Friday’s winners, Justin Spiniolas of Spinstallation in Woodstock, IL (left) and Steven Richardson of NOLA AV in Gretna, LA.
During CEDIA 2015, URC offered cash prizes of $1,500, $1,000, and $5,000 per day to programmers who had to program an eight-zone Total Control home automation system without aid or assistance, and under the pressure of a live, noisy tradeshow audience.
“The nine separate winners, working alone without any aids or assistance, each comprehensively programmed an eight-zone system in an average time of just 6 minutes, 51 seconds,” said Cat Toomey, director of marketing at URC. “We knew it could be done, but seeing our dealers do it live and so successfully was astounding.”
Winners were chosen for fastest time to create full and comprehensive program (no corner-cutting allowed). Three winners were selected per day, and a total of $9,000 in cash prizes was paid. The shortest time was 5:43; the longest was just 7:25.
“I was really impressed with the [Accelerator] interface and how quickly it programmed the eight-zone Total Control home automation system,” said Dustin O’Berry, LA Tech Support, Baton Rouge, LA. “The first day I tried it at the show in URC’s booth, I had never seen the software before and was able to program the system in just over 11 minutes. Then today, I took it a second time, a different challenge, was able to shave off four minutes!”
O’Berry said that he is considering implementing URC into his company’s offerings after experiencing how fast it was to program.
The other winners of the challenge were:
Thursday Winner of $1500 Jack Thompson (6:48) Revampit AV Scottsdale, AZ
Winner of $1000 Ryan Yeackley (7:05) Schaeffer’s Lincoln, NE
Winner of $500 Kevin Qualtrough (7:21) Premier AV Integration Langley, BC
Friday Winner of $1500 Justin Spiniolas (5:43) Spinstallation Woodstock, IL
Winner of $1000 Steven Richardson (6:06) NOLA AV Gretna, LA
Winner of $500 James Dean (6:54) Alamo Electronics Cincinnati, OH
Saturday Winner of $1500 Jonathan Spoer (6:22) KAJON Agoura Hills, CA
Winner of $1000 Dustin O’Berry (7:21) LA Tech Support Baton rouge, LA
Winner of $500 Christopher Speer (7:25) Suntronics
Colorado Springs, CO