Byron Wagner

During the last 15 years, Byron Wagner has developed and marketed nine major products to the communication/computing arena. In each case they have represented the first introduction of a new technology and helped shape, if not define, the resulting markets. These “firsts” include automatic transformation of computer object code between dissimilar CPUs and operating systems, desktop graphic scanners, optical character recognition, network based communication servers, facsimile modems, inexpensive removable mass storage in the multi-gigabyte range and real-time transmission of CD quality audio over dial-up lines. He has been awarded multiple unique patents. His expertise spans a diverse number of disciplines, with a particular talent toward integrating technology and the arts.

Beginning with a precocious start as a professional magician and ventriloquist at the age of 8, Wagner expanded his pursuits in the performing arts with professional experience as an actor and announcer while still in junior high school. Self taught electronics skills and a love of music, combined with an FCC commercial license, resulted in a position with radio station KBON in his home town of Omaha, Neb. in the summer preceding his senior year of high school. The following year, 1969, he directed and produced a number of color television specials for KMTV, the NBC affiliate.

On the basis of his work, he was awarded a talent grant to attend Ohio University and majored in motion picture production. He also began engineering and producing sound recordings and designing and building recording facilities, including a post-production studio for the university film department and a commercial multi-track studio in nearby Chillicothe, Ohio.

After leaving school and completing a number of film and record projects on the east coast, he returned to Omaha and began construction of one of the first multi-track audio and video mobile recording trucks, “Tuna Noodle Casserole.” Upon completion, it was driven to California in early 1974. In Los Angeles, Wagner was hired as the staff engineer by Bolic Sound (Ike and Tina Turner) with additional duties including studio and equipment design and maintenance.

This position led to opportunities including producing and engineering the sound track to “Willy Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic” and, later, a similar staff position at Motown’s west coast studios. Following his year at Motown, Wagner worked independently with clients including Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Earth Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five.

He was also associated with the firm of Everything Audio as studio design and electronic consultant and helped found the University of Sound Arts (the first full time accredited professional recording program in the U.S.) in 1975. In 1976, Wagner began the design and construction of Lagniappe, the first commercial recording studio built in a luxury residence for long-term projects. Because it included sophisticated video facilities, a need arose leading to his creation of the first programmable microprocessor based real-time audio analyzer (based on an S-100 IMSAI 8080 ).  Wagner was then asked to publish and present papers at the Second Annual West Coast Computer Faire and the 67th Audio Engineering Society Conference regarding his work.

Wagner was next invited to move his base of operations to Clover Recorders in Hollywood where he expanded his consulting practice and studio facilities to continue his electronic and acoustical development. While at Clover, his record business clientele included Tommy Tutone, Bette Midler, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. He persuaded Sony Corporation to lend him the prototype of the PCM-1600 stereo digital audio recording system and its use on “The River” resulted in the first major U.S. commercial album mixed to digital.

In 1978, Wagner formed Genius (later Incorporated) to begin marketing imported software for personal computers and perform consulting services for the motion picture industry. Work on the feature films “War Games” and “2010” and the television series “Whiz Kids” and “Air Wolf” was followed by a contract with GFI to help create an IBM sponsored permanent exhibit - the Mark Taper Hall of Economics & Finance at the California Museum of Science and Industry.

With the start of the Taper Hall contract, Genius expanded to its Studio City location.  Wagner and his staff were responsible for creating and implementing system and software solutions for more than 30 original interactive exhibits. The exhibits were based on hardware platforms including microcomputers, high resolution graphic displays, automated teller machines, industrial robots, supermarket bar code scanners and a host of custom electrical, mechanical and optical subsystems.

In late 1984, as the Taper Hall project drew to a close, Wagner began to explore the idea of an independently funded company that could develop and market products for the newly released Apple Macintosh computer. In February of 1985, he formed Abaton Technology Corporation.

In his capacity as founder and director of research and development, Wagner introduced The Abaton Transform, the Abaton Drive 5.25, the Abaton Scan300, Multitalk and various OCR systems. Abaton received $2.5 million of venture capital in August of 1986 and continued to grow. After completing a second round of financing in June of 1987, Abaton had more than 50 employees, a market share in excess of 70% on its best-selling products and sales approaching $18 million annually. Abaton was sold to Everex Systems, a publicly traded corporation, in December 1987.

In June of 1988, Genius (newly Incorporated) began shipping the Genius 2gig™, an 8mm digital tape drive for the Mac with unprecedented storage capacity. Later it introduced the TransFax™, a free-standing intelligent faxmodem containing an internal eight-page buffer and processor and, in conjunction with Illusion Software Systems, the gigaPix digital video animation system. The gigaPix system permitted the first national television commercials created entirely on Macintosh computers by moving images at D1 resolution digitally between workstations and videotape. Clients include Pepsi, Reebok, Nintendo and a series of “talking penguin” spots for N’ice coughdrops that continued for years.

