AVIXA has announced the winners of the 2021 AV Experience Awards. This awards program recognizes the innovative integration of content, space, and audiovisual technology to enrich experiences. 

“We are witnesses to incredible AV experiences every day, as we work, play, and interact in the world,” said Joé Lloyd, senior director of communications, AVIXA. “The winners of the AV Experience Awards are the creators of those experiences, breathing new life into art, education, collaboration, and so much more. Congratulations to the 2021 winners for elevating the craft of AV.”

The 2021 AV Experience Awards winners are….drumroll please…

Best Dynamic Art Experience 

Light Up the Night: Brightening Your Day in Dark Times 

Sharp NEC Display 

In the spring of 2020, LuminArtz teamed up with Pamela Hersch, a local video artist and technologist, to create Light Up the Night at the Wenham Museum in Massachusetts. To continue celebrating local history while allowing for social distancing, the team created a 30-minute projection mapping exhibit on the exterior of the museum, featuring stunning visuals celebrating childhood, connecting generations, and honoring heritage. The exhibit was powered by Sharp NEC Display laser projectors, and while each projector provided 10,000 lumens, the outdoor nature of the project required an even higher level of brightness. This was achieved through a stacking configuration, which allowed three projectors to focus on the same area to increase the brightness of the image. The installation was also livestreamed on Facebook and Instagram to help connect the community during the time of restricted personal and physical connection.

Best Collaborative Experience 

HAKO 

BARTKRESA studio

BARTKRESA studio created an 8-foot, cube-shaped sculpture that artists could projection map as part of a socially distant projection arts festival. The studio held a 7-week virtual workshop with 50 participants from 18 countries to compose the content for the animated show for the sculpture Hako. During the remote video workshops, BARTKRESA studio utilized virtual backgrounds as one of the methods for participants to collaborate. The participants prepared their virtual backgrounds by using their designs of Hako. This created excitement and motivation for the participants as they were able to see the progress of designs via their virtual backgrounds. The result was a transformation of Hako into a 360-degree projection-mapped art piece that showed a simple shape in new, inspired ways. 

Best Individualized Experience 

Crayola IDEAworks: The Creativity Exhibition 

Mad Systems

Crayola IDEAworks: The Creativity Exhibition is a sprawling 17,000 sq. ft.  interactive experience that premiered at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute in early 2021. This marks the brand’s first-ever traveling exhibition, which focuses on tapping into the innate talent and ingenuity of its participants. Upon entering the experience, visitors choose an avatar and scan their RFID wristband to capture their interactions throughout the more than 25 exhibits for a completely personalized experience. Participants answer questions, collect badges, create solutions, and solve challenges that showcase their creative style.

Best Immersive Experience 

The Omega Mart Experience

Barbizon Lighting Company

Located in the Area15 complex in Las Vegas, Omega Mart is an interactive art installation created by Meow Wolf, featuring contributions from over 300 artists. It begins in what is ostensibly a supermarket, leading to a network of media-rich spaces and storytelling that comments on consumerism and corporate culture. The adventure is open-ended and self-guided.

Best Flexible Space Experience 

Port of Vancouver Discovery Centre 

Eos Lightmedia

The Port of Vancouver Discovery Centre serves multiple arms of the Port Authority, offering a space that converts from visitor Discovery Centre to education center, to town hall meeting space, to event venue, and at times, all in the same 24 hours. Eos Lightmedia helped transform the Port of Vancouver Discovery Centre into a highly flexible space through the integration of interactive panels, projection mapping surfaces, digital informational kiosks, and broadcast-quality equipment. 

Best In-Person Experience 

Grandscape, A Mixed-Use Retail Development

Electrosonic

Grandscape, built on more than 400 acres in Dallas, TX, features entertainment, restaurants, residential, and office space. Electrosonic and Barnycz Group collaborated to design and integrate engaging and visually stunning multimedia displays that inform and entertain Grandscape’s retail space visitors. This is accomplished with a 43-foot tower made up of 4,000 LED video tiles, a 35-foot kaleidoscope created with 432 LED tiles, and a projection-mapped fountain.

To learn more about the AV Experience Awards, visit avxawards.avixa.org.