Los Angeles, Calif. - The Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) has announced the recipients of the organization's Engineering Excellence Award, which is sponsored by NAB Show and intended to showcase and reward inventors, manufacturers, vendors, and/or peer postproduction companies for outstanding product or technology application offerings.
The Engineering Excellence Award is a central part of the HPA Awards, a standard by which creative and technical excellence in the art, science, and craft of postproduction is measured.
To enter the Engineering competition, companies had to submit a written description followed by a presentation to an expert panel of judges. The Engineering Award presentations and blue-ribbon judging session were held earlier this month at LaserPacific. This lively session played host to some of the most significant new technologies currently on the market. Entries of either a product or process had to represent a significant step forward for postproduction industry beneficiaries, and could be submitted by an individual, group, or company.
"The focus of the HPA Awards is to celebrate creativity throughout our postproduction industry, and the Engineering Award remains at the center of these honors," says Leon Silverman, president of the Hollywood Post Alliance. "We are proud to draw attention to the creativity of our technology community whose tools and technology enables, preserves, and allows audiences to celebrate the incredible work of our industry's artists."
The winners of the 2011 HPA Award for Engineering Excellence are:
Dolby Professional Reference Monitor
Filling the gap left by the CRT, The Dolby PRM-4200 Professional Reference Monitor is the first display capable of displaying the full dynamic range, contrast ratio, color gamut of leading edge digital cameras and film stocks, and fully supports today's digital work flows. The monitor delivers true blacks with exceptional dark detail, high contrast, wide dynamic range and precise color rendering.
IBM Linear Tape File System
The IBM Linear Tape File System (LTFS) was invented by IBM Research to provide a simple, cost efficient way to access and manage massive archives of data and digital assets.
Lightcraft Previzion
A real time visual effects system that incorporates a combination of high precision camera tracking, sophisticated rendering, and VFX quality keying which makes it ideal for the real time on-set compositing of live action, virtual backgrounds, and CGI characters. The system provides filmmakers with the ability to create visual effects shots with dynamic camera moves and actually see the completed effects during the shot.
Sony OLED Monitor
The organic light emitting diode technology (OLED) for reference monitoring is a panel and processor system that is practical for media production applications. The development involved significant investment in two factories and has resulted in delivering 7 different monitor models.
"We are honored to receive the award for Engineering Excellence from such a significant and influential organization as the Hollywood Post Alliance. It is a testament to the quality of our monitor and illustrates Dolby's commitment to helping content creators produce the best possible entertainment content," explains Bill Admans, director of production and postproduction solutions, Dolby Laboratories.
"IBM is proud to be recognized for our creation and design of the Linear Tape File System. This unique technology can help customers simplify their use of tape for storing data and video assets, leveraging the low-cost, rugged, portable, efficient, and long retention aspects of tape storage," says Steve Canepa, general manager, Global Media & Entertainment Industry, IBM.
"We're very honored to receive the Engineering Excellence Award. The HPA Tech Retreat was where Lightcraft first demonstrated Previzion to the Hollywood community, and to come full circle and be recognized by the HPA is extremely gratifying. We look forward to relentlessly improving Previzion's capabilities and to expanding what is possible in entertainment production," comments Eliot Mack, co-founder, Lightcraft Technology.
"We are all honored that HPA would present Sony with this award. There were so many engineers and scientists involved in the development who really don't get the recognition they deserve. This award is for them and the great achievement that they have accomplished," Gary Mandle, Sr. Product Manager, Sony Professional Solutions of America, states.
Tickets for the HPA Awards, available this month, can be purchased online at www.hpaawards.net or by calling the HPA at 213.614.0860 or writing
info@hpaawards.net.