The first Install & Technology Solutions Awards announced

The best work of the UK's custom install industry will be celebrated in the inaugural Install & Technology Solutions Awards. A joint initiative between Inside CI and SVI magazine, ITSA is open to all residential custom install companies and will celebrate and evangelize the best projects in a string of categories.

ITSA has enthusiastic support from consumer and trade press, as well as the industry's leading trade association. The powerhouse judging panel will comprise CEDIA Executive Director of Region 1 Wendy Griffiths, Inside CI publisher David Slater, SVI Editor Stuart Pritchard and Home Cinema Choice Editor Mark Craven.

"To enter, installers are simply required to send a briefing document covering the project, what the brief was, what issues arose and how you worked around them, what specific CI kit you employed and why, and an explanation of how you completed the brief to the client's satisfaction," explains David Slater. "Our aim is to throw the spotlight on the very best work integrators do, in this the custom install industry's only independent media awards. It's an opportunity for all CI operations, both large and small, trade affiliated or not, to get involved."

Below is a list of the Custom Install Project categories. Entries should be sent to ITSA@svimag.com by the closing date of October 24th. Additional Technical and Hardware Awards categories will be announced shortly.

The ITSA CI Project categories

Best Single Home Cinema Installation
The panel will be looking for the coolest, most cutting-edge straight single home theatre installation comprising work on both audio and visual elements and, where applicable, cinema seating, lighting, automation control and acoustic treatments.

Best Whole House Integration
A category for complete projects covering an entire home or penthouse development, fusing possible elements of AV, automation, smart control, HVAC and lighting.

Best Marine/Nautical Installation
Taking the concept of the smarthouse onto the water, for this category we're looking for examples of incredible aquatic automation, advanced AV, smart control, HVAC and intelligent lighting.

Best Lighting & Lighting Control Installation
Entries should demonstrate true innovation in lighting and lighting control by means of technology used and the architectural element of the lighting system(s) employed.

Best Eco Installation
Smart, tech-packed and greener than Al Gore - from photovoltaic panels to grey water systems to smart heating and lighting to heat pumps and heating systems, if staying eco is at the heart of your business we want to hear about it.

Most Innovative Installation
From the unusual to the most cunning solution to a difficult project or specific problem, if you've completed an install that forced you to think outside the box, this is the category for you.

Best International Installation
Whether cool, cutting-edge and contemporary or discreet and sympathetic, we want to hear about the fancy foreign jobs that often seem to come with the most problems but which also offer the greatest chance to show your skills.

Best Showroom
Providing customers with everything they need, ideas on things they never thought of, and adding in that extra customer service, we're looking for the showroom that is the first-name in Custom Install.

Best Interior Design
From the sleekest and stylish to the invisibly sympathetic to the surroundings, if an installation design stands out as something special send your info and images in.

Stay tuned for more #ITSA14 news soon...