Adrian Ettlinger

On October 23, 2013 Adrian Ettlinger died peacefully at home in Carmel NY. The cause was congestive heart failure.

In 1996 Videography magazine, in its 20th anniversary publication The Age of Videography, named Ettlinger as one of the 18, then-living, "People Who Made a Difference" in video production technology, calling him "[t]he father of modern video post [production]." He was profiled in Post: The Magazine for Post Production Professionals as "The Father of Electronic Editing."

After retiring from the television industry Ettlinger engaged in a number of other projects of note. In July 1993 he completed a decades-long effort of visiting every county in the United States, with the last being Blanco County, TX. In honor of this accomplishment Ettlinger and his wife, Carol Burns Ettlinger, were made honorary citizens of the county by Judge Charles Scott.

He then developed the "Ediflex" video editing system and co-founded the company Cinedco to market it. This system received an Emmy award in 1986, was widely used in both television and film productions, and was important to the broadening acceptance and use of non-linear video editing.

Ettlinger was the 1976 recipient of the David Sarnoff Medal from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. The Sarnoff medal is awarded annually for contributions to television engineering. He was given the award ”[f]or his important contributions to the application of computers to on-air television station switching control, for conceiving of the application of video disc stop-action systems to sports broadcasts, and for contributions to computer control of studio lighting systems and videotape editing systems.”

After leaving CBS in 1970, Ettlinger worked as a consultant and with several technology companies. Skirpan Lighting Control marketed the lighting system that he had developed while at CBS after CBS chose not to pursue commercial applications. Installations of the system included Wolf Trap Farm Park outside Washington DC, all three of the major television networks of the time, as well as other theatrical installations. He also participated in the development of the "CBS-Sony" editing system.

Ettlinger had also walked every street in Manhattan end-to-end in the 1950s into the early 1960s. Another earlier activity was running as the Democratic candidate for mayor of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971, advocating for a local fair housing ordinance. He also served as chairman of the Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Democratic Committee.

Adrian Ettlinger (January 26, 1925 – October 23, 2013) was an American electrical engineer and software developer and a pioneer in television and video technology. He has been described as a "visionary" and the "legendary" "engineering father" of non-linear video editing, and has been recognized for his contributions to a range of technologies important to the advancement of television and video as well as several other accomplishments.

Ettlinger was born on January 26, 1925, and studied Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, graduating in 1944.