AVAD, Onkyo, Atlantic Tech and JVC Shine with Demo Alley Awards

The Demo Alley Awards were unveiled at EHX Fall, with AVAD's booth taking home Most Informative Audio Demo and Most Informative Video Demo.

A fixture at the EHX shows, Demo Alley is an area in which manufacturers or groups of manufacturers compete to offer attending dealers the most dazzling product demonstrations. A panel of CE Pro editors and EHX staff choose winners in several categories.

Following are the EHX Fall 2008 Demo Alley Award winners:

Best Audio Demo Experience: Onkyo, Atlantic Technology, Dolby, Draper and Mitsubishi

Using a traditional home theater setting complete with risers, this room treated integrators to transcendent sonic demo. Through an Onkyo 906 receiver and full array of Atlantic Technology speakers, the group blasted a remixed version of Beatles’ “Day in the Life.”

The intricate details of the song were never so pronounced. Meanwhile, the total price of the components in the room falls under $20,000.

Best Video Demo Experience: JVC

There were no bells or whistles in this room, just really compelling video. There were two demos -- one with a DLA-R52 Reference Series D-ILA projector and another with a DLA-R420 HD home theater D-ILA projector.

JVC used a Blu-ray discs with loops of film previous. A company attendant said the material was chosen to showcase the projectors’ incredible contrast ratio.

Most Entertaining Presentation: Lifeware

This may be the upset of the year. Lifeware, essentially a control platform, out entertains its audio/video counterparts. The company did a great job of walking integrators through use of a Lifeware control system. It also showed how quickly and easily it’s possible to make programming adjustments.

Most Informative Audio Demo: AVAD, Atlantic Technology, JVC, Marantz, Panasonic, Philips

This room let the audio products do the talking. It was Marantz THX-certified separates and Atlantic Technology speakers making all the noise in perhaps the most popular demo alley room.

Most Informative Video Demo: AVAD, Atlantic Technology, JVC, Marantz, Panasonic, Philips

The Demo Alley judges have very few rules. One rule, however, is that whenever a demo includes a virtually naked Angelina Jolie in 3D, even if she’s actually computer-generated, that room wins an award. This room also included Panasonic’s famed 103-inch plasma.