Wii, MTV, Second Life Among Winners Of 2008 Tech & Engineering Emmy Awards

Las Vegas (NV) - The 59th annual technology & engineering Emmy awards ceremony was held last night in the midst of all the CES madness, and we have details from some of the big winners.

The awards were given out at the Sands expo center, one of the two official sites for CES. In addition to handing out honors for technical work in TV, the T&E Emmies also recognize excellence in the video game arena.

As with most highly specialized awards shows, some of the categories were, shall we say, rather specific. For example, the winner of the award for "pioneering development of a fully monitored fiber optic based digital network for occasional use and full time video services with fully provisioned local video access at shared use sports venues" was Vyxx Services.

Some of the categories were more interesting, though, and certainly more relevant to everyday pop culture. For instance, Showtime Networks received an Emmy for its integration of the show "The L Word" into Second Life. CBS Sports receive one for enhancing the TV experience by letting users interact with CBSSports.com during March Madness. And MTV’s "Virtual Laguna Beach" won an award for "outstanding achievement in advanced media technologies".

On the video game side, there were six awards in total. The most notable were best game controller innovation, which went to both the Nitnendo Wii and Nintendo DS, and the best physics engine, which was given to Havok.

Other gaming awards presented include innovation for handheld game device screens, which was given to the DS as well as the Atari Lynx and Mattel’s "Football & Auto Race". EA’s Pinball Construction, id’s Quake, and Linden Lab’s Second Life all received awards for best user-generated content/game modification. Finally, Neverwinter Nights, Everquest, and World of Warcraft all took awards in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game category.