The SmartHouse, 2014 Best of the Best Awards have been announced and they contain some stunning category and product winners, we have also given the organisations who have manufactured, distributed and sold these products a major Industry Award for excellence.
Vendor of the Year: Samsung
During the past five years Samsung has matured from being a hardware Company to today being a true world leader in consumer electronics and appliances.
Their hardware functionality, product design and software development has seen them lead the world in smartphones TV’s tablets and products such as PC’s and digital cameras.
Their products clearly demonstrate that their design teams have a finite grasp of the core fundamentals, needed to deliver products that consumers want to own.
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CE: Retailer Of The Year: Dick Smith
It was the retail bargain of the year and within six months of being acquired by the Anchorage Capital Group Dick Smith has been transformed into an innovative consumer electronics retail group that is today a major provider of consumer electronics and IT products.
Today Dick Smith is what CEO Nick Aboud calls a “House of brands” and when you walk into any of the new Dick Smith stores you realize that things have changed from when the retailer was owned by Woolworths, passion and a white hot desire to succeed oozes from both their senior executives and their staff.
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CE Distributor of the Year: Convoy
Convoy is one of those Companies that thrives from delivering for retailers the products that consumers want to own. The distributor behind the success of Beats by Dr Dre in Australia Convoy is today delivering products like Monster headphones, Bowers & Wilkins Hi Fi gear, as well as cutting edge devices from the likes of JBL and Harman Kardon.
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Specialist Dealer of the Year: Digital Cinema
Digital Cinema is based smack bang on a key corner on one of Sydney’s busiest roads in West Ryde and as a former bank with a safe that is now used to stock Hi Fi and custom install gear this location delivers for Digital Cinema excellent visibility and branding.
But when you walk inside you have a smorgasbord of premium sound gear from top end projectors and screens to the latest from brands like Denon, Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins and Sonos.
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CE Industry Executive of the Year: Nick Abboud CEO Dick Smith
Nick Abboud burst onto the consumer electronics scene when he snared control of the Dick Smith retail chain from Woolworths late in 2012.
Since then the 19 year Myer veteran has driven a massive transformation of the retail group. Apart from launching an upmarket sister retailer called Move he has also snared a deal to operate more than 30 Dick Smith stores inside David Jones.
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Key Product Winners
Product of the Year: 85″ Samsung S9 Ultra High Definition TV
When the 85″ Samsung S9 Ultra High Definition TV was rolled out at the 2013 CES Show in Las Vegas more than 3,500 media from around the world went into overdrive with praise and as camera’s scrambled to get a better glimpse of this awesome looking TV one suddenly realized that Samsung had significantly raised the bar in TV design.
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Ultra High Definition TV of the Year: Panasonic 65″ 65WT600A
Panasonic may not be the market leader in TV’s but ever since the advent of flat panel TV’s the Japanese Company has produced some of best plasma TV’s in the world. Their ability to deliver rich blacks and vivid colours has been the envy of TV makers and reviewers around the world.
Their new 65″ 4K TV is a major step in a new direction for Panasonic and they have not let us down with a TV that delivers a high quality display and excellent sound.
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Best OLED TV: LG Curved TV
LG was the first of the big manufacturers to show an OLED Curved TV in Australia and while this is a niche product the design and picture quality is among the best we have ever seen in a new generation TV.
The standout for us was not only the design but the way that LG has cleverly built in two excellent speakers along the base translucent curve.
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Smartphone of the Year: LG G2
The LG 2 was launched midyear and it stands out as one of the most accomplished devices ever created.
At the cutting edge of Android technology LG had a point to prove with this device and what they have delivered represents the cutting edge in Android tech right now.
From the whopping 5.2-inch screen to the really powerful quad-core 2.26GHz CPU the G2 specs deliver a really great phone that breaks down barriers.
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Best Networking Company & Security Cameras: D Link
D-Link knows networking and they also know a lot about security camera. This is a Company that delivers security camera for governments and organisations that want excellent networking capability and high quality images. They also delivered the world’s fastest router this year.
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Best Surround Home Theatre System: Q Acoustics Q7000
Q Acoustics can be rightly proud of the Q7000, and we reckon you’ll be hard pressed to find the same level of performance from any other designer 5.1 system at the price.
Armour Home the UK Company behind the Q7000 has a long history in the speaker market.
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