TVBEurope reported the success of its first ever TVBAwards event in October, and a video of the winners’ is now available:
The grand ballroom in Wembley’s Hilton hotel was the setting for a truly grand night in which deserving Awards winners were recognised, and talent throughout the industry celebrated.
TVBEurope editor James McKeown welcomed awards nominees, broadcast professionals, PR companies and TVBEurope figures past and present, who packed out the venue. “Beyond the pomp and the ceremony, tonight we are coming together to celebrate all that is great about our industry, in the company of friends and colleagues,” opened McKeown. “We will be recognising those pushing the boundaries in their fields, honouring the pursuit of excellence, innovation, and endeavour.”
The Awards were divided into four categories, with the aim of encompassing a broad range of talent and expertise in the broadcast media field. Presentations began with the Workflow awards and first up on stage to collect the Achievement in Sound award was NUGEN Audio, for its work on Later…with Jools Holland. This was followed by the Achievement in Systems Integration, which went to Cambridge Imaging Systems. “The award is for our work in UK education, providing a catch-up TV service across 60 universities,” the company explained. “The BBC and the British Universities Film and Video Council who enabled us to capture TV and broadcast from the entire UK spectrum and also from foreign language channels and to produce those for catch-up, learning and research.” Finally, dock10 was awarded the Achievement in Post Production award for work on hit TV drama series Happy Valley, broadcast on BBC One.
The World Cup was a major TV event this year, so it’s perhaps of little surprise that the sporting highlight cropped up twice in the Delivery category. Elemental Technologies was awarded the Achievement in Fast Turnaround Broadcast for its successful delivery of a 4K UHD TV broadcast of the World Cup over an IP network using Elemental Live encoding, while EVS walked away with the Achievement in Multiplatform Content for its delivery of the showpiece tournament. The partnership between EVS and specialist production company HBS provided the live and multimedia production and distribution workflow, including nearly 200 servers and related connectivity. “With the trust of HBS and FIFA we’ve been able to accomplish many things and the multiplatform delivery and multiscreen delivery technology that we’ve put forward is something we’re very proud of,” said EVS on receipt of its award. The Achievement in Legacy Content went to RR Media, for the British Pathe historic archive for YouTube.
Within the Capture category, the Beyond HD Achievement for Excellence in Image Capture was created to celebrate a company or in-house team responsible for outstanding use of new and innovative image capture technologies in a live or recorded TV programme. TV2 ASA, Norway was the deserving winner of the honour, for its work on the spectacular Fly med oss. “We set off in May 2014 with a helicopter and a Cineflex camera and a 360-camera mounted on the helicopter. We flew for three weeks and got some amazing pictures, both of mountains and people, all over Norway,” explained the winners, who didn’t forget to thank the stars of the documentary: “This award is actually also to the Norwegian people who went out on the top of the mountains and took their clothes off and waved to us!”
The Achievement in Sports Broadcast award was picked up by Presteigne Broadcast Hire, for its work, in association with CTV, on The Boat Race – the annual shootout on the Thames between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Receiving the award, the company described the project as “a technically complex programme both sides, which saw lots of innovation, and the first use of IP and RF mesh-based acquisition systems, which is reflected in this award.” Achievement in VFX went to Milk VFX for the magical Natural History Museum Alive, broadcast on New Year’s Day.
The awards ceremony concluded with the presentation of four Special Awards, the first of which went to Karmarama/Red Bee Media for the WW1 on the BBC campaign. To mark the centenary of the start of the First World War, the BBC commissioned programmes about the conflict to run over four years and released a film showcasing the content. Karmarama created the TV spot, which shows the war from various perspectives, tied together with the wartime song Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit-Bag, which is sung or spoken by different characters and BBC presenters. “We’re very proud not only of representing the BBC, but also representing everybody who gave their lives through what was an incredibly tough campaign in the First World War,” commented Karmarama.
The Sustainability award BAFTA Albert Consortium for its Albert +, an industry project promoting sustainability in the production process.
Channel 4 was the winner of the award for Outstanding Broadcast, in one of the most eagerly anticipated moments of the night. The broadcaster demonstrated the largest-ever UK TV commitment to the Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, delivering 50 hours of coverage, with two further digital streams providing 100 hours of additional content. “A lot of people have worked very hard on Channel 4’s behalf to deliver the best possible coverage and to tell the great stories of the Paralympics we’ve been working with,” said the broadcaster.
The evening wrapped up with Dr David Wood, former deputy technical director of the EBU and current chair of the World Broadcasting Union’s Technical Committee, taking to the stage. Wood had previously been announced as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award and shared with attendees a reflection of fond memories of his career and experiences in the broadcast industry.
Simon Fell, technology and innovation director at the EBU described Wood as “a unique talent well respected in the industry. His humour and all round enthusiasm for all things involving media technologies have given him international respect.”
TVBEurope would like to thank our TVBAwards sponsors, Manor Marketing, Ericsson and IBC, as well as everyone who travelled from near and far to attend the evening. For those unable to make it, we hope to see you in 2015 for what is sure to be an annual highlight of the industry calendar.
