EISA or European Imaging and Sound Association gives out awards every year for excellence in consumer electronics products. Like many awards they announce the winners before the actual event which seems a bit anti-climatic.

EISA is a collective of Editors-in-Chiefs from 52 electronics specialty magazines from 19 different nations in the EU. The awards for ‘06/’07 were announced yesterday although the ceremony, will be held in Berlin in two weeks. The complete list of winners can be seen at the EISA website buried under info about last year’s awards. EISA has troubles keeping the site updated.

Points of interest to me includes Philips taking two LCD HDTV awards. The High End LCD and Green TV. The High End LCD prize was won by a Philip’s Ambilight FlatTV. Ambilight is a clever feature that spreads ambient lighting behind your HDTV that actually matches a primary color on the screen. The feature is said to reduce eyestrain during long movie marathons.

The Green TV award was won by Philips 42” LCD from Philips FlatTV line. It was won for Philips' adopting environmentally sustainable manufacturing practices.

NAD won an award in the high end audio category which is very nice to see being a fan of NAD. Its entire “Master Series” line is a good bed for any budget conscious audiophile.

The category of Personal Media Player was won by none other than Apple’s iPod, surprise! Personally I think iPod is suffering overexposure that will help Microsoft with Zune. You heard it here first - Zune will be made a hit next year by a ‘pod weary public.

The best Loudspeaker was taken by B&W’s CM1 which is a bit of a surprise. Although I’ve never heard the CM1 and I know B&W make very good speakers, I’ve always been of the opinion that B&W is just a tad overpriced. I’ve made head to head comparisons with pricey B&W vs speakers at half the price I’ve never been convinced that you get enough for the extra spent. But hey, who am I to talk about Loudspeakers, I’m just a Loudmouth!

According to EISA the best all around Camera of 2007 is Nikon. Is there really any competition at that level?

I’m not sure why they announce the winners prior to the event at some awards like this. It seems to spoil the event itself. A storm of press releases are dropping right now from manufacturers that were handed awards.

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