Hollywood Post Alliance Honors Avid With the Charles S. Swartz Award

Burlington, MA, 2013/10/16

The preeminent post production organization will honor Avid for a heritage of outstanding contributions

Avid® (NASDAQ: AVID) and The Hollywood Post Alliance® (HPA) – the trade association for the post production community – have announced that Avid will receive the 2013 Charles S. Swartz Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Post Production. The HPA will present the honor during the 8th Annual HPA Awards, which takes place on the evening of November 7th, 2013 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA. Louis Hernandez, Jr, President and CEO of Avid, will accept the award on behalf of the company.

Leon Silverman, President of the HPA, commented on the award, “From its founding days to the present, Avid has not only helped to lead our industry’s transition to new, powerful digital creative tools, but has also expanded the creative image and sound post production palette in a way that has fundamentally enabled new creative abilities. Building on their strong heritage of innovation, it is exciting to see Avid’s ongoing dedication to our community.”

Recognized as a leading provider of audio and video technology for media organizations and content creators, Avid’s tools and products are widely used by creative and media professionals around the world to make, distribute and monetize content. Avid led the revolution in non-linear editing over 25 years ago, irrevocably changing the way that creative projects were finished. Unveiling a prototype of their first non-linear editing system – the avid/I – at the 1988 NAB, within just a few years Avid’s category-defining products began to dethrone traditional film editing. Non-linear digital editing came to be the predominant standard, and the company has continually exerted its influence through its extensive R&D, development of IP, and expansion into audio production, broadcast, and live sound. The company’s products have been recognized with numerous industry and technology awards, including two Oscars® a Grammy®, and 14 Emmys®. The company holds over 200 patents.

Avid continues to develop crucial new technologies, and is at the forefront of helping an industry in rapid change, continually move forward. In September, the company announced “Avid Everywhere,” its vision to connect creative professionals and media organizations with their audiences in a more powerful, efficient, collaborative, and profitable way. In a major move to broaden collaboration across its community of customers and industry partners, the company also announced the creation of the Avid Customer Association, a comprehensive initiative designed to provide essential strategic leadership to the media industry, collaborate with key industry leaders and visionaries, and deepen relationships between the company and its customers.

Hernandez said of the award, “We are deeply honored to receive this award, and are especially proud to be recognized by the HPA, the voice of the post community. The post production industry has always been a source of innovation and inspiration. From the beginning, Avid has had deep roots within this community, and we are dedicated to being your trusted partner long into the future.”

The award was named in honor of the late Charles S. Swartz, who led the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California from 2002 until 2006, helping to build it into the industry’s premier test bed for new digital cinema technologies. Charles was a member of the Hollywood Post Alliance Board of Directors until his passing in 2007. The Charles S. Swartz Award is not bestowed every year, but rather only as worthy recipients are identified. Silverman concluded, “The mission of the Charles S Swartz Award is to recognize those efforts that have had profound and global impact on post production. Avid, throughout its 25-plus year history, has impacted our post production community so significantly that they indeed exemplify the meaning of this Award and so honor the memory of our friend and colleague Charles Swartz.”

The HPA Awards were designed to draw attention to the creative work being done in post production by companies and individuals. During the upcoming event in November, awards will be presented in 13 craft categories, as well as special awards, including the Charles S. Swartz Award, a Judges Award for Creativity & Innovation and the Engineering Excellence Award. Nominees for the craft categories as well as a number of special award winners were announced earlier. The list is available here https://hpaonline.com/.

Tickets for the HPA Awards are available now and can be purchased online at https://hpaonline.com/. For further information about tickets or the Awards Show call HPA at 213.614.0860 or write to info@hpaawards.net.

About the Hollywood Post Alliance®

Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) serves the professional community of businesses and individuals who provide expertise, support, tools and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television, commercials, digital media and other dynamic media content.

About the HPA® Awards

The HPA Awards were created to foster awareness of post production, promote creative and technical excellence, recognize the achievements of post production talent, and build involvement in the Hollywood Post Alliance. The HPA Awards will be presented with generous support from Sponsors: Foundation members: Dolby, Company 3, Deluxe, EFILM, Encore; Premier sponsor NAB Show; Bronze Sponsor Sohonet; Brand Sponsor NVIDIA and Supporting Sponsors.