Garmin Wins Five NMEA Product of Excellence Awards

Marine electronics manufacturer Garmin International Inc. was presented with a total of five 2015 Product of Excellence Awards by the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) at the organization’s 2015 Convention, held last week in Baltimore, Md.

Each year the NMEA awards are presented at its annual conference to recognize excellence in design, performance and reliability in marine electronics products. The winners are determined by votes from marine electronics industry professionals, including dealers and distributors.

Olathe, Kansas-based Garmin took home five of the 14 awards presented, winning in the Best Multi-Function Display, Best Autopilot, Best Marine Aid to Navigation, and Best Marine App Technical Utility categories, as well as being named overall Manufacturer of the Year.

“We’re honored to be selected as the Manufacturer of the Year, and to be recognized for several of our outstanding products and marine applications,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “The strength and breadth of our innovative marine product line is second to none, and these coveted awards are a true testament to Garmin’s dedication to the design, manufacture, sale, and support of our marine electronics.”

This year’s awards included a new category that focused exclusively on underwater lighting; Lumishore was selected as the inaugural winner for its EOS colour changing underwater lighting system. The 2015 Technology Award was presented to Simrad for its Halo Radar.

The complete list of product category winners include:

Multi-Function Display (MFD): Garmin GPSMAP 7616xsv

Autopilot: Garmin GHP Reactor

Fish Finding: Furuno DFF1-UHD

Radar: Furuno FR8065

Marine VHF Radio: ICOM IC-M506

Satellite Communications Antenna: KVH TracPhone V3IP

Satellite TV Antenna: KVH TracVision TV3

AIS: Furuno FA150

NMEA 2000 Sensor: Actisense EMU-1 Engine Monitoring Unit

Marine App Aid to Navigation: Garmin BlueChart App

Marine App End User Utility: Garmin Helm App

Marine App Technical Utility: KVH TracVision Series App

Underwater Lights: Lumishore EOS Series

Marine Cameras: FLIR M265