Boxee Wins CEA’s i-Stage Competition

By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 10/22/2008

Las Vegas — Boxee won top honors at i-Stage, a new competition resembling a tech version of “American Idol” that was held this week during the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) Industry Forum.

The competition gave the contestants five minutes to explain their entry to a three-judge panel, and the judges then had another five minutes to question the entry. The contest took place Oct. 20 with Boxee taking the winning prize for its “social” media center. This creation allows consumers to share personal videos, music and photos as well as content from Web sites like Hulu, CNN.com, ABC.com, Flickr and PicasaWeb.

Boxee will receive $50,000 to further develop its product line, as well as a turnkey booth at the 2009 International CES.

“Boxee exemplifies technological innovation,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA. “The product is a complete social-networking solution and raises the bar for aggregating networking sites. Boxee is a great example of the convergence of content and devices, and we look forward to their exhibit at the 2009 International CES.”

The products, which are not available, were judged by technology experts Kevin Kelly, Wired Magazine; Ryan Block, formerly of Engadget; and Jeff Pulver. Molly Wood, executive editor of CNET, served as master of ceremonies for the event.

In addition, Promotion and Display won the “Fan Favorite” award for its Novo Minora, the world’s first 3-D Web cam based on votes from the audience. As the “Fan Favorite,” the company won a spot in the i-Stage TechZone at CES.

Fourteen finalists unveiled their products at CEA’s i-Stage before a live audience. The i-Stage finalists were:

· Amulet Devices, The Amulet Remote

· Avaak, Vue personal video network

· Boxee media center

· Frontline Inc., Fitness Interactive Technology (FIT)

· GenAudio, AstoundSound

· IPEVO digital photo frame

· JFDI Engineering Ltd., GridSearch

· Lightglove, LtWv

· Next2Friends, People in Motion

· Occipital

· Pongr