According to the homeowner, “Hemag really blew away my expectations! I am beyond impressed with their vision of the home theater. It is much better than my previous home. Hemag was top notch and made sure everything was easy to use and perfect. Thank you Hemag and URC!”
AAA Electronic Services, Inc. Wins Best Residential Installation – USA
AAA Electronic Services, Inc. (New York, NY) A gold and silver winner this year, AAA Electronic Services, Inc. provided two incredible projects for consideration. The winner, and one of our favorites, is this luxury mansion located in a borough of New York City that is a designer’s dream. With clear vision, the homeowner blended modern amenities, sleek metals, natural elements and a state-of-the art networking and automation system. Powered by URC’s Total Control with 16 TKP-7600 touchscreens and 32 zones of high-performance audio, this installation meets the demands of a contemporary family for convenience and ease of use in literally every space of the home. Gaming, streaming video, home office, security and automation are designed to deliver a luxury lifestyle with all the amenities of a resort and the functionality of a sophisticated home office. “The homeowner had a clear vision of the design aesthetic and lifestyle elements needed in the home, and URC’s Total Control helped us deliver on both,” stated Yash Momaya, Director of Operations for AAA Electronic Services. The lighting has been completely renovated with seamless integration across Lutron with 20 (Twenty) Lutron RRD – Pro dimmers for RadioRA2 and 11 Scene controllers and color switches. Lutron Sivoia QS Roller Shades are also programmed throughout the home to regulate exterior lighting and provide security. Power to shade control includes Lutron Triathlon Shade Single Shade Transformer, all easily integrated into the system. He continued, “The high level of integration between URC and many other third parties certainly made everything convenient for programming and use by the end user. The team at URC is always a pleasure to deal with.”
Infinity Security Group Wins Best Commercial Installation – USA
Infinity Security Group (Houston, TX) (http://www.infinitysecurity.com/) created a dynamic installation that rivals any commercial project. Custom designed for Republic Harley-DavidsonÒ (https://republichd.com/), the #1 Harley-Davidson dealership in the Houston area, this system is comprehensive using URC’s Total Control to automate 12 TV displays throughout the site, running the Orange Door marketing system, controlling Roku to Local Air channels, and running a concert quality audio system including Russound 70V. This system sounds true to brand, using URC’s HDA High-Definition Audio system playing bold music videos for stimulation and the Orange Door stream used for dealer designed content directed at service, apparel, bike specials and sales specials. Fully customized like Republic’s bikes, Infinity Security Group designed the system for maximum enjoyment and ease of use. Store personnel can activate the sights and sounds of this premiere American icon or turn-off the system with the touch of one button. According to the client, “This system is great. Does everything we need it to and more. Easy to use. No more running around changing channels all day.” This is a winner!
Potters Home Digital Wins Best International Installation
Potters Home Digital (Tenterden, Kent, England) (https://www.home-digital.com/)
Via AWE, URC’s European Distributor, comes a truly immersive experience from Potters Home-Digital. It combines smart technology, award-winning garden design, and meticulous craftsmanship, to create an atmosphere and experience that rocks. This project subtlety incorporates different areas into the show garden, providing one in keeping space, which could easily be defined and used to suit different moods or for different purposes. The experience creates a beautiful showcase for the homeowner using URC’s Total Control, Sonance, and James Loudspeaker outdoor audio products. Complete with outdoor cinema and a karaoke feature, technology is hidden but performance is not compromised. A Garden Office easily converts to a meeting room. But with such a beautiful view of the garden, it could also be a gym or meditation room. Clever automation and smart products enhance the day-to-day life of the homeowners and use of garden space. Unique features like automated water integration, water feature control, lighting control, access control and security mean that this secret garden will not be a secret for long!
The complete list of award-winning installations includes:
- Most Unique Installation - USA
- Gold: Hemag, Inc.
- Silver: AAA Electronic Services, Inc.
- Bronze: Unique Audio
- Best Residential Installation - USA
- Gold: AAA Electronic Services, Inc.
- Silver: Hemag, Inc
- Bronze: HB Integration
- Best Commercial Installation - USA
- Gold: Infinity Security Group
- Silver: DFW Home Theater
- Bronze: Quality TV
- Best International Installation
- Gold: Potters Home Digital (UK)
- Silver: Digital Lifestyles (Canada)
Winners receive awards and publicity ranging from crystal awards to digital/social campaigns and badges to feature in press releases and publications.