President's Message
Well, as you can see the DVDA starts the New Year with a new look to our website. We hope that you will visit often and discover the many increasing bits of valuable information that will be posted throughout the coming year. Many thanks to our Web Master, Bruce Nazarian for all his hard work in making this happen.
As we start the New Year, we find that our DVD industry continues to surge ahead and simultaneously pause.
How is this possible?
The surge is in new, creative and artistic uses of Standard Definition DVDs. Our members continue to push the envelope on creativity. As I said at the recent Brilliance Awards in London, "all the nominated DVDs are exceptional. You owe it to yourself to seek them out and view them. They have raised the bar of creativity." (A complete list of the nominees and winners are posted here beneath this message)
The pause is a result of the continued confusion regarding the competing Next Gen disc formats. Yes, discs in both formats are being made and certainly this year will see some great titles released. Yet, many of our members (and in truth, the public) have adopted a wait and see attitude. During this lull, you can be sure that the DVDA will continue our series of successful Next Gen informational seminars throughout the US and in Europe. We will continue to be a clear, non-biased voice.
There is much confusion and misinformation circulating on various forums on the net. The DVDA continues to be format agnostic. Our mission is to foster the development of the technology, and that includes all formats. We will post upcoming Next Gen seminars here on the website, and we hope you can plan to attend one soon.
We have big plans for 2007, in addition to these Next Gen seminars you will once again see us at a number of industry events and we will shortly be announcing the 2007 DVDA Excellence Awards (with categories for studios, facilities and individuals).
There will be new chapter events as well.
And, as I said earlier, the member benefits on our website will continue to grow with more spotlight interviews, presentations, videos, podcasts and the like.
However, the DVDA remains a volunteer not-for-profit association. We rely on membership and sponsorships in order to do anything!
If you are not yet a member or sponsor, I encourage you to join online Now!
It's easy, just click on the JOIN button at the top of this page.
In addition to joining, I would personally like to invite you to get involved. We need your help as we grow in 2007.
On behalf of our members, sponsors, our Advisory Council and the Board of Directors of the DVDA, I wish you a most happy, prosperous and interactive new year.
As always, there is more to come.
Thanks for your support.
Bernie Mitchell
President, DVD Association