And the Winners of the designcompetition are......................

Berne, Switzerland, December 3, 2008.
The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home communication industry, and Jakajima are pleased to announce the winners of the International CAT-iq Student Design Competition.

With the CAT-iq Design Competition 2008 the DECT Forum inspired design students from all over the world to create out of the box products and exciting services for the next generation of home communication. The jury of international experts has made the decision for the first three prizes. Winners will be invited to the DECT CAT-iq Conference 2009 in Amsterdam; the awarded design studies will be presented during the conference (February 3-4, 2008) to industry experts.

Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum, is pleased to disclose the three winners of the CAT-iq Design Competition 2008:

The quality of the submitted designs was high but very diverse. The winning concepts were distinctive and well presented. The final decision on the runner up prize was not so easy as there were several ideas that made the choice difficult.

First prize (10.000 €) goes to: Jelly Web, by Conrad Kroencke University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria Comment of the jury for First prize: Innovation level was very high and a good approach to embed CAT-iq in home entertainment equipment. The idea has a distinctive design language and very good graphic presentation and is a completely thought through concept.
Second prize (5.000 €) goes to: Spectrum, by Werner Helmich Twente University, Department Industrial Design Engineering Enschede, The Netherlands Comment of the jury for Second prize: High level of innovation and a great design. Interesting new attempt for sound/voice communication.
Runner up price (1.000 €) goes to: Follow Me Phones by Joris Zaalberg University of Technology, Department Industrial Design Eindhoven, The Netherlands Comment of the jury for Runner up prize: Using special awareness to move in and out of conversational areas is very innovative and offers new ways of communication amongst people.

“I would like to congratulate the winners of the CAT-iq Design competition on behalf of the home communications industry. The jury was very impressed with the creativity and innovative quality of the entries and it was difficult to choose the winners. I would like to thank students from all over the world for their participation”, says Erich Kamperschroer.

Invitation

The CAT-iq Design Competition is aimed at meeting the following main goals:
Provide an opportunity for students from a variety of design backgrounds (industrial design, interactive design, gaming design, etc.) to demonstrate their problem solving and design skills in an international competition, provide the CAT-iq industry with refreshing perspectives on how designers from different disciplines and different parts of the world approach a common design challenge with respect to the new CAT-iq technology.

Students can also benefit from industry leaders who might be interested in taking over their inventions for new classes of products or services.

“For almost 100 years home telephony has not substantially changed. The introduction of cordless phones based on the DECT standard was the latest significant innovation of the industry, which was highly accepted by the consumers”, says Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum. “With the introduction of the broadband era and the emerging new networks connected to millions of homes, the communication equipment is currently in the process of originating new form factors and services.

With this competition we would like to inspire design students to create out of the box products and exciting services. CAT-iq is the technology which offers unique and boundless possibilities to combine voice communication, home networking and multiple IP based applications.”