Surround Music Awards 2005 – The SMA winners were announced tonight at a glittering event held in Beverly Hills, California. It was a homecoming of sorts for the Surround Music Awards ceremony that forms the centerpiece of the annual Surround Conference and Expo. After last year’s detour combining the specialized Surround Conference with the broader Entertainment Media Expo, Surround 2005 recovered its original mission and focus as a standalone event for recording industry professionals. Once again occupying its familiar venue at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the two-day Conference brought together a diverse array of engineering, business, and artist perspectives in a series of seminars and demos, with the first day culminating in the 4th annual Surround Music Awards, a celebration and recognition of the finest surround music releases of the past year.
As in the past, the award winners were selected by a panel of fifteen industry professionals chaired by event producer Bobby Owsinski. An additional High Fidelity Review Listener’s Choice Award was determined by a majority vote in an open poll here on the HFR site.
We’re proud to announce that this year’s winners were:
Surround Artist of the Year
Jackson Browne
Surround Pioneer Award
Phil Ramone
Best of Show
‘Brick’ DualDisc Box Set, Talking Heads (Rhino Entertainment)
Best Additional Features
‘Rumor Mill’, The Carl Verheyen Band (AIX Records)
Best Concert Video
‘Live at the Apollo’, Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama (Virgin Records and 5.1 Production Services)
Best DualDisc Release
‘Brick’ DualDisc Box Set, Talking Heads (Rhino Entertainment)
Best Made for Surround Title
‘Deadwing’, Porcupine Tree (DTS Entertainment) tied with ‘Guero’, Beck (IGA/Interscope)
Best Menu Design
‘Brick’ DualDisc Box Set, Talking Heads (Rhino Entertainment)
Best Mix: Non-Orchestral
‘Brick’ DualDisc Box Set, Talking Heads (Rhino Entertainment)
Best Mix: Orchestral
‘Reich at the Roxy’, Alarm Will Sound (Sweetspot Music)
Best Multichannel Reissue
‘Captain Fantastic’, Elton John (UME/Chronicles)
Best Standard Resolution Title
‘One Soul’, E3 (Sweet Spot Music Group/3 Bone Audio, Inc.)
Horizon Award
‘Feels Like Family’, Lauren Ellis (Silverline Records)
Most Adventurous Mix
‘In Search Of…’ N.E.R.D. (Virgin Records/DTS)
High Fidelity Review Listener’s Choice Award
‘Master of Disaster’, John Hiatt (New West)
Master of Disaster by John Hiatt, winner of the 2005 Listener’s Choice Award