MovieLabs’ Jim Helman, CTO, and Raymond Drewry, chief scientist and VP of EMEA operations, have been awarded an Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy for creation of the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR). Helman and Drewry led the design and development of EIDR as part of a project sponsored by MovieLabs in 2009 and 2010. The recipients of this year’s awards were announced today by the Television Academy. The 75th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Award Ceremony will take place Oct. 18 in Los Angeles.
EIDR unifies the commercial film and television industry around one standardized content ID, one infrastructure for creating and sharing the ID, and one nested data model for describing the relationships between abstract titles, specific edits of them, and packages for distribution.
“I want to congratulate Jim and Raymond for being recognized with an Engineering Emmy for their work in building an industry standard for content identifiers,” said Rich Berger, CEO of MovieLabs. “EIDR and the EIDR organization continue to provide mission-critical infrastructure to support the explosion of digital distribution of film and television content to an increasing set of consumer devices.”
As early as 2008, MovieLabs analyzed the technical requirements for meeting the evolving needs of the movie and television industry, especially for enabling the growth and automation of digital distribution. The requirements were presented to MovieLabs’ studio sponsors, who commissioned creation of the EIDR registry in 2009. MovieLabs created the data model and architecture, led the detailed technical design, and managed the software development process through testing and deployment in late 2010. The completed registry then was transferred to a newly formed EIDR organization that continues to run the EIDR registry today. MovieLabs has continued to provide technical and governance support for EIDR throughout its 13-year history.
The EIDR registry now holds more than 2.8 million records and is utilized in automation and digital supply chain workflows in more than 70 media and entertainment companies. EIDR is widely adopted by all of the major US studios and is growing in popularity in international markets.
Hollie Choi, executive director of EIDR, added: “I am delighted that Jim and Raymond are being recognized by the Television Academy for their role in creating EIDR. EIDR’s remarkable success stems from its vision aligning with the industry’s direction over a decade ago. The imperative for a cohesive asset identification approach, crucial for seamless digital content distribution, began with MovieLabs and has been realized through years of relentless effort throughout the industry. This honor underscores the significance of a standardized workflow automation solution.”
For more information, visit movielabs.com or eidr.org.