The Lighthorsemen Leads the Charge

MEDIA RELEASE 1 July 2002

The DVD of the Australian WW1 epic The Lighthorsemen has received international acclaim, taking honours at the 2002 DVD Excellence Awards held in Los Angeles, CA.

DVDTECH, Australian based authors of the DVD, won a DVD Excellence Award for Audio Quality and Presentation. Other awarded DVD titles included Pearl Harbour and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Distributed by Magna Pacific, The Lighthorsemen was one of the first Australian film DVDs to combine Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS audio tracks encoded from the original stereo soundtrack.

Regenerated sound and animated menus help bring this tale of the Australian Light Horse Regiment to life in the 21st century. Other features of the DVD include cast biographies and slide shows highlighting behind the camera scenes, the horses and the making of the film.

Magna Pacific managing director Mr Leon Coningham congratulated DVD author Jeff Sunderland and his team at DVDTECH on the award.

“We are very happy to see The Lighthorsemen recognised internationally for its superior audio quality and presentation,” he said.

“Our film distribution partner, Becker Entertainment, worked tirelessly to source the original sound reels and to ensure this fantastic Australian title was done justice in DVD format.”

“DVDTECH then came to the party to produce a superior DVD,” he said. “It has been a popular title and we are sure it will continue to sell.”

Jeff Sunderland, managing director of DVDTECH, said “It’s great, given the challenges we faced using sound reels from 15 years ago, to win this award.”

Magna Pacific is Australia’s leading independent film, DVD and video distributor as well as the country’s largest independent documentary distributor.

Magna Pacific’s stable consists of over 2000 titles including box office first time releases such as Rabbit Proof Fence and Amelie, screen classics and film favourites such as Princess Bride and Dirty Dancing. Magna Pacific also distributes the award winning Discovery documentary series.