In January of 1989, Wagner was approached by Ed Sun & Alex Balkanski and was asked to join them in founding Creative Circuits Corporation (later known as C Cube). In rejecting their offer, he agreed to pursue product design based on JPEG, MPEG and sub-band code compression. Clients who have benefited include IBM, Apple, Ricoh, Konica, NTT, IDG, Twentieth Century Fox and Apple U.S. (as well as C Cube).

In November of 1991, Wagner began a proprietary project for the Walt Disney organization that incorporated the previously mentioned technologies on a global basis. It services Disney Character Voices, Buena Vista Worldwide Services and the Film Production Group. This project was presented to Feature Animation, Television Animation and Buena Vista Home Video for inclusion in their organizations and was submitted for consideration for an Academy Award by the AMPAS. The initial use of this system on the movie “Lion King” resulted in the acceleration of more than $300 million in foreign gross revenues to Disney by 18 to 24 months for that film alone. It continues to be used on Disney’s major live action and animated features and was awarded U.S. and foreign patents.

In 1992, Wagner began confidential projects for Viacom, Highlight Communications (a Swiss media conglomerate) and Ricoh Corporation. Clients in 1993 included Pacific Bell, Matsushita/MCA, Hughes, VSDA and Twentieth Century Fox. In mid ’93, he founded MetaWire, an entertainment consultancy and Internet service provider uniquely based on ISDN and higher-access speeds. In 1994 MetaWire worked with Delphi Internet, Warner Brothers, FX Cable and Apple. In September of 1994, MetaWire became a California corporation.

Projects in 1995 involved EmbraTel (the Brazillian telco monopoly), University of Sao Paolo, AT&T and KDD (the Japanese telco monopoly). In July, MetaWire moved into the bungalow previously occupied by Francis Ford Coppola and began service at Hollywood Center Studios. In 1996, Apple computer asked him to help create the first ever cybercast of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) “Grammy” Awards. Other cybercasts have since included “Supermodels of the Rainforest” premiere from Planet Hollywood in Beverly Hills and the surprise concert Metallica did to launch their album “Load.” Later in ’96, he helped found and launch OverSea Inc., an asset management company targeted on reshaping the intermodal (container) transportation industry by leveraging digital imaging and communications.

In 1997, he supported clients including Lucent, Miramax, Quentin Tarentino, SKG Dreamworks, Paramount, Albert Brooks, SegaSoft, James Cameron, Renny Harlin and Boxtop Interactive.

Wagner also had the unusual opportunity to help the founders of Intertainer write their business plan, create, demonstrate and test their proprietary Video On Demand service, and raise their initial VC investments from Comcast and U.S. West. He also created the technology for their pivotal Dynamic Digital Asset Management System, which was successfully patented. His involvement continued through additional investments rounds by Sony and Microsoft.

In 1998, MetaWire began offering very high-speed Internet and video and audio on demand over wireless broadband links, first as point-to-point, and later point-to-multipoint. In the years since then, MetaWire’s services have assisted projects in Manila, London, Toronto, Vancouver and Prague. Feature films include God’s Favorite, Miss Congeniality, Driven, Angel Eyes, Sugar & Spice, Blow, Scary Movie 2, Bubble Boy, The Majestic, K19, Austin Powers III, Insomnia, Like Mike, Sim0ne and Intolerable Cruelty.

In 2000 MetaWire completed its first round of outside funding and expanded into the former Warner Hollywood Studios, now known as “The Lot.”

2001 brought the design and rollout of an ultra high-speed fixed wireless broadband network delivering guaranteed QOS and video, multichannel audio and timecode as well as data transfer. Base stations with a capacity of 155 megabits per second were installed in Hollywood, Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley. Remote operation of an Avid editing system was demonstrated from an automobile nine miles away. A demonstration and site survey remote vehicle was constructed and used for special event transmissions as well.

After significantly expanding in scope and size, MetaWire’s customer base was sold to “The Lot” in May 2003.  Wagner then collaborated with Apple, Warner Independent Pictures and Technicolor and created a unique mobile broadband vehicle, editorial facility, support team and high-definition work flow for the feature film “Around The Bend.”

Starring Michael Caine, Chris Walken and Josh Lucas, the film was shot almost entirely on location and an improvised sound stage in and around Albuquerque, N.M. First and second unit footage were telecine’d in high definition, stored on a multi terabyte RAID array and manipulated by editors using desktop Macs and by the director and production assistants using Mac laptops to create rough cuts and “dailies.” Using a video tap on the Panavision 35 mm film cameras, NTSC resolution video matching the film footage could be captured and viewed on location.

