HPA Honors Avid With Charles S. Swartz Award

LOS ANGELES— The Hollywood Post Alliance has awarded Avid with 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 Nov. 7, 2013 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Avid President and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr, will accept the award on behalf of the company.

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 as a test bed for new digital cinema technologies. Swartz was a member of the HPA 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.

“The mission of the Charles S Swartz Award is to recognize those efforts that have had profound and global impact on post production,” said HPA President Leon Silverman.

Avid’s tools and products are used by creative and media professionals around the world to make, distribute and monetize content. The company unveiled a prototype of their first nonlinear editing system – the avid/I – at the 1988 NAB, beginning the transition from traditional film editing.

In September, Avid 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 move to broaden collaboration, the company also announced the creation of the Avid Customer Association, an initiative designed to provide essential strategic leadership to the media industry, collaborate with key industry leaders and visionaries, and deepen relationships.

“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,” said Silverman. www.hpaawards.net