The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Awards Committee has unveiled the winners of the 2020 HPA Awards for Engineering Excellence.  The HPA Awards, including the HPA Award for Engineering Excellence, will be bestowed on November 19 in a virtual gala.

The judging process for this year’s entries was adapted to adhere to restrictions imposed upon the industry by the pandemic, while remaining in keeping with the rigorous standards for these highly regarded honors.  As always, a blue-ribbon judging panel reviewed the submissions, with the process for this year being split in two sections:  a video presentation sent in advance to the judges, and a “live” virtual interaction with judges after the video submissions were reviewed.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the HPA Awards, which were founded to recognize creative artistry and innovation in the professional media content industry. A coveted and competitive honor, the Engineering Excellence Award rewards outstanding technical and creative ingenuity in media, content production, finishing, distribution, and archive.

HPA Awards Engineering Committee chair Joachim Zell said, “It is always exciting to experience first-hand the innovative brilliance of our industry. This year, we had a great turnout of entries, and in keeping with the standards of the Engineering Excellence awards, an outstanding judging panel of industry professionals reviewed the submissions.  Without exception, every entry was compelling, and judging was as inspiring as ever. We are proud of our industry in these moments where we see that even a global crisis does not break our spirit or the dedication to incredible work. Congratulations to the winners, and all the entrants, we are impressed and inspired.”

The winners of the 2020 HPA Award for Engineering Excellence are:

EIZO: Prominence CG3146 31.1
EIZO’s Prominence CG3146 31.1” HDR monitor is the first in the world with a built-in calibration sensor. New technologies were invented to include advanced brightness and color uniformity correction allowing the calibration to occur at the top of the monitor and a stable XYZ glass type sensor that resist temperature. New algorithms were needed for one sensor in both low brightness areas with higher noise, and high bright areas with more light saturation. The machine learning display stabilization and custom ASIC technologies were implemented to improve image stability and increase the available colors of the LCD panel by over 22%.

Eluvio: Eluvio Content Fabric
Eluvio has pioneered a novel video distribution platform to service content providers around the globe. The Eluvio Content Fabric provides an efficient, secure, and cost-effective means to deliver ultra-low latency video globally just-in-time, without CDNs, cloud transcoding, or databases.  As a single backend for distribution, the platform links media, metadata, and programmable code; and serves high quality streaming video to the viewer without intermediaries, separate file copies, or static versions. Content is personalized dynamically and rights-controlled via software blockchain contracts. This submission includes a description, deployments with Tier 1 video content companies, and supportive quotes from MGM.  

Moxion: Immediates
Moxion Immediates are the result of multiple innovations enabling post and production to securely share and review each other’s footage within minutes of creation.  Immediates footage, complete with Camera, Action, and VFX Wranglers’ metadata, flows from the QTAKE video assist into the Moxion cloud where it can be reviewed and logged before flowing into Editorial or VFX workflows.  Conversely, footage created in post; for example, VFX Previs Cuts can be sent via the Moxion Cloud, back to set, security, the Video Assist for playback on the onset monitors, or to any onset iOS device.

Carl Zeiss SBE: eXtended Data - Lens Metadata Technology
Simplify and increase the accuracy of the image capture and processing workflow. ZEISS eXtended Data unifies two data sets: Key lens data based on the Cooke, and i-Technology and the ZEISS distortion and shading lens data.  After recording on set together with the video files, the data can be applied in post-production for more accurate compositing and editing by using the suite of ZEISS developed lens plugins.

Honorable mention
Frame.io and Sohonet received honorable mention for their Camera-to-Cloud and ClearView Flex technologies, respectively.

In addition to the Engineering Excellence Award, the virtual awards gala on November 19 will recognize excellence in craft categories including color grading, editing, sound and visual effects.  The Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation will be announced in advance of the awards and presented during the program.

HPA, and its HPA Awards committee, remains dedicated to continuing to support the artists, technical innovators, and companies in the industry that continuously raise the bar for content. In light of this year’s unique challenges, a number of changes were put in place to encourage participation and engagement. Tickets are free with registration, and entry fees were reduced. The awards will be presented in an engaging, interactive platform which encourages a large audience to join in the evening’s activities.