Those images and sound recordings could even be sent by digital wireless links from the vehicle to the production and editorial facility in Las Lunas, 25 miles south of Albuquerque, before the film magazines had even been removed from the cameras, or the two-day delay before the film dailies returned from the lab in Hollywood.

Simultaneously, the vehicle’s 30-foot-tall mast created a mobile broadband wireless Wi-Fi “cloud” providing both secure intranet and high speed Internet access for the location, cast, and crew.

In February of 2004, Wagner was retained to help design, create, staff and open a unique entertainment and research venue named Phenomenon, in York, England. Since 2004, he has advised private equity firms on potential investments in the wireless, entertainment and technology industries. In June of 2006, he was appointed to the Advisory Board by MobilePro, one of North America’s pioneering wireless broadband companies.

Wagner is frequently asked to speak at industry functions, introducing the first desktop video and film editing technology to the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers in October ’90, the first trans-Pacific ISDN Appletalk Wide Area Network to SIGGRAPH in March ’91, and the Future Technology portion of the keynote speech for Macworld Boston in August ’91. Apple computer asked him to deliver the keynote presentation at their annual IS&T conference in August ’92. He was the closing keynote speaker at the Switched Digital Application Forum in November ’92 and, as a featured speaker at TEXPO ’93, demonstrated CD-quality audio-over-dial-up by collaborating with Graham Nash in real-time from Kauai, Hawaii, to San Francisco. In June of ’93, he was invited to testify before the Public Utilities Commission on the future of the telecommunications infrastructure for the state of California.

In July ’93, he delivered the keynote at the Video Software Dealers Association convention in Las Vegas (preceded by celebrity chair Steve Martin and followed by Gen. H. Norman Schwartzkopf). In September ’93, he presented the closing keynote at the Brussels kickoff conference of Maxtel - the international consortium of telecom service and equipment providers defining the standards for the next-generation of digital telephones and touch screen terminals. In November, EIAJ, NHK and the Japan Electronic Show Association invited him to InterBEE in Tokyo to help coordinate the theme and global opening ceremonies for the 13th annual Broadcast Equipment Exhibition in Japan in 1994.

In April ’94, Wagner delivered a special presentation to the eighth plenary session of EIUF, the European ISDN User Forum, on a ship off the coast of Finland. In June he gave the opening keynote at the California ISDN User Group meeting in Newport Beach and presented a global report on technology and human rights to the annual planning conference of Amnesty International in London by special request of the Secretariat-General. He also assisted KTAS, the Danish telecommunications provider, with a three site transatlantic event in Copenhagen in November highlighting their technology. In the same month he presented the opening keynote for the SDSAF in San Jose. In January of ’95 he gave the keynote at the IABC annual Crystal awards dinner in Sacramento.

He helped the UK-based Telecommunications Managers Association prepare an intercontinental multimedia conference called Millenium, with hubs in London, Eindhoven and Boston. In February, he helped arrange and conduct a multimedia session over the Internet for the Arizona State University Clinical Psychiatry Center and the Arizona Psychiatric Association called “Alternatives in Practice,” exploring the use of technology in medicine. March brought a speech at New Media Expo. In May of ’95 he presented at the ATM Forum Asia-Pacific conference in Nara, Japan and at the CIUG in L.A. In July he made a special appearance at the National Information Infrastructure awards in Washington, D.C. demonstrating a 45-megabit future technology connection between Bell Labs in New Jersey and the Hyatt Regency hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington. In June of ’96 he spoke on streaming media technologies at the Hollywood branch of SMPTE. In February of ’97 he was a featured guest along with Vinton Cerf on Warren Olney’s “Which Way L.A.?” program. He has since spoken to the Charleston, S.C., City Council, VidTrans 2000, the International Teleproduction Society, the Latham Foundation, Broadband Wireless Expo, the South Carolina Film Commission, the City of Los Angeles Telecommunications Task Force, Digital Fusion High Definition Conference, and the Broadband Wireless Investment Symposium.

Wagner has served on advisory boards including the Open School (Vivarium), the Los Angeles Free Net, the President's Council of Pacific Bell, Electronic Cafe International, New Media Expo, and is a founding member of the Hollywood Economic Alliance “Smart Hollywood” Initiative. He is a featured guest lecturer at UCLA, San Francisco State University and Cal Arts. He’s also a charter member of the Aspen Institute’s Socrates Society.

Wagner at TEXPO '93