As in previous years, Future publications contracts with AV industry experts to evaluate products submitted by manufacturers exhibiting at ISE 2026 for its Best of Show awards. This year, the Best of Show awards are presented by nine of Future's industry titles, including Systems Contractor News.
While our judges remain anonymous, we can tell you they are your peers, AV/IT managers, directors, engineers, or industry consultants and integrators. They also take their judging duties very seriously, and were meticulous in reviewing the products chosen for them to evaluate.
The Winners Are...
AIMS Alliance, IPMX
What the judges said: Two years ago, I asked AIMS at InfoComm about encryption. They must have listened, because it’s a feature now. Nicely done! A certification process makes this a much more useful standard.
Airtame, Airtame 3
What the judges said: Airtame continues to improve its list of products for BYOD capabilities. A very neat little product that could fit behind any screen, and I really like the cloud capabilities for such a small device.
AISpeech Co., AISPEECH
What the judges said: We could say AI is going to take the AV sound engineer's job; well, this unit is really performing many tasks to assist with sound reinforcement. I could see this device used in several tricky building designs with high ceilings or poor acoustics.
AtlasIED, Atlas+Fyne FC-D (Ceiling) and FS-D (Surface) Dante-Enabled PoE++ Loudspeakers
What the judges said: These new loudspeakers finally allow integrators a true single cable solution that provides excellent frequency response and strong SPL coverage. The ability to use POE++ creates a whole new category of audio system design for integrators.
AVI-SPL, AVI-SPL Symphony
What the judges said: Every product has to have embedded AI these days, whether it needs it or not, but I like that Symphony is a quiet workhorse with AI features that enhance what it already does well. The aggregation of events helps to cut down on noise and alert fatigue. I liked the dashboard that gives technicians a birds-eye view of where the problems are, with the ability to filter for high-importance spaces. I like that Symphony is hardware agnostic. Its rich feature set means that it can integrate with just about everything. It looks to be a great way to augment a ticketing system.
Christie, Korus Series
What the judges said: The projector has a great design and great image output, and the color reproduction is good quality. it's easy to install and easy to setup with the blending system.
d&b audiotechnik, U-Series
What the judges said: d&b's U-Series is now one of the most versatile small form factor point source speaker systems for integrators in the world. The legendary sound of d&b's storied history now fits into immersive environments and portable experiences without sacrificing quality. Besides the sound quality, what will really blow contractors away is the ability to deploy either passive or networked POE++ U-Series cabinets, depending on the application.
digiLED, Westfield Rise's Immersive Experiential Display (IXD) Network
What the judges said: IXD Networks Westfield Rise creates a whole new avenue of possibility for AV integrators looking to supplant traditional print advertising. The low pixel pitch provides ultra-close viewing for high-end retail environments with a projected lifespan of 10 years, creating huge upside when it comes to ROI for end users and integrators.
Grass Valley, AMPP OS
What the judges said: I really liked their prebuilt templates and such a variety of solutions.
Jetbuilt, Jetbot Drawings
What the judges said: Anything that makes an AV designer drawings easier is a bonus, and Jetbot really assists in mapping out designs in an easy-to-read layout.
Mimo, Mimo FlashCast Visual Alert Overlay
What the judges said: Mimo FlashCast is a messaging overlay device that integrators can use to enhance the security and operational awareness of their clients. The easy-to-deploy hardware solution directly ties into existing platforms that your clients most likely already have on premise. The Cloud UI is cost effective and simple to use.
NETGEAR AV, Engage Controller 2.4
What the judges said: Offline and advanced configuration will solve so many headaches. You can have a network admin configure things in advance and then deploy when you receive the hardware. The ability to use templates will be a huge time saver.
Pleneo, Pleneo RoomHub
What the judges said: Pleneo RoomHub may look like an early 2000's external hard drive, but it provides a compact yet powerful processing engine that allows integrators to use cloud-based configuration tools to control PTZ cameras, microphones, and room hardware. What is really impressive for integrators is the ease of which the Pleneo RoomHub works with Zoom and Teams rooms.
Williams AV, Infinium
What the judges said: Infinium by Williams AV has delivered integrators the ultimate assistive listening device using ultra low-latency Bluetooth. Integrated Dante with a convenient web-based configuration and long distance Cat 5e extension for transmitters make the Infinium one of the easiest systems to deploy. The ability for venues to allow users to BYOD or use an Auracast receiver provides the ultimate level of convenience for the guest and the management team.
