Now the most coveted award in the custom installation industry, the winners of the 2014 Connected Home 50 Most Popular awards have been announced. Paul Skelton reports.

When we started the Connected Home 50 Most Popular Awards in 2012, we were really quite chuffed that just over 250 installers voted for the brands they wanted to recognise as the industry’s best and brightest.

The initial idea behind holding these awards was to find those brands that dealers believed went above and beyond the competition. This data had never before been collected in Australia, which made it difficult to track exactly what the Australian home automation landscape looked like.

In 2013, the number of voters grew to 477. This of course made the categories more competitive, and more indicative of what was really happening in the market. Further, news around the awards was appearing around the world –  international suppliers were tracking the results and were actively promoting their successes. The awards had gone global.

In 2014, 857 members of the custom installation channel voted for their favourite brands across 50 categories, which for the first time included commercial categories as well as residential.

So, what have we learned over the past three years?

First, apparently Sonance is an unstoppable force. Since 2012, the company has been voted as the most popular in-wall/in-ceiling speakers and the most popular outdoor loudspeakers. For the past two years, it has also been named the most popular ‘invisible’ loudspeakers.

Second, custom integrators aren’t afraid to vote for ‘egg cartons’ as their most popular acoustic treatment, but once again Primacoustics reigns supreme.

Third, integrators like to support local suppliers, such as Kordz, Screen Technics, Ness and Thor Technologies, all of which dominated their respective categories.

Finally, the guys on the tools want to reward those suppliers that help them.

It’s important for me to remind those companies that didn’t win, these awards are purely a popularity contest. We’re not saying that the winners have the best product on the market, or the newest. These awards are simply designed to let suppliers know what integrators think of their brands. Yes, this could be based on product, but it could also include service, support, reputation, incentive schemes and even your local distribution.

Already things are happening in the industry that are set to make the 2015 awards very interesting. New brands, new distribution agreements and new products that are set to massive will all affect the results next year. What are you doing?