WASHINGTON--William Warner, who founded Avid Technology more than three decades ago, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame last week. He was honored for founding the company and leading the team that developed the first professional NLE, Media Composer. 

Warner's comments upon accepting the honor:

"Inventing is a team sport—no one goes it alone, nor would you want to. I spent the greatest times of my life working with great people.

"Jeff Bedell, Eric Peters and Joe Rice helped transform an idea into the Avid Media Composer from 1987 to 1989. Now 30 years later, Media Composer is still the standard for TV shows and movies. And three of the people who continued to develop the Avid are here tonight: Tim Claman, Randy Fahan and Rob Gonsalves.

"The team is not just the people who help you invent, it's the people who support your energy and the people above you. My wife Allysa, her sister Jenny and husband David are all here today.

"I said inventing is a team sport. I'll go a step further, it's even better than team sports. Once made, inventions live on for decades even centuries and the team that put it together is changed and improved for their whole lives.

"So only very rare people get to invent, right? It's not true. Inventing is something we all do, in our own ways. And I believe that inventing is the core creativity for humanity.

"We are all in this together, and we all invent to help people. So encourage your peers, your children, yourself to join a great team, the invention team." 

LAS VEGAS—William Warner, who created Avid’s Media Composer, is one of 19 innovation pioneers announced as the 2019 Class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The recipients were announced on the main stage at CES 2019.

Introduced in 1989 as an offline editor on the Mac, Media Composer has been the dominant nonlinear editor for film and television since the mid-90’s on both Mac and Windows platforms.

A graduate of MIT, Warner founded Avid Technology in 1987. He founded Wildfire Communications in 1992, based on his invention of a telephone-based, voice-activated virtual assistant. Today, he is building a business around personalized maps, according to the NHIF. 

“I am honored to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame," said 2019 Inductee Bill Warner, pioneer of digital nonlinear editing for video. “I love how inventions can change the world for the better, and I am thrilled to join this year’s Class.”

The innovators, whose inventions range from the UNIX operating system to fluoride toothpaste, will be celebrated as the newest Class of Inductees during the NIHF Induction Ceremony. In partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), NIHF will honor these Inductees in Washington, D.C. on May 1-2 at “The Greatest Celebration of American Innovation” event.

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—The National Inventors Hall of Fame will induct Stan Honey in May for his enhancements to TV sports viewing, including football’s yellow 1st & 10 line and baseball’s K-Zone technology used to track and highlight pitches.

Honey, one of 15 inductees, will be honored May 3 at the 46th Annual National Inventors Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The master of ceremonies for the black-tie event will be Mo Rocca, “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent and host of “The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation.”

The virtual yellow 1st & 10 line debuted Sept. 27, 1998, during ESPN’s coverage of an NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals. Honey and his team at Sportsvision developed the innovation, which is ubiquitous today in football coverage. The virtual line has been called one of the more important developments in sports broadcasting history.

Other innovations developed by Honey include: RACE/x GPS tracking of NASCAR racers and LiveLine, a helicopter-mounted, GPS-tracked camera system first used during the 2013 America’s Cup.

Honey, a native of San Marino, Calif., holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and applied sciences from Yale University and an MSEE degree from Stanford University. He has received three Emmys for technical and engineering innovations in sports TV and is the co-founder of Sportsvision. He holds 31 U.S. patents in TV graphics and in navigation technology and tracking and is a 2017 inductee into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

The induction ceremony is open to the public, and tickets are available online from the National Inventors Hall of Fame.