CE Pro Editors

CE Pro is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Home of the Year Awards. Each year, CE Pro selects the most captivating projects submitted by its readers in the custom electronics integration industry.

“I always look forward to the Home of the Year awards because they showcase truly creative solutions for achieving technical innovation as well as eye-catching design,” says Arlen Schweiger, executive editor of CE Pro. “Whether they’re home theaters, whole-home projects, specialty applications or other types of installs, the work highlighted in this year’s awards program exemplifies the technical craftsmanship and creativity this industry has to offer. We’re proud to honor these companies.”

Winners’ projects will be featured in the November Issue of CE Pro magazine, highlighted in CE Pro newsletters, and promoted to consumers through a comprehensive social media campaign.

The 2021 CE Pro Home of the Year Awards were announced as a part of CEDIA Expo 2021. All entries were judged on project creativity, innovation, equipment selection, obstacles overcome, homeowner satisfaction, aesthetics and lifestyle benefits.

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Best Showroom

GOLD: HomeTronics, Inc. – Smarter Living by Design

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Each year, the Custom Electronics Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) honors exemplary projects completed by home technology professionals. Winners of the Designer Awards competition are determined by a panel of expert judges that include home technology professionals, architects, and interior designers. This project received awards for Gold Technical Design and Best Overall Home Theater.

AUDIO OFTEN TAKES A BACK SEAT to video during the design of a home theater. Considering all the hype over 3D and high-res 4K video, it’s difficult not to focus most of your energy on integrating a super-huge screen and state-of-the-art projector. While this award-winning theater’s video setup is nothing to sneeze at, it’s the audio system that deserves the biggest shout-out, and is ultimately what made this project hard to beat. Recognized as one of the nation’s first home theaters to sport an Auro-3D system, this 24-by-47-foot, built-from-scratch space, packs in 30 loudspeakers, 14 subwoofers, and 55 amplifier channels. Meticulously engineered, calibrated, and installed by the home systems integrators from Dallas-based HomeTronics, the Auro-3D system envelops moviegoers in incredibly realistic, three-dimensional audio. This relatively new audio format specifies that several speakers be installed into the ceiling and that speakers on the side walls be stacked, a design that ensures that the entire room, from front to back, is immersed in high-quality 3D sound.

By Jeremy J. Glowacki

Greg Margolis attended the commercial AVfocused InfoComm trade show last month even though his company works mostly with home installs. Margolis is always on the lookout for the latest/greatest in tech, no matter the venue. He had made his way from Dallas to Las Vegas to check out a bleeding-edge LCD video technology that he’d first seen in prototype form back at the ISE show in Amsterdam last February. It’s this passion for pursuing the next big thing that seems to keep things fresh for Margolis, whose 10-person integration company, HomeTronics, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month.

“The reason I went to InfoComm is that I keep looking for new technologies that might not necessarily be part of the CEDIA industry, but certainly have applications for it,” Margolis said.

HomeTronics, for example, boasted the first Auro3D home theater installation in the U.S. and also pioneered the residential use of a unique “artificial skylight” technology from CoeLux earlier in the year. Margolis’ latest passion is finding a way to move away from commoditized video products.

By Julie Jacobson of CE Pro

The Italian firm CoeLux, exhibiting at Light + Building in Frankfurt next week, makes an artificial skylight that integrators and their clients will savor. It’s an LED panel that almost perfectly simulates the sun and sky, making closed-in spaces appear bathed in natural sunlight.

HomeTronics, a high-end audio, video and home automation integrator in Dallas, apparently is the first in the U.S. to install CoeLux, having trained five employees in January.

“This is a disruptive technology,” says HomeTronics principal Greg Margolis. “It will change the way spaces are designed and lit.”

Margolis says architects not only like the practical lighting aspects of CoeLux, but also how the product can transform the design of the space.

“Multiple panels completely change the look of the ceiling,” he explains. “You almost think you’re in an outside space as opposed to being inside.”