CEA Inducts a Dozen CE Leaders into the 2014 CE Hall of...

CEA Inducts a Dozen CE Leaders into the 2014 CE Hall of Fame

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Las Vegas, NV—At the15th Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held for the first time in New York City, 12 industry leaders joined the 197 inventors, engineers, retailers, journalists and entrepreneurs inducted since 2000. All are individuals who have helped provide products and services that entertain, inform and connect consumers.

“I am proud to be part of an industry that encourages and embraces such creative and passionate individuals,” said Gary Shapiro, CEA president and CEO. “The people that we are honoring each had a dream and the courage and determination to follow it. As consumers, we all benefit from their innovative thinking.”

The awards ceremony first honored the team of George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr, one of the most popular film stars of Hollywood’s golden era, who invented frequency-hopping wireless security technology—the basis of our wireless communications technology. Music publisher Ed Matthew accepted for Antheil: “He shared a patent with Hedy Lamarr for a ‘Secret Communication System’ between Navy ships and torpedoes with 88 different carrier frequencies instead of 88 piano keys in the 1940s. This innovation is the underpinning of today’s spread-spectrum frequency-hopping technology in our cell phones and Bluetooth devices.” Rose Ganguzza, accepting for Lamarr, added, “For Hedy, it was a singular invention, born from the desire to defeat the Nazis who had overtaken her homeland.”

Following are the rest of the class of 2014 and why they were selected.

Carroll Wayne “C.W.” Conn, Jr., took the reins from his father of their Texas-based appliance stores, Conn’s, and grew the business exponentially, to generated $500 million in annual sales revenue.

James C. “Cowboy” Maloney founded Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City Super Stores and rode the TV boom of the 1950s, generating more than $1 million in annual sales by the 1970s.

Dr. David Lee
, the founder of Silicon Image, is the mastermind behind the DVI and HDMI interfaces that connect our HD AV devices.

Dr. Levy Gerzberg cofounded Zoran Corp. and built it into the leading supplier of system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices for digital cameras, DVD players, HDTV sets and other CE devices.

Walter Mossberg
anchored the Wall Street Journal’s Marketplace and Personal Journal sections with his weekly Personal Technology column, becoming one of the most influential journalists in the industry.

Gerald McCarthy
, Zenith Sales Company’s president, was instrumental in managing to move the industry from the traditional two-step distribution system to a single-step.

The husband and wife team of Victor and Janie Tsao cofounded Linksys and enhanced the concept of the home network by developing the first commercial router.

Tim Westergren
, founder of Pandora Internet Radio, created the streaming music service that uses a complex algorithm to enable users to create targeted, personalized streaming radio stations.

Loyd Ivey
founded MiTek, one of the largest suppliers of car and home audio products in the U.S., and one of the few audio component makers still manufacturing in the U.S. CE.org/HallofFame

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