URC announced the winners of its 10th annual Unsurpassed Awards at CEDIA Expo 2024.
Launched in 2015, 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 2024 competition showcase unique smart residential and commercial installations featuring creative system design, innovative product use cases, distinctive environments, and advanced implementations. Entries include inspiring environments and large installations with URC’s Total Control controlling hundreds of smart home and commercial devices.
This year’s entries include prior winners, like JL Entertainment Designs, Hemag Inc., Automation Sensations, Nard’s Entertainment, Audio Wizard, Certified Sounds LLC, AAA Electronic Services, and Allstar Systems, as well as dealers new to the competition like BenchMark AV.
For only the second time, a Chairman’s Award of Excellence has been awarded for consistent, extensive superior performance in residential and commercial installations.
Winners of the 2024 URC Unsurpassed Awards include the following URC dealers:
JL Entertainment Designs Wins the Chairman’s Award
With multiple Unsurpassed Awards, JL Entertainment Designs (Exton, Penn.), owned by Joe and Michelle Lusi, have consistently impressed with unique automation system designs. Their installations span diverse residential and commercial environments and showcase unique applications of URC’s Total Control technology. This year, JL Entertainment Designs shared three installations that included an automated office space with advanced network/Wi-Fi, window shades, landscape lighting, and entertainment systems. This installation unified a conference room, two lounges, two offices, and an outdoor space into a single system with one touch or voice control. Another client offered a unique challenge in integrating and automating a large resort on the New Jersey shore. This installation created a single automation system that features 5-zone high-definition audio across all the resort’s common areas like the lobby, drive-up area, outdoor dining area, pool area, restaurant, and rooftop deck. The entire system is controlled by URC’s mobile app and touch screens. Finally, JL Entertainment Designs created a whole home system in a waterfront community that included network/Wi-Fi, window drapery, landscape lighting, and seven TVs, plus an outdoor TV lift. Every item installed is controlled with URC’s Total Control system.
Audio Wizard AV Wins Gold for Best Residential Installation – USA
As a power brand in the Rockies, Audio Wizard AV (Draper, Utah) created a comprehensive automation system in a stunning mountain estate. With highly customized user interface displays, Dustin Reese and his team created a fully integrated system that is simple and intuitive. In addition to the open concept family spaces, this mountain retreat features a two-story, full-sized basketball court that doubles as a pickleball court. High-definition audio is pumped throughout the interior of the home via URC’s HDA-8100 and HDA-4100 amps, including the sports court, and integrated via Total Control in all the meticulously manicured outdoor spaces.
Nard’s Entertainment Wins Best Commercial Installation – USA
Over the years, John Carroll and the team at Nard’s Entertainment (Washington D.C. Metro) has delivered some incredible commercial installations. In this year’s competition, Carroll partnered with Carr Properties for another urban oasis installation. Rising out of the Bullfinch Crossing section of downtown Boston, One Congress is a one-million-square-foot, trophy office tower offering transformative experiences. Offering extensive retail, vibrant net-zero pedestrian spaces, and towering 600 feet tall, this iconic building reconnects downtown Boston neighborhoods and propels a heavily transit-served site into a 21st-century global center. Totaling 43 stories, One Congress features breathtaking 360-degree views of The Charles River, Boston Harbor, North End, Financial District, and Back Bay. With numerous subsystems and countless staff and consumer interactions, Carroll knew that a single, unified, simple-to-operate control system was needed. With thoughtful design, Carroll leveraged URC’s Total Control to seamlessly blend control and automation across both interior and exterior environments. This system featured most of the key players from URC’s portfolio, including intuitive user interfaces, system controllers, and High-Definition Audio (HDA), which plays a critical role across amenities and conference environments. With style and functionality critical, Carroll used several URC MRX-30 system controllers and 20 URC touch screens and handheld remotes including the TDC-9100, with its 10-inch touch screen and the TKP-8600 featuring an 8-inch in-wall touch screen and voice control.
Automation Sensation Wins Most Unique Installation – USA
Neil Lorick and the team at Automation Sensation (Pompano Beach, Fla.) is a returning champion with another incredible, design-forward entry from South Florida. This 8000-square-foot luxury residence in Miami includes nine bedrooms, a gym, staff room, home theater room, two master bedrooms, and a waterfront space to accommodate a 120-foot yacht. Lorick and team used URC’s Total Control to integrate several subsystems and devices including 40 Lutron lighting RA3 dimmers. With entertainment a priority, this installation featured URC’s HDA for audio distribution and integration with Lutron lights and shades to set a dramatic stage for epic entertainment. Additionally, several streaming sources and devices were integrated to deliver studio-quality sound throughout the home including blending seamlessly the indoor and outdoor spaces. The system, controlled by URC’s Total Control, blends a variety of sub-systems prompted the homeowner to state that “this automation system is defiantly sensational.”
IDES Wins Best International Installation
Via AWE, URC’s European Distributor, comes another truly immersive experience from IDES (Edinburgh, Scotland). With over 30 years of experience designing incredible environments, IDES continues to surprise and delight with highly customized home and business automation systems. Stephen Kerr and his team were hired by a homeowner to a structure built in the 1800s and demolished. This full renovation, envisioned by the homeowners, included an inspiring automation system in sharp contrast to the home’s origins. While retaining the home’s original character, Kerr and team carefully crafted a system behind the scenes but front and center in the modern lifestyle of the owners. With extensive integrations, a URC Total Control system provided control and automation over all the various electronic systems and throughout all the subsystems, including KNX lighting and heating, Blusound audio streaming, video matrix by Blustream, SKY Q, Roku, NAD amplification, Bowers & Wilkins speakers, Sony TVs, Doorbird entry phone, and HIK CCTV.
The complete list of award-winning installations includes:
- Chairman’s Award of Excellence – JL Entertainment Designs (PA)
- Best Residential Installation – USA
- Gold: Audio Wizard AV (UT)
- Silver: Hemag, Inc (FL)
- Bronze: Certified Sounds LLC (HI)
- Best Commercial Installation – USA
- Gold: Nard’s Entertainment (VA)
- Silver: Allstar Systems (NY)
- Bronze: AAA Electronic Services (NY)
- Most Unique Installation – USA
- Gold: Automation Sensations (FL)
- Silver: Allstar Systems (NY)
- Bronze: Audio Wizard AV (UT)
- Best International Installation
- Gold: IDES (UK)
- Silver: BenchMark AV (CA))
For more information, visit www.urc-automation.com.
