11.08.2008 — Taking a cue from President-elect Barack Obama, this year's Demo Alley was all about change.

Replacing the endless line of theater exhibits were multiroom audio sessions from OnQ/Legrand, home control demos from Lifeware and video-only displays from JVC.

Collectively, each of the rooms stepped up their games by providing some informative and entertaining demonstrations. The clear winners were the attendees who visited Demo Alley.

AVAD, which clearly learned from its past experiences and vendor partners like Atlantic Technology, put forth an excellent demo presentation that highlighted its product knowledge, its stable of brands and its educational capabilities.

This helped it win 2 Best of Demo Alley awards: Most Informative Audio Demo and Most Informative Video Demo.

The following are my thoughts on each of the rooms.

AVAD Hits a Homerun with Quality Demo

AVAD demonstrated two systems using a selection of its brands. The first system features electronics from Marantz, a 103-inch plasma from Panasonic, the 8200e speaker system from Atlantic Technology and a Philips TS9600 Pronto remote to control Lutron lighting.

The second demonstration system was more a technology showcase using two RS projectors from JVC. Using 3D content, each attendee was provided some 3D glasses to view a movie trailer that featured undersea animation and a clip from "Beowolf."

AVAD's presenter was enthusiastic and informative as she explained what we were about to experience, what to look for and the client and end user benefits of the system.

She later explained the profit potential of offering a 3D system and how it could be installed using the lens shift capabilities of the JVC projectors.

The demo was a homerun on every aspect we evaluate a quality demo; it was entertaining, informative and it provided a nice takeaway for consumers and installers.

This is the type of demo I would expect from one of the nation's largest distribution companies. As an outsider to AVAD, I hope this demo translates to their offices throughout the country to help installers sell their solutions.

OnQ/Legrand Focuses on Training

I chose not to include OnQ/Legrand in the Demo Alley competition because the company was running two-hour training classes for its Lyric product line.

OnQ/Legrand's use of the room in the opinion in my opinion and the rest of the judges did not lend itself to comparison with the other rooms.

Lifeware Lives Up to the Challenge

Taking on what may have been maybe the biggest challenge in the entire show, Lifeware demonstrated the ease of its automation programming.

Using two demo room setups -- a home theater with lighting and HVAC and a smaller living room environment -- Lifeware showed how quickly an installer can use its drag-and-drop software to set scenes, set room temperatures and access Media Center entertainment files as an end user would.