Garmin has again been named Manufacturer of the Year by the National Marine Electronics Association.
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For the sixth straight year, Garmin brings home top NMEA honours, adds to Product of Excellence winning streak with four awards. The coveted Manufacturer of the Year honour is given to the most recognised company in the marine electronics industry for excellence in product service and support in the field.
Garmin was also awarded four NMEA Product of Excellence awards in the multi-function display (MFD), autopilot, multimedia entertainment and mobile application—utility categories. These awards are voted on by professional NMEA dealers who specialise in installing marine electronics, qualified NMEA technicians and fellow marine electronics manufacturers.
Garmin won the Product of Excellence award in the MFD category for the sixth consecutive year for its GPSMAP 8616xsv, a 16-inch chartplotter with a full HD in-plane switching (IPS) display with multi-touch control. It comes preloaded with the latest BlueChart g3 coastal cartography and LakeVü g3 maps with integrated Navionics® data and Auto Guidance2 technology.
The GPSMAP 8616xsv offers anglers exceptional sonar detail with built-in support for a wide range of CHIRP traditional and scanning sonars, Ultra High-Definition scanning sonar, and the entire Panoptix all-seeing sonar line, including Panoptix LiveScope live scanning sonar, recipient of the 2018 NMEA Technology of the Year award.
For eight years running, Garmin took the top spot in the autopilot category for its Reactor 40 Hydraulic Autopilot with SmartPump v2. The Reactor was Garmin’s first recreational autopilot system to utilise AHRS technology and boasts usability, installation flexibility, and many other features that prove to be valuable for any vessel.
Fusion Entertainment, a Garmin brand, also received consecutive honours with a win in the multimedia entertainment category for the fifth year in a row for the Apollo RA770 marine entertainment system, the world’s first touchscreen marine stereo with Apple AirPlay®, built-in Wi-Fi and network audio sharing capabilities.
ActiveCaptain was honoured in the mobile application—utility category, extending Garmin’s winning streak in this category to six years. ActiveCaptain is a free all-in-one mobile app for mariners that delivers a seamless content management system with access to cartography, automatic delivery of the latest software available, off-vessel planning capabilities, connected services and so much more.
