The annual EISA Awards represent the combined judgement of magazine editors around the world, a global perspective on the best-value and highest-performing consumer electronics you can buy.
Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi are EISA’s representatives for Hi-Fi and Home Theatre here in Australia , part of the global Expert Imaging & Sound Association which each year pools the editorial review experience of 60 special interest magazines across 29 countries to agree on a final list of EISA Award Winners. (Please note that What Hi-Fi? has no connection with EISA.)
For nearly 40 years EISA has been selecting the most innovative, cutting-edge products for its prestigious EISA Awards. The Awards are debated and voted upon by groups of specialist judging panels covering the full spectrum of consumer electronics products, including Hi-Fi, Home Theatre Audio and Video, In-Car Electronics, Photography and Mobile Devices (the full list of awards follows at end of this press release). Key to the success and relevance of the annual EISA Awards lies in the evolution of its categories, always reflecting the changing trends and technologies of the consumer electronics world.
Moreover, the Association itself continues to evolve and expand. In 2018 EISA welcomed new members from India, Japan and Hong Kong/China just as the old EISA acronym (European Imaging and Sound Association) became the Expert Sound and Imaging Association. During 2019 the Association swelled its ranks with additional members from the USA, Poland, Norway, Italy and Russia – enlarging EISA’s global footprint still further.
To win an EISA award all products undergo a comprehensive multi-step judging process. So, while EISA’s annual Convention in Antwerp in May and Awards Meeting in June were, once again, both cancelled due to the pandemic, the comprehensiveness of the Association’s product testing was undiminished. EISA hosted no fewer than 40 webinars that put new technologies, and brands, in front of our expert editorial audience. This, combined with regular video conferences for our Expert Groups, and the shipment of products between member countries, allowed our judging to extend over many months, fuelling lengthy and highly informed discussions. EISA’s democratic voting process was reinforced, establishing a consensus of excellence that ultimately determined the winning products. It was, we must say, an extraordinarily efficient process.
EISA members and winners would then normally gather together in Berlin during IFA in September for celebratory sherbets and a posh gala presentation ceremony (the 2019 Gala group photo is pictured below). This year, as last, alas: no IFA, no gala, no sherbets...
This being a global group of winners, occasionally our outlying region gets a significantly different model, or the brand is not available here at all. The rest, however, represent the world’s best.
Details of the awards from the Home Theatre Video & Display Expert Group and the Home Theatre Audio Expert Group follow; there are full lists of all EISA Award categories at the end. Now then, let’s draw the golden card from the first EISA envelope...
Click here for Sound+Image's presentation of the 2021-2022 EISA Awards.
