The Hollywood Post Alliance® announced the 2013 recipients of the organization’s Engineering Excellence Award and the HPA Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation in Post Production earlier this month, during a special on-line press event. These prestigious awards recognize the technical excellence and creative innovation that is helping to drive the post industry forward. The nominees in the craft categories were also announced.
Leon Silverman, President of the Hollywood Post Alliance, noted “These awards illustrate the pace of technical innovation and the importance of workflow within our industry. With a record-breaking number of entries in every category, and especially these special awards, it is clear that there is incredible technical creative vitality in our industry today. Congratulations to these companies and individuals for continuing to innovate and drive and enable an expanded creative process and palette.”
The Engineering Excellence Award spotlights the companies and individuals bringing technical and creative ingenuity to the real world of post production while raising the profile of breakthrough technologies within the industry.
The winners of the 2013 HPA Engineering Excellence Award sponsored by NAB Show are:
DTS, Inc.: MDA
MDA is an open object-based audio specification currently being proposed to international standardization committees as an alternative to today’s closed proprietary solutions. With overwhelming interest from the entertainment industry, MDA has already garnered support from major studios and networks looking to avoid another audio format war; while content tool providers have already begun developing new authoring solutions for the MDA format.
NVIDIA: NVIDIA GRID® Visual Computing Appliance (VCA)
The NVIDIA GRID® VCA is a turn-key appliance that enables users to remotely run digital content creation applications on any Windows, Linux or Mac PC with high-performance NVIDIA GPU acceleration even if their computer does not natively have that capability. �Since all the processing is done remotely on the VCA, creative professionals get the best possible experience with maximum flexibility.
Sony Pictures Imageworks and The Foundry: FLIX
FLIX lets creative teams focus on telling great stories.�Developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks and�The Foundry, FLIX is a web-based visual story development tool that enables directors, editors, cinematographers, 2D and 3D story artists to work together in one easy-to-use app.�
Telestream: 16 bit 4:4:4:4 Transcoding Technology
Almost all Production workflows require that media be transcoded between formats as it flows from activity to activity and is resized for final viewing. Of primary importance is the quality of the resulting material. Telestream Vantage transcoders utilize an innovative 16bit YCrCbA 4:4:4:4 data paths to deliver the highest quality, and maintain the artistic intent of the submitted material.
Winners comments:
“DTS is proud to receive an HPA award, for MDA as an open platform for the production and delivery of immersive object-based audio. MDA answers the industry’s requirement for an open object-based audio platform to create exciting new audio innovations and products on,” said John Kellogg, senior director corporate strategy and development.
“NVIDIA is pleased that our GRID VCA has been honored for its technical excellence by the HPA,” said Ankit Patel, Sr. Product Manager, GRID VCA. �”The GRID VCA is the perfect tool for post-production facilities to optimize workflows and still give their artists the power and performance they need, where ever they need it.”
Rob Bredow, CTO, Sony Pictures Imageworks, stated, “We are truly honored that FLIX has received an HPA Engineering Excellence Award. This ground-breaking technology, created by the talented teams at Sony Pictures Imageworks and The Foundry,�is a perfect example of how we use technology to hel
