How We Selected the 2014 CES Editors' Choice Winners
A look inside our rigorous, ethical voting process
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Today is the start of our new awards program, the CES Editors' Choice awards. To mark the occasion, we thought it would be enlightening to share our nomination and voting process. We strive to be the most transparent and ethical editorial organization in the industry, so consider this yet another peek behind the scenes.
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The CES 2014 Editors' Choice awards are in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organizing body of the CES show. However, no one from the CEA, or from our parent company, Gannett, was permitted to be involved in the decision making. Even Reviewed.com's own publisher, Robin Liss, was prohibited from seeing the list of nominees or being present during the vote and only found out the winners with the general public. In other words, we played this one awfully close to the chest in order to make sure that it was the most ethical process possible. We have a long history of the strictest ethical standards and separation between business and editorial at Reviewed.com, and the CES awards are no exception.
Starting back in September of 2013, we put out the call to manufacturers that the Editors' Choice awards would take place, and that they were invited to submit products for consideration. We sought out many others on our own, either in advance of CES or on the show floor.
Any product making its US debut at CES 2014 was eligible to be nominated. As our roster of products grew, we refined the list into groups of finalists. Products that were particularly innovative, or striking in their technology, design, or value were given stronger consideration. An editor sought out and experienced each of these products on the show floor. In the rare instances in which a working product was not available, we conducted a thorough discussion with company representatives to better understand the product.
The voting process took place in a closed-room session deep into the night on January 7th. Only Reviewed.com editorial staff were permitted entry during the entire voting period, and all telecommunications devices were turned off and stowed away. The sole exception to these rules was an unbiased, third-party technician who guided us through the electronic voting process.
The end result of this rigorous process is our list of award-winning products. You should understand that we have not tested these products under lab conditions. But as experts using personal observation, we believe them to be the best in show.
Check out our complete list of winners and read all our CES coverage throughout the week.