They were gathered to celebrate the professional work of ITV Meridian, BBC South, eight indies and student productions from five southern universities.

Overall, the variety and standard of both the professional and student entries was high.

Indies performed well with Lambent Productions picking up the award for Best Factual Series for The Special Needs Employment Agency, as well as for Best Single Documentary.

Ricochet won the Best Factual Entertainment award, Woodcut Media took Best Graphics and Best Post-Production, while Bournemouth University’s Red Balloon Productions won the Best Online prize.

Honours were evenly spread between the region’s broadcasters. ITV Meridian East won Best Regional Programme and Meridian’s political reporter Phil Hornby was named Best Regional Journalist.

At the BBC, David Fenton won Best Special Feature Journalist with a fine half-hour on the crisis at Southern Health; other awards won by the BBC included one for regional current affairs programme Inside Out South, Best Newcomer, Best VJ and Best Camera.

All the student nominees demonstrated high professional abilities. The University of the Creative Arts Farnham triumphed in the Drama with Bleach, Factual (Harvest in New Life) and Short Feature (Nymphs) categories.

Arts University Bournemouth picked up the Comedy award for The Village Fate and Bournemouth University won the Animation prize with The Naughty Princess.

The Southern Centre continues to play a pivotal role in bringing together professional and student talent within the region through events such as its Annual Awards, as well as the Futures-style meetings held on campuses across the region.

It is able to do this with the support of Southampton Solent University, Bournemouth University and the Arts University Bournemouth, as well as BBC South and ITV Meridian.