EI Live! 2024 Recap: Standout Products Unveiled At The AWE Village

With EI Live! 2024 behind us, we’re reflecting on another successful showcase for AWE – from unveiling exciting new products to taking home multiple awards.

EI Live! is a key event in the UK CI industry’s calendar, offering integrators the chance to explore cutting-edge products, connect with industry professionals and stay ahead of trends. Held alongside, this year’s Smart Building Awards also saw AWE named Distributor of the Year, along with five more awards for our distributed brands!

“We believe exhibitions like EI Live! are essential for installers so that they can experience a range of the latest products first-hand,” said Stuart Tickle, Managing Director of AWE. “This year was especially important for us as we exclusively showcased many superb new products, some seen for the first time in the UK! And, as always, the team had high-quality conversations with existing and prospective customers.”

The AWE Village stood out as a dynamic hub of activity, brimming with a wide range of premium home cinema, audio, and automation products. It provided visitors with a great opportunity to engage with AWE brands and their representatives, utilise our private café space for meetings, and experience live demos from leading brands including Epson, Sony, Stealth, URC and Marantz – many of which were making UK tradeshow debuts.

New Product Highlights at the AWE Village

Here are some of the new products we featured at EI Live! 2024:

Sony Native 4K SXRD Laser Projectors: We proudly debuted the BRAVIA Projector 8 and BRAVIA Projector 9 in one of our dedicated projector demo rooms. Visitors experienced the powerful XR for Projector processor firsthand, with features like XR Dynamic Tone Mapping for optimised brightness, XR Deep Black for enhanced shadow detail, and XR Clear Image for stunning realism. Attendees were impressed by the lifelike visuals, remarking that images looked so vivid they could “reach out and touch them.” These ultra-compact projectors offer seamless integration, plus remote management via OvrC and Domotz. Feedback from the show was overwhelmingly positive, and we’re excited to bring these new models to market later this year.

Yadev Tailor, Channel Account Manager at Sony Pro, shared his enthusiasm for the event: “The first official UK public showcase of our brand-new BRAVIA Projector 8 and 9 models was a resounding success, and we’re incredibly proud to have debuted them at EI Live! The AWE Village delivered once again with spectacular live demonstrations as well as what can only be described as an artillery of great products and solutions.”

Chris Payne, Sales Manager at Sony CE, echoed this sentiment: “The Sony demos attracted a wide audience, who have all gone away super impressed with what these products have to offer. It’s always a pleasure supporting the AWE team, and we’re already looking forward to next year!”

Epson 4K HDR Q-Series Projectors: Unveiled in our second dedicated projector demo room, Epson’s new 4K HDR EH-Q Series projectors took centre stage at this debut UK tradeshow appearance. Powered by advanced, cutting-edge 3LCD laser technology, and delivering vibrant 4K images with up to 10,000 lumens for an ultra-bright, immersive home entertainment experience, they’re ideal for movies, sports, and gaming, as well as offering stunning dynamic contrast, smooth 4K frame interpolation, and HDR10+ support. With advanced features like interchangeable lenses, throw distance can be easily adjusted to suit the room and application, ensuring simple setup and incredible visual quality – perfect for any media space, home cinema or large-scale media room style viewing experience.

Marantz Model M1 & Model M4: Marantz attracted attention with the Model M1 streaming amplifier, exclusively previewed earlier this year at AWE Expo. Model M1 is a wireless amplifier that delivers a highly efficient 100W of stereo output per channel and supports high-resolution streaming options including all HEOS-enabled services, plus AirPlay 2 and HDMI with e-arc.

Alongside this, making its UK tradeshow premier, was the Model M4 four-zone streaming distribution amplifier. Crafted in Shirakawa, Japan, the M4 combines robust engineering with seamless control and integration, delivering 8 x 100W of Marantz tuned amplification per channel, and up to 4 x 200W in Bridge Mode. With total support for all HEOS supported streamed music services, local sources, and AirPlay 2, Model M4 made waves with its flexible design and superior sound, perfectly complementing other HEOS enabled Hi-Fi and AVR products.

Toby Gibbs, Area Sales Manager at Masimo said “being at the AWE Village is always an enjoyable experience. It’s a fantastic opportunity to connect face-to-face with integrators who are specifying our brands. On top of that, working alongside the AWE team is great fun – there’s a reason they’re our exclusive UK CI distributor! And of course, the coffee never disappoints.”

Stealth Acoustics – LinearRadiance and StingRay: The newest Stealth Acoustics models, including the next-generation LineaRadiance (L-RAD) Invisible Speakers and StingRay outdoor speakers, were extremely well received by visitors. The new L-RAD 430, from the 8th Gen evolution of Stealth’s flat radiating diaphragm speakers, wowed attendees as they heard outstanding, high-quality sound emanate from a wallpapered demo wall, showcasing its uncompromising audio performance. Offering a 20-year warranty, Stealth also proved themselves to be a smart investment in quality.

The StingRay outdoor speaker, which secured Best Exterior AV Product at the Smart Building Awards, is engineered for extreme durability while delivering rich, high-quality sound featuring a unique FidelityGlass and sealed moulded frame construction that achieves an industry-leading IP68 waterproof rating. It comes in black, white and a fully customisable version.

Jamie Wells, Production Manager & Logistics Director at Stealth Acoustics expressed his enthusiasm about the event: “Thanks to the AWE team, EI Live! was one of the most productive shows I’ve ever attended. The Stealth area on the AWE stand was continually full of interested qualified show patrons. We look forward to attending next year’s show with AWE, our new UK partners!”

Connect with us

It was a pleasure seeing so many of you at EI Live! 2024, and we hope you enjoyed exploring the latest releases at the AWE Village. If you missed us or want to dive deeper into any of our products, the AWE team is always ready to assist. Book an appointment today by reaching out to us at [email protected].