Oct 10, 2017

The marine electronics industry honored several manufacturers with product awards at the annual National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) International Marine Electronics Conference & Expo, held on the West Coast this year at the Hilton Bellevue in Bellevue, WA, Sept. 26-28. Top products were named for both the NMEA Product of Excellence Awards and the NMEA Technology Award. Hundreds of marine electronics manufacturers, dealers, distributors, media and others from the US and abroad attended the three-day event.

NMEA members selected the Product of Excellence Award winners through an online voting process. There were 18 product categories this year, including two new ones: Marine PC Software and Remote Vessel Monitoring System. Garmin was awarded the Manufacturer of the Year for support of their products in the field.

2017 NMEA Product of Excellence Award Winners
Autopilot-Garmin GHP Reactor
Multi-Function Display-Garmin GPSMAP 8624
Radar-Garmin GMR 24 Fantom Dome
Fish Finder-Garmin GSD 26 CHIRP Pro Sonar Module
Marine VHF Radio-Icom M605
Satellite Communications Antenna-KVH TracPhone V3IP
Underwater Lights-Lumishore EOS TIX402
Commercial-Furuno FAR2127 IMO Radar
Marine PC Software-Nobeltec TZ Professional
Satellite TV Antenna-KVH TracVision TV3
AIS-Garmin AIS 600 Blackbox Transceiver
NMEA 2000® Sensor-Actisense NGT-1
Marine App-Aids to Navigation-Garmin BlueChart
Marine App-Technical-Garmin Helm
Marine Camera-FLIR M-625
Multimedia Entertainment-Fusion MS-AV750
Safety Device-McMurdo SmartFind G5 Auto GPS EPIRB
Remote Vessel Monitoring System-GOST Phantom Insight HD

2017 NMEA Technology Award
Furuno’s DFF3D deep-water multi-beam sonar won the 2017 NMEA Technology Award in a competition involving 10 nominated products. The annual award scores new products based on innovation, benefit to boaters, practicality and value. An independent four-person panel of judges selected the winner. Judges included NMEA Certified Marine Electronics Technicians (CMETs) Steve Wallace of Lunde Marine Electronics and Greg Pohl of Yacht Systems Northwest along with boating electronics writer David Schmidt and Marine Electronics Journal editor Jim Fullilove.

“What stood out about the Furuno DFF3D from the many worthy contenders is that it is the industry’s first deep-water multi-beam sonar,” the judges said. “It delivers a side-scan range of more than 650 feet and can see straight down to over 1,000 feet. Its unique 165 kHz frequency allows you to view the DFF3D sonar while simultaneously utilizing your conventional or CHIRP sonar. On top of that boaters can customize its display using four modes-cross-section, 3D sounder history, triple/single-beam sounder and side scan.”

“On behalf of the NMEA Board of Directors and staff, we congratulate all award recipients,” said Mark Reedenauer, President & Executive Director of NMEA. “Member voting turnout remains strong and we thank all members who voted. The NMEA Awards Committee will continually be looking for ways to increase voter turnout as we look to 2018.”