30.10.09: Software Of The Year: "Brockhaus Multimedial Premium" Receives Award

One can argue the pros and cons of printed encyclopedias versus digital versions, but it is also possible to simply perfect and produce both products, as wissenmedia is doing with the recently acquired lexicon brand "Brockhaus." After Christoph Hünermann, Managing Director of the Arvato subsidiary, recently stated on BeNet that he believes in printed encyclopedias, the media company demonstrated that it not only performs well in the print segment but also the software segment: the Brockhaus Multimedial Premium, the famous encyclopedia on DVD, received the audience award "Software of the Year 2009" from "Softwareload," the download portal of Deutsche Telekom.

Users chose the Brockhaus Multimedial as the most popular product in the category "Learning and Knowledge" after an expert jury of PC journalists and industry insiders had suggested a few products for consideration. "This award is a confirmation of our strategy," Hünermann said. "We will continue to care for and develop the Brockhaus brand – with the familiar premium quality, addressing the interests of the users." By the way, the Arvato subsidiary's managing director also told BeNet recently how he concisely pictures this further development.

Those who are interested in the DVD version of the Brockhaus, which naturally costs a good deal less than the printed version, have reason to be pleased: the encyclopedia's 2010 version was released almost simultaneous with the award. Its content includes 265,000 articles and 340,000 headwords as well as almost 30,000 animations, videos and audio clips. In the "Planetarium," for example, all of the 88 constellations, 11,000 stars, and more than 10,000 galaxies can be explored, and the human body can be investigated in the "transparent human." The regular price of €99.95 includes free monthly online updates until December 2010, which assure that users are always kept up to date.