History of The IDMA and our Excellence Awards

"Recognizing and Rewarding Excellence..."

The IDMA Excellence Awards are presented by the International Digital Media Alliance for the benefit of our members, sponsors and the digital media community.  The awards recognize excellence in the talent, creativity, craftsmanship and application of technology in the production and authoring of DVD, Blu-ray Discs, and online, interactive and streaming media.

Overall quality of a finished title is considered, but relative audience appeal of the content is not a criterion in the judging. 

Skills used in the art and science of the creation of each title determine the final score.

The Excellence Awards are based on merit rather than a traditional competition. Entries are not ranked as first, second or third place; Instead, an independent panel of digital media professionals will score a maximum of 100 points for each entry, based on designated criteria.

Our awards are, in fact, one of the longest-running celebrations of digital media excellence:

A long-running history

The IDMA traces its roots back to 1990, long before the dawn of DVD or Blu-ray Disc.
Back in 1990 disc-based television platforms known as CD-I and VCD were introduced. To assist developers and educate the public on these new platforms the Compact Disc Interactive Association (CDIA) was formed and headed by Paul Holmes.

This non-profit developers group was supported by Philips Electronics and consumer electronic firms including Panasonic, LG Goldstar, Pioneer Electronics, Sony and others.

CDIA held annual conferences, educational seminars, and produced several publications.   

In 1991, the CDIA began its tradition of awarding excellence in CD interactive production, which the
IDMA continues to this day in its annual Excellence Awards program.

CDIA becomes the IDMA (the first time)

As television and computer technologies converged, the next generation of disc based technology emerged, known as DVD, bringing with it a new set of rules and opportunities.  With the introduction of DVD in the mid 1990s, the CDIA changed its name to the Interactive Digital Media Association (IDMA).  That IDMA expanded its scope to include television based DVD applications, and became an international organization with chapters formed and active throughout Europe and Asia.

IDMA becomes DVDA

In 1999, Michelle Serra succeeded Paul Holmes as Executive Director, and headed the Association during its transition to becoming the DVDA. 

In 2000,  Dr. Victor McCrary of NIST became Executive Director, and in 2002, the DVD Association (DVDA) was incorporated as a nonprofit organization. In February of 2002, the new DVDA merged with SIGCAT (The Special Interest Group on CD-ROM Applications and Technology).  SIGCAT had a very active outreach program, including monthly meetings, educational seminars, several publications, a Web site, and eight national conferences. Worldwide membership in SIGCAT grew to over 11,000 people in over 70 countries.  

In 2004, Bernie Mitchell was elected President of the DVDA.He presided over three years of the DVDA's now non-profit corporation activities, including the first ever DVDA Brilliance Awards held in London in November 2006. For his service, Bernie was inducted into the DVDA Hall of Fame in 2007, a fitting tribute to his stewardship of the DVDA.

Current IDMA President Bruce Nazarian intiialliy joined the DVDA advisory Board in early 2000, and has maintained his association with the DVDA ever since. First as a Director, then as VIce-President and Webmaster. Elected DVDA President in October 2007, he has served ever since. Under his watch, the DVDA expanded its mission, and updated its name once again to indicate the scope of its activities had moved beyond "just DVD". The IDMA website has grown under his supervision, and continues to add new information and relevant news feeds. The IDMA Preferred Provider Network will be unveiled late in 2009, showcasing vendors, tool providers, producers, authors and others who populate the digital media ecosystem. The one thing they all have in common is that they are "best of breed", and have demonstrated they can fulfill a client's needs at the highest level of accuracy and professionalism. He was inducted into the DVDA Hall of Fame in 2007.

HISTORY OF THE IDMA EXCELLENCE AWARDS

CDIA and IDMA awards become DVDA, then IDMA awards

The IDMA Excellence Awards are the contemporary embodiment of the CDIA awards program begun by Paul Holmes in 1991. In 2000, the award program was officially renamed the "DVDA Excellence Awards", and continued its unique tradition of recognizing excellence in media production and authoring, now in the DVD format.

Merit-based awards

As the DVDA has grown, it has continued to sponsor annual conferences and maintained the tradition of awarding excellence in digital media production through the by-now well-established Excellence Award ceremonies. In recent years, we have also lent our expertise to the creation and administration of the MIPCOM DVD Awards, and have participated in major trade shows like NAB, CES, DV Expo, GV Expo, Digital Media D.C., Editor's Retreat, Digital Hollywood, and many others.

DVDA Excellence awards grow

In early 2007, in response to requests to embrace the Next Generation optical disc formats, The DVDA opened the Excellence awards to HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc entries.

Prepare your digital media entries for the next IDMA Excellence awards!

The IDMA excellence Awards will return each spring, so keep an eye on www.IDMADVDA.org for the announcement of the entry dates and venue. IDMA welcomes entries from all digital media creators, worldwide. Any DVD, Blu-ray Disc, website, podcast, or online or streaming video title is acceptable for entry, except adult titles, which we do not accept. 

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