Sledgehammer Awards presented at IEEE GEM2015:

The hammer goes to the HDMI standard, IEEE GEM, 2015 October 16

Given to a technology that fails to advance technology for humanity.

(S. Mann administers the award while R. Janzen holds a Lexan polycarbonate safety shield to protect audience members from flying debris.)

Sledgehammer Award goes to HDMI for lack of transparency 

Standard                     NTSC             VGA          HDMI       Future
Year                         1941             1987         2003       2050
Number of conductors         0, 1, or 2       15           19         8294400
Number of TV channels        250              1            1          1
Bandwidth per conductor      1.5 GHz          8 Mhz        6.5 Mhz    60 Hz
Maximum length cable run     10,000 feet      300m         5-15m      6 inches
Bandwidth runlength product  40 THzm          2.4 GHzm     65 MHzm
Bandwidth runlength/cond.    40 THzm/cond     160 MHzm/c   345 KHz
Responsive time              ~1 millisecond   ~1 second    ~5 sec.    1 hour
Open or Proprieterrorist?    Open              Open         Secret    Top Secret
Ease of use                  Consistent        Behave differently each day
Ease of use                  Radial symmetry   ------Only 1 way to insert-------
                             (can be inserted        Must face in proper
                             in any direction)       direction
NTSC has about 5000 times the feedback bandwidth of HDMI.

Panel Discussion following the Sledgehammer Awards ceremony:


Link to presentation slide(s) for panel