STRATFORD UPON AVON, England, October 28, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- A TOP class website, produced by leading Midlands media company Stormnet for UCAS, the universities and colleges admissions service, has won four coveted global awards.

Already a big hit with millions of students and their advisors, Stormnet Media's trailblazing online UCAStv site has picked up four silvers in the prestigious W3 Awards, sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), whose members include executives from Disney, MTV and Yahoo!.

Set up as a trial sister site to Cheltenham-based UCAS' main website three years ago, http://www.ucas.tv was an instant success, with 330,000 logging on in just two weeks.

Now over a quarter of a million a month head for the site to get instant advice via a vast series of easy view information and case study videos. It's also a popular tool for school advisors who use the videos in their classrooms.

The site has developed enormously, and continues to evolve, both in the range of the target audience, and with some clever programming technology that is intuitive to the user so it recommends additional useful videos, said Ian Stainton, TV producer at Stormnet Media, which has offices in Stratford upon Avon and Birmingham.

It was a smart move by UCAS to offer an easy information access addition to its services, and they are a great organisation to work with. We're pleased with the site's success and very happy to get accolades for both the website design (http://www.stormnetmedia.com/) and video production (http://www.stormnetmedia.com/) in one of the best world-wide competitions to get a result in.

The W3 Awards, aimed at honouring creative excellence on the web, attracted 3,000 entries this year and winners were announced in Los Angeles last week. The UCAStv site won a silver award, as did three of the four submitted site videos - How to apply 2011, Parents' guide to the application process and Providing Feedback (for higher education staff).

W3 winners continue to embody what the Internet is all about and continue to raise the bar in Web development and design. We are honoured to have reviewed such a diverse and remarkable pool of work this year, said Linda Day, the executive director of the IAVA.

UCAS Website Editor, Beth Hayes, added: Being selected as a W3 Winner is a tremendous achievement and we are delighted, although we already know how popular UCAStv is from the feedback we get from our users.

There's a lot to take in when applying to university but the videos make it all very easy to digest. They talk you through the process step-by-step and you're given demonstrations on how to use our online services. It is a big success, and getting bigger all the time.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Stormnet Media is a leading new media specialist delivering powerful and engaging interactive experiences full of rich content, live video, animation and graphics to audiences across the globe.

2. UCAS is a charity and is the world's leading shared admissions service for higher education.

3. You can access UCAStv at http://www.ucas.tv and the winning videos at http://www.ucas.tv/?id=45How to apply 2011, http://www.ucas.tv/?id=43Parents' guide to the application process and http://www.ucas.tv/?id=44Providing feedback (for higher education staff).

4. For more information about the W3 Awards, please visit http://www.w3award.com

SOURCE: Stormnet Media

CONTACT: For further information, and to arrange interviews, pleasecontact Stormnet Media on+44(0)1527-910050, log onto http://www.stormnetmedia.com or emailIan@stormnetmedia.com. For further information, please contact Lisa Davies,Corporate Communications Officer on +44(0)1242-544619, emailcommunications@ucas.ac.uk or log onto http://www.ucas.ac.uk, For moreinformation about the W3 Awards, please visit http://www.w3award.com, emailThe W3 Awards at info@w3award.com