The Hollywood Post Alliance announced the recipients of the organization’s Engineering Excellence Award. Sponsored by NAB Show, the awards are intended to showcase and reward inventors, manufacturers, vendors and postproduction companies for their outstanding products or technology applications.
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 in August 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 the postproduction industry and could be submitted by an individual, group or company.
Leon Silverman, president of the Hollywood Post Alliance, noted, “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. 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 workflows. 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 seven different monitor models.
Last year’s winners of the Engineering Excellence Award included ALEXA by Arnold + Richter Cine Technik (ARRI); Image Systems (formerly Digital Vision) for the Open EXR workflow; and Cine-tal for their Davio processor.
The HPA Awards are scheduled for Nov. 10 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.hpaawards.net.
