Interactive multimedia heroes are applauded

The best in interactive multimedia was feted at the British Interactive Multimedia Association’s awards this week.

Disney Interactive picked up two awards for the Early Learning and Home Learning categories – the only group to win more than one award.

Other winners were: Edward Briscoe Design for British Airways; Amaze’s guide to X-ray micro-analysis for Oxford Instruments; PerfectWorld Programs’ big budget CD-ROM production for Mercury International; Ogilvy & Mather and Antirom with a CD-ROM for Guinness; Delve for Global Assets Management; and the Bank of Montreal in conjunction with ICE for the bank. The Consumer Information Services award went to an in-house BBC News website.

Other winners include: Institute of Race Relations’ Home Beats: Struggles for Racial Justice; Cyan for Red Orb Entertainment; Epic Group for WebZone and Microsoft’s Encarta 98.

Jane Callaghan, who co-ordinated the judging, says of multimedia: “The issues are the same as they were 14 years ago. It is in terms of the technology that things have moved.”

The judges found that business applications are informed by Internet culture. Callaghan says “they tend to be jokey and a bit anarchic”.

In the past few years consumer multimedia has virtually collapsed, says Callaghan. Industry is prepared to pay realistic prices (often 250 000) on developing a multimedia product. This year’s BIMA has seen bespoke products for internal consumption and business-client use.