Winners for Creative Achievement included, inter alia, the sound teams behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. In addition to 23 awards for Technical and Creative achievement, the awards ceremony witnessed the induction into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame of legendary filmmaker George Lucas and venerated producer/engineer Elliott Scheiner. In a surprise appearance, Janet Jackson presented the Les Paul Award to platinum producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
The TEC Awards are presented annually by the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio and sponsored by Mix Magazine, the leading journal for the professional audio industry. Proceeds of the ceremony go to hearing conservation programs and scholarships for students of the audio arts and sciences. In 2003, the foundation contributed $42,000 to hearing conservation and audio scholarships.
(Lee Baldock)