The return of EI Live! also marks the return of the AWE Village, this year promising to be an entertainment-rich experience for visitors.
Split into four zones and two dedicated projection demo rooms, the AWE Village will feature a wide range of products, including a global product launch and other exclusive products on show for the first time. There will also be several competitions running over the course of the show and 5.7l Supercharged Hot Rod on display.
One of the main highlights of the AWE Village will be the Epsom Demo Room, where there will be a global launch and the first showing of the company’s latest home cinema projector. Details of the new projector are being kept quiet for now but integrators visiting EI Live! will be the first in the world to see the new product. The demo room will also feature detailed sound from Definitive Technology while new TV innovations will cover the outside walls with LG and Panasonic bringing their latest products to the show.
Another highlight will be the Sony Demo Room. This will feature the first public showing of the 10,000 lumen VPL GTZ-380, with a native resolution chipset of 4K so that it displays 4K HDR content with no upscaling or pixel-shifting tricks for an authentic image. Sony’s 100” Pro Bravia and the new Sony Crystal LED screen will also be on display on the room’s outside walls.
The first zone in the AWE Village is the Audio Zone. Visitors will be able to see the latest architectural in-wall and in-ceiling loudspeakers for home cinema, in-ceiling and whole home projects in the dedicated Bowers & Wilkins area. Here, AWE will also have power amplifiers from Rotel on display.
The Audio Zone will also be showing processors, receivers and amplifiers from Denon and Marantz, whole home audio from Heos by Denon, and more speakers from Definitive Technology.
A Smart Home Systems Zone will showcase the latest in the URC Total Control platform, including the new Accelerator 3 software, featuring the Expressway option on the software for simpler installations. Ring X-line security solutions will also be on display here, along with the latest products from Philips Hue and Silent Gliss for lighting and shade control.
Visitors to the Village will get the chance to compete in the AWE BPS Sprint Cup, driving an Aston Martin AMR GT4 in the Blade Sim from Base Performance Simulators (BPS), which will be located in the middle of the AWE Village. The top three qualifiers across the two days will win a private tuition session and go head-to-head at BPS HQ in Banbury.
As well as experiencing the simulator for themselves, integrators can learn how they can be installed into a client’s home, from a customisable Blade to a fully bespoke sim complete with a giant wrap-around screen and edge-blended projection.
Stuart Tickle, managing director of AWE will also feature on an expert panel for the Integrated Home Podcast, taking place in the EI Live! Technical Theatre. The panel, made up of AWE’s Stuart Tickle, Richard Heeley from JOOCED, and Chris Mullin from Sony Professional Solutions, will discuss when to specify large format displays, asking what is the best where and why? The panel will take place in the Technical Theatre on Wednesday 29 September at 11:55am.
“We are delighted to be back at EI Live! and can’t wait to reconnect with even more of the industry,” said Tickle. “The CI industry has moved forward significantly since we last came together and there’s so much news to share and products to show – including some really special launches. The AWE Village is going to be packed with high performance technologies from leading brands, so come along, see and hear it for yourselves and experience everything that’s going to help you take your business forward for the next 12 months and beyond.”
A daily prize draw will also take place in the AWE Village, which can be found on stand 150, where visitors could win a pair of Sony headphones.