Crowd-Sourced Methodology for Generating Objective Solution Performance Rankings
Goes Beyond Mainstream
PARKLAND, FL. – March 27, 2023 – Recon Research (RR), a leading analyst firm focused on the UC, professional AV, conferencing, and collaboration markets, is pleased to announce that the database within the company’s proprietary Battle Program now includes more than 200,000 votes (data points) provided by website visitors.
In the research world, you’re only as good as your sample set. A small sample set means limited accuracy. A biased sample set means biased results.
For example, when a person evaluates a product or service, they are a sample set of one. And, since that person knows whose solution they’re reviewing, their opinions are naturally biased.
To be clear – we’re not saying that one-person evaluations of a single solution are invalid. Au contraire.
If that person is an expert (meaning they’ve used and tested enough competing solutions to understand good vs. bad performance), their opinion may be valid.
But that’s exactly what it is — one person’s opinion.
[ FYI – The analysts at Recon Research have evaluated hundreds of products and services over the last two decades. For example, we recently tested the camera performance of over 50 meeting room video bars. It’s our extensive experience with so many competing solutions that drives our opinions. ]
And then there’s the Battle Program.
The Battle Program eliminates the sample set and bias issues that frequently plague evaluations and comparisons of products and services. What makes the Battle Program so special?
- Instead of capturing one person’s opinion, we capture the opinions of “the crowd” of visitors to our website.
- Instead of polling only audio experts and engineers, we capture opinions from regular people (meaning normal users).
- Instead of focusing on a single solution from a known brand, we compare the performance of many competing solutions.
- Instead of biasing the results with brand names and model numbers, we use a double-masked research approach.
- Instead of the all-too-common “can you hear me” test, we use carefully defined and repeatable tests in a controlled test environment.
An Audio “Battle” Asking a Website Visitor to Choose Between Two Competing Devices
(note how the names of the solutions are NOT disclosed)
We also don’t disclose the types of solutions being compared. In other words, the website visitors providing their opinions (see the Go to Battle page) don’t know whether they‘re voting on the mic performance of business headsets, the noise reduction capabilities of USB speakerphones, or the low-light camera performance of video bars.
The takeaway is that the Battle Program provides objective, data-driven, and unsponsored (VERY IMPORTANT) performance rankings – not subjective opinions from a handful of people.
“I never dreamed we’d come so far so fast with the Battle Program,” reports Ira M. Weinstein, managing partner at Recon Research. “In the last year, we’ve captured more than 200,000 votes from our website visitors worldwide. This massive sample set lets us provide extremely accurate performance rankings across a wide range of offerings.”
Example of Battle Results Showing the Four Top-Ranked Solutions
(Out of 28 Competing Solutions)
I know what you’re thinking. The Battle Program doesn’t consider headset comfort, speakerphone battery life, video bar mounting options, and many other features. That’s correct. The Battle Program objectively ranks the audio and video performance of competing solutions, and that’s it.
[ But don’t forget … we provide in-depth feature comparisons within our Comparison Matrices. ]
“The Battle Program helps end-users make informed purchasing decisions, channel partners choose the best products for their customers, and vendors improve their offerings,” said James Kelly, senior analyst at Recon Research. “Best of all – we’re just getting started. Next, we have our sights on ranking the video and audio performance of UCaaS / VCaaS offerings. Stay tuned!”
The Battle Program currently offers performance rankings of the following solutions:
- Business Headsets
- Personal USB Speakerphones
- USB Podcast Microphones
- Video Bars for Small Meeting Rooms
Recon Research’s video and audio performance rankings and subscription content items are free to industry end-users and our Premium Subscribers.
For more information, please contact sales@reconres.com or visit www.reconres.com.
