Garmin dominates NMEA awards, named Manufacturer of the Year
For the second year in a row, Garmin has received the honor of being the most recognized company in the marine electronics field for its support of products in the field by the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA). In addition to Manufacturer of the Year, Garmin also received seven Product of Excellence Awards in the following categories: autopilot, multi-function display (MFD), mobile application—aid to navigation, mobile application—utility, fishfinder, AIS, and multimedia entertainment. The honors were announced at the prestigious 2016 NMEA Convention in Naples, Fla.
“We are incredibly honored and humbled to yet again be recognized as the Manufacturer of the Year by the NMEA, and to have so many of our products and applications receive top honors,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “These coveted awards are the result of our dedication to the marine industry, and a true testament to our continued commitment to design, manufacture, sell and support industry-leading products.”
For the fourth year in a row, Garmin received an award in the autopilot category for its GHP Reactor Hydraulic Autopilot with SmartPump. The GHP Reactor was Garmin’s first recreational autopilot system to utilize AHRS technology and boasts the usability, installation flexibility, and many other features that prove to be valuable for any vessel.
Garmin also earned accolades in the MFD category, another consecutive honor. This year’s MFD award went to the GPSMAP 8624, a 24-inch all-in-one chartplotter that boasts the highest screen resolution on the market. The GPSMAP 8624 comes preloaded with both BlueChart g2 coastal and LakeVü HD inland maps, and is fully network compatible for support of radar, autopilot, instruments, multiple screens, sensors, remote sonar modules, digital switching, thermal cameras, and more.
Smartphone applications are essential tools for mariners in today’s connected world, and Garmin’s mobile app offerings received top honors yet again in these categories. Garmin BlueChart Mobile, a route planning application with streaming weather capabilities, was named the best mobile application aid to navigation; and Garmin Helm, an application that allows mariners to view and control their chartplotter from a smartphone or tablet, won for mobile application utility.
Other Garmin products recognized include the GSD 26 black-box sounder with broadband spread-spectrum signal technology in the fishfinder category, and the AIS 600, a blackbox transceiver that sends and receives vessel information and AIS target data in the AIS category.
FUSION, a Garmin brand, also won the new multimedia entertainment category for the AV750 Marine Stereo System that features a marine-ready DVD/CD player, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity and much more.
Garmin’s portfolio includes some of the industry’s most sophisticated chartplotters and touchscreen multifunction displays, sonar technology, high-definition radar, autopilots, high-resolution mapping, sailing instrumentation and other products and services that are known for innovation, reliability and ease-of-use.
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