CE Week and the Annual TV Shootout are Primed to Find the World's Best TVs

CE Week and the Annual TV Shootout are Primed to Find the Best TVs​

(CE Week)(July 10, 2017) 14 years ago, Robert Zohn and his high-end Scarsdale retail shop, Value Electronics, held the first iteration of what’s become a highly anticipated industry event. The purpose was simple: compare the best TVs on the market and identify a champion. The first official Shootout wasn’t broadcast live, but it has been for each of the last 13 years. In fact, the event has become so popular it’s now a staple at New York’s annual CE Week tech industry show.

This year’s Shootout has a slightly different flavor than years past. For the first time ever, CE Week is sponsoring the event under a one-year exclusive licensing deal forged between Value Electronics and interested parties. And while that has minimal impact on the event’s purpose, several other changes will affect its ultimate outcome. For starters, the 2017 TV Shootout is designed to identify three different categories of winners, including: Studio Lighting (dark room viewing), HDR (High Dynamic Range performance), and Streaming (video processing and streaming media). Previous events only identified one overall winner.

This year’s Shootout is also being judged by a panel of industry luminaries and content creators, not Shootout attendees. That list is composed of: Lee KIine (Head of the Technical Team, The Criterion Collection), Kevin Collins (Director of Mixed Reality Enablement, Microsoft), Sam Runco (Former CEO of Runco International), Brandon Yates (Partner at Yates and Parks Consulting), Vincent Pagliaro (Digital Technician), Kevin Miller (President of ISFTV and leading industry calibrator), and Joel Silver (Founder and President of the Imaging Science Foundation).

This year marks the first time that LG Electronics will have OLED competition, as Sony’s new XBR-65A1E OLED is entering the competition. Other television entries include Sony’s XBR-65Z9D, Samsung’s QN65Q9F, Vizio’s P65E1, and at least one other surprise TV. LG Electronics’ entry will either be its OLED 65G7P or 65E7P (it’s unclear which will be present).

AV NIRVANA will be at CE Week on Wednesday July 12, providing coverage of the TV Shootout and the larger event. We’ll post a full recap of the Shootout – including results – on Thursday.

 

[Robert Zohn]

Thanks for the very nice phone conversation today. Beautiful write-up! Here's a little more to go with this discussion and the 2017 TV Shootout.

Things are shaping up to the culmination of our 2017 TV Shootout. Equipment arriving now and tomorrow's the big day for set-up, practice, meet the press. Then the the 1st series of video presentations by Joel Silver, Kevin Miller and their team from AV PRO Store, Matt and Jeff Murray

Also helping with the set-up is Brett from Metra Cables and thanks to the kind lending of Konica/Minolta CS-2000 Spectroradiometer.

All looks very cool with the six 2017 TVs along side Sony's BMX-300 RGB OLED color grading professional monitor.

BTW, I still have 29 VIP all access passes available. Tickets/badges are no charge and available if you email me your request.

Hope to see you at CE Week NYC 2017 and the TV Shootout.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Likewise, Robert. Enjoyed the chat as always. Look forward to seeing you in Manhattan... possibly tomorrow. If not, then on Wednesday AM at meet the press.

Congratulations on fathering this awesome event! Can't wait to see these TVs go toe to toe!

 

[Sonnie]

This ought to be really good and I can't wait to read the recap. Thanks for hosting it Robert... and thanks for attending Todd.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Good thing the Orioles aren't in the Bronx... we'd have a "situation."

 

[JimShaw]

Has the time been set when streaming will start???

 

[Sonnie]

Wow... they are going to stream the event? That will be nice.

 

[mechman]

Robert has in the past and I hope they are this year.

 

[Tonto]

This looks to be a great eval this year! Quite the "Whos Who" in team there! I wonder if they are going to be blind evaluations.

 

[Sonnie]

Judging video quality blind would be quite an accomplishment, huh? (couldn't resist)

 

[JimShaw]

Hey, I have an 80 year old neighbor who has gone to blind school and is almost blind. Our gated community would not allow him to drive his golf cart on the streets.But he passed the DMV driver's test for both the written and eyes. He had some help from the DMV to pass the eye test. He now weaves down the road in his white car.

Get the same woman at the DMV to help and I bet one blind judge could judge the panels quite well

 

[JimShaw]

No streaming at this time. Maybe something is wrong or not streaming this year.

I hope Todd can enlighten us as to what he saw today.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Yup, no streaming this year. Tomorrow's press conference *might* get streamed. Unfortunately, the Shootout was moved from a basement room location underneath the main exhibit hall to the (near) middle of the exhibit hall (only separated by giant blackout curtains). So streaming audio would have been near impossible. Visit us on Twitter to see a few images from the the event.

Results from the expert panel are going live tomorrow at 2:30. I'll have a full write-up (along with some interesting little tid-bits) published soon there after. I have a sneaking suspicion of how the winners will fall this year... should be interesting to see what the experts pick.

 

[JimShaw]

Sad, very sad. I say put it back in Robert's shop where everything can be controlled and the streaming made whole

Todd, anxiously waiting your report

 

[Todd Anderson]

We'll have to see where it takes place next year... I'd guess that CE Week will be eager to try and bring it back to Manhattan. Overall, CE Week was noticeably smaller this year (I hazard to guess there was a 35% reduction in exhibitors). Last year it took up two halls and a basement of the Met Pavillion. This year it was only one hall. Truthfully, it's a mixed event when it comes to products that fall in the home theater / stereo realm – and this year was disappointing in that department.

 

[JimShaw]

I would have gone the last couple years but a little nervous flying into NY and driving to who know where to a hotel and then into the city.

I just felt uncomfortable doing that.

Back to Value Electronics where out of state people feel better about coming.

 

[mechman]

I would have gone the last couple years but a little nervous flying into NY and driving to who know where to a hotel and then into the city.

I just felt uncomfortable doing that.

Back to Value Electronics where out of state people feel better about coming.

I second your motion! If it goes back to Robert's shop I'll be there for sure next year!

 

[JimShaw]

Robert just popped in on another forum and mentioned that we was going to record it tomorrow and put it up on his Facebook