The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is to recognize Fairlight "for the design and development of the DaD digital audio dubber specifically designed for the motion picture industry".

Fairlight Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, John Lancken is to accept the award.

Fairlight ESP announced it would be awarded a Scientific and Technical Award (Academy Plaque) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at a ceremony in Beverly Hills on March 3. The announcement was made today by John Lancken, Fairlight Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales.

"This award is clearly among the highest accolades the entertainment industry can offer," Lancken said today.

As the senior representative of Fairlight ESP in the United States marketplace, Lancken will accept the award at the Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner to take place at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on March 3. According to Lancken, he is looking forward to the ceremony and also to bringing the award back to Fairlight's research laboratories in Sydney.

"The R&D team in Australia have every reason to very proud," Lancken added.

The award citation will read as follows: These digital dubbers have afforded the post production community a faster, more cost-effective means of playing back hundreds of digital audio tracks for pre-mixing or final mixing in creating motion picture sound tracks. They also offer individual track slipping in multiple track configurations, random access recall and both destructive and non-destructive editing capabilities, eliminating the need for razor blade conforming. The 24-track DaD digital audio dubber provides up to 24 individually controllable 24 track audio playback streams using only the DaD controller. DaD has also been supplied with file format compatibility including a wide range of popular digital audio formats via Fairlight's Direct File Exchange Initiative. That high degree of functionality is taken further with the inclusion of Multi-Project Load, a unique feature that allows a single DaD to load any combination of projects from the currently supported formats; for example, a four-track AKAI project, an eight-track Media Composer project and a 12-track Fairlight MFX3 project, can all be loaded simultaneously into a single 24 track DaD unit. DaD super plus, the ultimate universal playback solution, also plays Avid Media Composer, Film Composer and AudioVision projects when those files are saved in a suitable dubbing format.

Fairlight ESP manufactures and markets digital audio editing and mixing systems for audio post production applications.

L-R: Paul Huntsman, Supervising Sound Editor, and Kevin Collier, Supervising Chief Engineer, Post Production Services, with a rack of DaD dubbers at Warner Bros, Burbank Studios

Fairlight ESP is the recipient of a variety of prestigious technology and business awards and award nominations from leading audio and sound-for-picture organizations and publications worldwide. This includes the 1999 Australian Screen Sound Guild Award for Significant Contribution to the Screen Sound Industry by Australian Technology, 1999 Pro Audio Review PAR Excellence Award, 1998 Millimeter Magazine Tommy Award, 1998 Television Broadcast Magazine Best of NAB Award, EQ Magazine Blue Ribbon Award 1999 and multiple Mix Foundation TEC Award and Post Magazine Post Award nominations

Link: www.fairlightesp.com.au